Ten Months

Riley is 10 months old today.

I had better start planning his birthday party because that one year mark will be here before I know it. I have lots of ideas and concepts floating around in my brain, and Lizzie, you had better believe I’m going to rely on you!

Riley weighs in at 24lbs and measures 29 inches tall with an 18-inch head. He wears a size 3 diaper and 12-month clothes. I’m really starting to worry that all of those 12-18 month winter clothes I bought months ago on a big sale will not fit him when they should!

Here’s what I want to remember about this past month:

• He’s doing pretty well with eating and has tried a number of new foods this month, including bread, chicken, edamame, cheese, ham, vienna sausage, tomato, radish, hummus, banana, apple, strawberry, cantaloupe, blueberry, yogurt, bulgur wheat, turkey, potato, macaroni, and cheerios. I’m still giving him some stage 2 foods and we are still trying the stage 3 selections. It is getting better, although he does seem to prefer the beef dinners to the chicken ones.
• He has two teeth.
• He is still getting formula 5 times a day (about 28 ounces total). He is holding his own bottle and sippy cup, lots of time with only his right hand. He is also doing well with the pincer grip during snacktime. And I have been giving him water every now and then throughout the day, and he seems to love it. Guess he takes after his momma!
• His sleep habits are still great. He takes two good naps, goes down for the night anywhere between 6:15-6:45pm, and sleeps until 6am or later. In this we know we are blessed.
• We are no longer using a sleep sack, and he is only taking a pacifier when he naps. I do still throw a couple in his crib before I go to bed, and he usually has one in his mouth when we get him in the morning, but he isn’t nearly as reliant on a paci these days. In this we also know we are blessed.
• He babbles constantly and is in a generally good mood most of the time.
• He still shakes his head a lot, and we are trying to teach him to nod as well. We are also working on teaching him to wave “bye-bye” but he’s not really getting it.
• He’s developing quite a good memory: he knows right where his tub of bath toys is and where his little collection of toys Nola keeps for him in her study are.
• He loves keys and even has two sets of his own to play with.
• He discovered stairs this month and how to climb up them. And as of mid-month, he also knows to turn around to go down (video on Monday!), thanks to teaching from Daddy, Nopsi, and Grandma.
• He likes to crawl with something in one or both of his hands and also sometimes with something hanging from his mouth. He also often crawls while pushing something, usually one of his toys, across the floor. And if he accidentally pushes something underneath one of the couches, he’ll get flat on his belly to look for it.
• We realized early this month that he’s tall enough to reach door handles while standing, and he’s just starting to stand on his own for a few seconds now and then. He’s becoming a pro at cruising around holding onto furniture but he’s not quite ready to take steps all on his own just yet. I don’t think it will be long, though.
• This is hard to describe but I love when he does it: he has started rolling his left arm over and tucking it right up next to his body with his palm facing out when holding him with his head on your shoulder. I guess it’s his way of nestling into whoever’s got him, even if it’s only for a few seconds.
• And this is the sweetest one of the month: he’s started giving kisses. We’ll ask him for kisses and then purse our lips. If he’s in the mood, he’ll come in with a big open mouth “kiss.” It is so cute!

Riley-bean, officially ten months old:

Please stop growing up.