It's official, Max has hit the double digits on months old! It feels like 2 seconds ago that he hit double digit weeks. I hope I don't blink and it's double digit years...
Every month Max just becomes more and more aware of all that is going on around him. For example, he totally knows who is familiar to him and will give them a smile when they walk in. He does not have traditional stranger anxiety where he cries with strangers, but he will give someone he doesn't know a more skeptical look. It's kind of like a stare down in which he sits still and just stares at the suspicious person for awhile. It's almost a good strategy for keeping him still for a few minutes. Maybe he doesn't want to reveal of his tricks right away?
Max is gaining speed with his mobility. He now crawls at a super fast pace, still with his right leg dragging in order to have immediate access to a sitting position. He loves push toys and walks all over the house with them. He also seems to love the shapes that go with shape sorters. Nothing pisses him off quite like one of his beloved shapes sliding out of reach under the Pack N Play.
Well actually, the thing that pisses him off the most is having his diaper changed or clothes put on. These two things require staying still which is the last thing he wants to do. He will kick, try to flip over, cry, ANYTHING to not have to stay on that changing table! We have tried out a number of tricks to get him to stay still and they work sometimes and not others. Our tricks include: singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider," giving him a toy preferably one that lights up and plays music, counting- he particularly finds it hilarious when Eric counts in French, but any counting will do.
Max continues to learn at a rapid pace. His recent new skills include: waving hello, giving high fives and drinking with a straw. We have been trying to get him to clap, but with no real luck. He seems to love clapping and gives a big smile when we clap for him. Then, he will grab our hands and make us clap. But doesn't want to clap himself… who knows!?
He has also started to learn what some words mean. He still really only says "dada" and maybe "baba" and a few other babbling things. But, I think he knows what both "mama" and "dada" mean, as well as "light" and the ever popular "no." I should clarify, just because he understands what "no" means, doesn't exactly mean he always follows it. If I say "no," he will stop and look at me (yay) but then if I don't immediately give him a better alternative, he will happily go right back to what he is not supposed to be doing. His favorite things to do that illicit a "no" from me include pulling the heating vent up, taking the carbon monoxide detector out of the wall (no real danger here because we have safe outlets, but the terrible beeping noise is really just not something anyone wants to hear), and chewing on Eric's phone charger.
According to my mom, Max displays some element of caution. By this she means that instead of taking the risk of walking on his own, he will squat down, crawl and then pull back up. While I agree he does seem not quite ready to take his first steps (although he is close), he does not show much caution in other areas. His latest favorite thing to do during story time is crawl to the edge of the bed and just DIVE right off. Fortunately, Eric has very quick reaction time and catches him right in the knick of time. Max, of course, finds this to be hilarious. He also likes to take risks in what he eats. We are very lucky that he is willing to try and likes most foods. However, he also happily puts disgusting non food items in his mouth, like the small fuzzy stickers that go on the bottom of our dining room chairs to keep them from scratching the floor. Yuck.
We didn't have a doctor's appointment this month, so I can't give an official height and weight, but he seems to be getting heavier every day! Also, I can see a tiny bit of white on his gums so I think he is getting his top two teeth (he already has the bottom too) very soon!
Likes: music (still), Little Blue Truck and The I Love You book (by Todd Parr), bath time especially playing with the baby soap container, all his toys (especially the shapes, anything that lights up and plays music, and his little office/house that he is borrowing from BFF Teddy, walks especially in the Ergo, Baby Mum Mums, pretty much all food, being silly- hanging upside down, being thrown up in the air, when people look away from him and then look back with a big smile… so many things to love when you are Max
Dislikes: getting his diaper changed, getting changed at all
Eating: We received the go ahead at Max's 9 month appointment to feed Max basically anything (except honey and peanut butter), so Max eats a lot of bites of our food. There is really nothing he doesn't like so far. Just the other day he enjoyed some Chinese Lo Mein noodles. I am sure he will not always be this adventurous, but I'm thankful he is for now! Max continues to nurse 3x per day, get a pumped bottle once a day (though I'm back to pumping twice, blah), and eat 3-4 solid food meals per day, mostly purees. In addition to taking bites of our dinner, he also LOVES puffs and Baby Mum Mums, which are rice crackers that he can eat on his own. He also loves to snack on yogurt melts. Seriously, there is nothing the kid does not like when it comes to food.
Sleeping: So "Fall Back" happened this month. I just used the opportunity to move Max's bedtime a bit earlier. So he now starts his last nursing session around 7:30, about 30 minutes earlier than before. This has meant an earlier wake up time which has turned out to be helpful in the morning routine. I don't love it on the weekends, but, we can't have everything :) He is still taking 2 naps, the first starts between 8:30-9am, and the second around 1:30pm. They are pretty variable in length, but somewhere between 45 minutes and 90 minutes is the norm.
Thanks for reading! :)
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