Weight and Height: I totally didn’t even check this month!  And I’d do it now, except this post is already nearly a month overdue, so the numbers wouldn’t be very accurate.

General Observations:  Well, we have a walker!  Although he took a few steps at 8 months, he really started walking about a week before he turned 10 months old.  Before he was comfortable doing it on his own, he would take Trent’s or my finger and walk around holding on to one of our hands.  It was super sweet and we love it when he reaches up for one of our hands.

We’re still really dealing with separation anxiety and I have had trouble leaving him anywhere except for Nana and Popo’s.  He won’t stay in the church nursery and has a terrible time if I leave at all.  He also went through about a week-long period where he would scream/shriek this high pitched scream to get my attention.  That didn’t last long because it was OBNOXIOUS!!!

He is into EVERYTHING.  He loves opening up the cupboards and pulling everything out.  He even tries to climb INTO the cupboards.

Cupboards aren’t the only thing he likes to climb in.  He got a whole lot of enjoyment out of this bin too!

He gets down on his belly when he loses something or when his ball rolls under the couch or somewhere else where he can’t reach it.  He gets down and sticks his little butt in the air and reaches wherever it went.  If he can’t get it, he’ll wait there and look at me until I come and get it for him.

Another place he really likes to be is under our kitchen table.  Sometimes he goes around and around it, weaving his way from chair to chair; other times he just likes to crawl in the small spaces under the chairs and such.  It’s kind of nice when I’m sitting there trying to get some work done because I can see him through the glass.  Sometimes he makes the sweetest faces at me.  I love it so much!  Look at this cuteness!!!

He’s very sociable and waves to everyone, especially when we’re out and about.  It makes me smile to see him really brighten peoples’ days.  He also really likes looking at older kids and watching them and interacting with them.  He seems to make “friends” wherever he goes!

Health: We still have a happy, healthy boy!  We shouldn’t have to see the doctor again until we go back for his 12 month check-up!

Eating:  My, oh, my, do we have an eater!  He REALLY likes to eat and has gotten a good grasp of feeding himself.  He can feed himself now with a fork or a spoon (if we load it up) and is really pretty accurate with getting it into his mouth without making a mess.  He feeds himself with his left hand.  The one thing we needed to work on was throwing the spoon/fork when he was finished with the bite.  Part of it is that he just learned how to throw and that he LOVES to throw his ball, so of course he doesn’t know the difference between the two and why he can throw one and not the other.  But each time he would throw it, I would leave it on the floor and point to it and explain to him that now he couldn’t eat (for a little while) because he had thrown it down.  I would wait a few minutes (2-3) then get up and wash it off and we would try again.  It has worked for the most part!  There are times where he thinks about throwing it, and I simply say, “Make a good choice.  Give it to momma.” and most of the time… he does!  There are times that you can really see him considering his options though… like I REALLY want to throw it… BUT then I won’t get to eat for a while…

We’ve also started giving him some “puffs” now that he has two teeth on the top and two on the bottom.  They dissolve quickly and he really likes to eat them.  He picks them up very well (again, he’s very coordinated) and carefully puts them in his mouth.  It’s interesting though because he feeds himself with a spoon or fork with his left hand, but he favors his right hand when picking them up to eat.  The area we’ve needed to work on here is that, at the beginning, he wanted to put a bunch in his mouth at a time.  So we would just put a few out and break them into smaller pieces so that, even if he did put more than one in his mouth at a time, he would still be eating no more than the equivalent of one at a time.  Now he’s gotten  much better about pacing himself and figuring out how much he can actually eat at once.

One thing that we’ve really had to watch is that now he puts anything and EVERYTHING into his mouth.  Anything he finds on the floor tends to make it’s way into his mouth… including… the kitty food.  He’s had a few times where he’s gotten into the bag of cat food and I’ve had to swipe out one of the pieces.  The good thing is that when he picks something up off the floor, he usually holds it up to show me before it goes into his mouth so I have a few extra seconds to intervene.  Even better, if I ask him for it, he’ll usually put it in my hand (instead of in his mouth).

While nursing he’s really started to pay attention to my moles and freckles.  He delicately picks at them with his little thumb and pointer finger as if he could pick them up and take them off.  It’s pretty cute.  I also thought we had moved away from the pinching, but alas, it’s not over.  He did go back to the sweet rubbing for a while, but he still prefers to rub my skin in between his little fingers, especially where it’s most sensitive (like my neck)!

Sleeping: WELL… as I had written in my last post, we had been traveling and so Jedidiah was WAY out of his normal sleep schedule.  Then when we got back, Trent went right back to work and I also had a crazy schedule so, quite honestly… we got lazy.  We didn’t really know any better and we were both in survival mode so when he woke up in the middle of the night to nurse, I’d just bring him in bed with us and basically switch him from boob to boob every time he’d wake up.  Of course, that was not making for good sleep for ANY of us!  Anyways, my sister had called me because she was a part of a baby sleep study group and she had learned some tricks that she was going to try and she wanted to share with me too (bless her heart).  You see, I KNOW that Jedi can go at least 10 and a half hours straight without needing to nurse.  He had done it before all the craziness and out-of-routine-ness that came afterwards.  SO, after our conversation, both of us resolved to try to put our babies to sleep AWAKE (so that they would learn how to put themselves to sleep as opposed to us doing it for them) without the help of any soother (boob, bottle, blanket, pacifier…) and to let them cry it out for up to 20 minutes if they woke up in the middle of the night before it was time for them to need to eat again.  That first night, he woke up for about 20 minutes and cried, but then… went back to sleep!  Then again a little bit later, and cried for about 15… and then went back to sleep!  From that point on, it was easier and easier to get him TO sleep and to get him to STAY asleep!  Now if I go to bed at a decent time, I get great sleep!  It’s been nice to gain back some time on the night end of things for myself and for Trent.

That being said… napping hasn’t gotten much easier.  I’ve tried putting him in the crib awake, same as at night, and he cries and cries and cries.  I’ll go in there if it’s for longer than 20 minutes and (leaving him in the crib), just hug him and explain to him again that it’s time for him to rest and that when he wakes up that I will come get him and we can play again.  BUT so far it hasn’t gotten easier and he doesn’t really get GOOD sleep during nap time (unless I’m holding him or nurse him to sleep).  So I guess you can say we’re still working on that.

Diapers:  After coming back and feeling MAJORLY overwhelmed with everything that was going on, I definitely used disposable diapers.  With the exception of a few days this month, I went the easy route.  And honestly, I’m kind of glad that I did!  After we introduced the little “puffs” to him to eat, his poo got really gooey and sticky and messy!  I would NOT have enjoyed cleaning all of that out of the cloth diapers!!!

Clothes: He’s wearing 6-9 month clothes for the most part.  He can still fit into some 6 month onesies and on the other end, he can wear 9 month ones (but they are still a bit long on him).  But truthfully it depends on the individual outfit.  All clothes are made differently.  He wears a few 12 month outfits, yet fits into other 6 month ones.  It just depends.

Social:

Baylee came over for two days and I watched her while her mom had to work.  She was the flower girl in our wedding and I’ve known her since she was about Jedidiah’s age, so it’s kind of cool now that SHE is the one helping me watch him!  She helped me feed him and play with him and we did some fun things together.

We celebrated my sister-in-law Katey’s birthday with a family gathering at her house.  It is always fun to have the cousins together and hang out!

Just around the corner from us, a new pizza place opened and they had a grand opening party.  They were giving away free pizza and they had all sorts of games and music and such.  We took Jedidiah (he didn’t get any pizza) and he enjoyed watching all the kids running around.

We attended a birthday party for our neighbors.  Even though it rained, we enjoyed our time at the park and had a nice time celebrating Carter turning 3!

We got to go to the zoo with some friends and their kids.  It was TONS of fun (but still so HOT outside)!

We got to have a play date with two of the ladies that I met in birthing class.  We started a play group last year but had been on hiatus through the summer up until this point and then we got together again.  All of our kiddos are pretty much within a month of each other age-wise, so it’s cool to be able to get them together and watch them play!

We went to our buddy Declan’s 1st birthday party.  He was born a few months before Jedidiah and we hope they grow up to be good buddies.  It was a Mickey Mouse party and it was super cute!  Kathy made all sorts of decorations and had a little photo booth.  We had a great time and it really got me thinking that in a few short months, we too will have a one year old!!!

I’ve been co-hosting a salad prep “party” with my friend Abby where we invite people over and each person brings an ingredient to share with the group and we make mason jar salads to eat throughout the week!  It’s brilliant, fast, easy and fun to hang out and chat with my girlfriends while preparing healthy foods for my week!

We went to a baby shower and got to see lots of my old Friday’s crew!  For those of you who don’t know this, I worked at TGI Fridays for nearly 8 years.  I started working there in high school when I still lived in Minnesota and then ended up working at the one here for a few years as well before I started teaching full time.  Anyways, it was so much fun to see my girls and catch up while celebrating baby Raigh.

We got to attend a friend’s birthday party at Mr. Gatti’s.  This was Jedidiah’s first time at an arcade.  He LOVED the lights and the sounds.  He even rode the merry-go-round… by himself (daddy was right there to catch him if he lost his balance)!  His favorite game though was, of course, one that had to do with balls!  He LOVES balls.  This one you had to roll the ball down the ramp and try to get it into different colored slots.  He could have cared less about the slots, he was just excited when the balls kept coming!  It was so cute to watch!

Likes:  He LOVES opening and closing doors!  I have to watch him very closely to make sure that he doesn’t pinch his fingers, but he seriously could play with a door for hours!  At our house, we’ve started putting dumbbells in between the doors so that he can’t close them all the way (and pinch himself in the process).

Animals!  Any animal, but especially dogs and cats (ki-y, ki-y).  He enjoys chasing the dogs at his Nana and Popo’s house and even barks at them.  It’s so cute!

He LOVES balls and has gotten REALLY good at throwing them.  Like good aim, good release, good hand-eye coordination… just GOOD (and with both arms at that)!  He loves balls and when we wake up and go out into the living room, that’s the first thing he looks for.  I’m actually pretty surprised that he hasn’t said “ball” yet, for as often as we say it.

This little boy loves to clean!  Well, I hope so at least.  He loves the vacuum, the broom, the duster… even the toilet bowl brush (ew).  Not that he’s proficient with any of those things quite yet, but you know what they say… “Train up a child…”  Speaking of which, when he’s finished eating, he always carries his bowl and spoon/fork to the sink and we sing a little song that goes like this… “Take it to the sink and wash, wash, wash; wash, wash, wash; wash, wash, wash; we take it to the sink and wash, wash, wash; when we’re all done.” (To the tune of “The Wheels on the Bus”)  Kids are never too young to start good habits!

He really enjoys this play table that my friend Traci passed down to us.  It has a hole in the middle for a ball to go in, and then it comes out one of the four legs.  It only took a few times for Jedi to catch on to this game and he spends  quite a bit of time playing with this.  Dropping the ball in over and over and then looking to see where it came out.  It is really impressive to watch him learn so quickly!

Another toy he loves is the new walker his Nana bought him.  Here he is playing with it.  His favorite thing to do is to open the little barn door over and over again because it says, “Peek-a-boo, I see you!”

Bath time is still his favorite and he’s finally using bath toys… kind of.  We got these plastic sea animals but out of all of them, he only likes the puffer fish… because it’s just like a ball.  He throws it in the tub and then goes to get it.  He walks in the tub… he’s all over the place!

Dislikes:  For some reason Jedidiah hates having his diaper changed and being put in his car seat.

Memorable moments and firsts:

He went to the San Antonio zoo for the first time!  We had gone to the Minnesota zoo while we were up there last month, but now he’s been to our “home” zoo too!  We went with some friends and spent a lovely day there watching the animals and hanging out!

He started pointing at things.  It is so cute.  He points at EVERYTHING now!  He also says “that” as he points.  🙂

Speaking of things he says, his vocabulary is up to about 10 words now.  He can say “momma,” “da-da,” “c-t” (cat), “dog,” “ma” (more), “all done,” “get it” and “got it,” “nana” (for banana), and “that.”

Jedidiah feeds himself now.

Speaking of feeding himself, we were out to eat at IHOP after church one morning and they actually brought us crayons and a kiddie menu.  For a good while, he was happy just playing with the crayons.  He’d take two at a time and then trade one out for a different color and repeat it over and over again.  But then he figured out how to color!  He didn’t do much, but he did make his first official drawing!  Maybe I should have kept it for sentimental value, but I’m certain that there will be much more where that came from in the future!

 

 

He figured out a fun way to get his ball to come back to him.  We had this big skinny cardboard box in our living room from an easel Trent had ordered for school, and Jedidiah found out that he could roll the ball up the “ramp” and it would come right back to him!

He got his first bonk and owie.  It comes with trying to walk and falling down.  He just happened to fall right and got a little bump close to his eye.  Thankfully it wasn’t big and it didn’t last long.  Just a day or two and he was back to normal.

He started getting down correctly off the couch (feet first, sliding on his belly).

One of the gifts we got for Jedidiah last Christmas were these shoes that have his name and birthday on them.  We finally put them on him for a little photo shoot, and it’s a good thing we did, because he BARELY squeezed into them!  But we got some really cute shots of him!

He got two more teeth!  Both of the top teeth are in.  They came in within a few days of each other (much like his two bottom ones).  Now he’s got this adorable toothy grin!

Jedidiah started doing this funny Chinese “dubbing” thing with his mouth where he’d make a sound and then silently move his mouth afterwards as if he were still speaking!

One day we were at Nana’s house and he was playing with three balls and he was really trying to figure out how he could hold all three at once.  He tried to pick them all up and obviously, that wasn’t working so well.  So then, he decided, well, if I can’t get it with my hands, I’m going to try to pick it up with my mouth.  It was hilarious!  He’s so clever and resourceful!

He’s figured out how to take selfies.  Haha… I think he still needs to work on the best angles.

When we go on walks, he likes to put his feet up on his stroller.  It’s so funny.  He just looks so relaxed and laid back.  I like to think of it as “stroller swag.”

He and I took our first trip to Brackenridge Park and our second trip to the Witte Museum.  It was a random Tuesday afternoon and I knew that we NEEDED to get out of the house.  The Witte is free on Tuesday afternoons but I had forgotten what time it started.  We arrived a bit too early and so we decided to walk around and play at Brackenridge for a little while before heading back to the museum.  It was fun to watch him play on the playground.  He likes to climb up (he’s good at that), but isn’t as good at climbing back down.  He also loved the steering wheel and climbing up the slide!

What about mom?  

September is my birthday month, so we got to go out and celebrate at Buffalo Wild Wings.  It was one of the only days of the month that Trent actually got home by dinner time.  It was extra special to be able to eat dinner together, AND to go out!  We were blessed with a beautiful sunset and a lovely evening together.

Well, I had a rough bout with breastfeeding.  I guess I should be super grateful that we hadn’t had any real issues up until this point, but I started having a LOT of pain in my right breast when I was nursing.  At first I thought that maybe it was a clogged duct, but as I looked more and more into it, I decided that that wasn’t it.  Then we moved to nipple blebs, but it really wasn’t that either.  It ended up just being a clogged Montgomery gland.  It was very painful for about a week but I watched it closely for any signs of infection and eventually the pain just went away.  It hurt terribly when he would first latch, but then the pain would get less and less as he nursed.  It almost felt like it had at the beginning again where my boobs were just getting used to nursing.  So… that pretty much sucked.  But we got past it and now we’re good again.

we started going to Bible Study Fellowship (BSF) with a few friends of mine at a chuch in New Braunfels.  It is about an hour and a half long and so I was worried about Jedidiah staying in the nursery that long.  He hadn’t done it at our own church (where he knows everyone) for a shorter time, so I was praying EXTRA hard that he would make it there so that I could enjoy my time in God’s Word and learning without having him distracting me.  It took 3 times before he stayed the whole time, but we made it!  It was so nice to be able to relax and study God’s word and enjoy this time of fellowship with other women all the while knowing that he was being taken good care of in their children’s program.

Daddy also let me dress Jedidiah in a Longhorns shirt for our church series called “Quarterback.”  You see, we’re a house divided.  I’m a Longhorn fan while my husband (bless his heart) is an Aggie.  This is a HUGE rivalry that gave us trouble at the beginning of our relationship.  We both agree that it was a God thing that they went to separate conferences- it may have saved our marriage!  Anyways, here are Jedi and I in our Texas gear.

Daddy time: I absolutely love watching these two interact.  I know I’ve said that since the beginning, but as Jedidiah has gotten more and more personality, it has become even more fun.  Trent always wants to spend time with him and unfortunately, his work schedule doesn’t allow for more of it.  Here are some of my favorite daddy moments from this month.