Caleb’s Ten Month Update

Month ten with Caleb has been so fun, especially since it involved all sorts of Christmas celebrations.  Even though he’s still too young to understand what’s been going on the last few weeks, it’s been such a joyful season with lots of fun time with family and I’m grateful for that.  Enjoy some updates and silly pictures from this past month of our little guy’s life!

The Numbers

At his nine month checkup, Caleb was just above 17 lbs and still in the 5-10th percentile for weight and 10-25th for height.  So basically he’s still our long and lean little man and we are loving his lanky cuteness! His little hips and booty are about the cutest thing I’ve ever seen.  This month he’s started to transition from 6-9 month clothes to 9-12 month clothes and I love getting to put him in all his cute new outfits in this bigger size! 

Some Milestones

In Caleb’s nine month update I said he was so close to crawling, and he is officially there! Granted it’s still a little army crawl but he can get across a room pretty quick and loves to take off toward something he wants (usually a dog toy or something else he’s not supposed to have).

Pretty soon after he learned to crawl he also learned to get himself into a sitting position on his own.  The very first time he did it was in his crib when I put him down for a nap! I looked at the monitor and all of a sudden he was sitting up! Within ten seconds he had grabbed the top of the crib and pulled up into standing position, making his mama sprint up the stairs in a panic because we had yet to lower it since he wasn’t sitting up yet.  How do they reach these milestones so quickly and randomly? He’s since had a few fun sitting parties in his crib when he was supposed to be napping, but otherwise, this new skill is fun to watch.

A last fun milestone of this month is that he got his first tooth! I’ve been keeping an eye on his bottom gums for a while now because I thought they seemed swollen.  He happened to chomp on my finger one night and I realized he had a little tooth poking through on the TOP! I’d been so focused on the bottom teeth that I almost missed it.  It’s quite the little snaggletooth now and cracks us up every time we see it.  I have a feeling the bottom ones will pop out sometime soon too! If you look realllllly close in this picture you can see some swollen gums in this goofy smile.

What He’s Liking

Caleb’s gotten a lot better at playing on his own this month and does well playing independently for 15-20 minute stretches throughout the day.  I’ll put him on the floor with some toys while I eat lunch or do something in the kitchen and he will happily babble away as he bangs his toys together, crawls around, and pulls up onto anything he can manage.  I love seeing him learn to enjoy that alone time and it’s nice to not feel like I need to entertain him all the time!

Caleb also grows to love and recognize family more and more and it’s so fun to see him play with his cousins and grandparents.  I can’t wait to take him to California to see all my family there soon!

What He’s Disliking

We still have a little mama’s boy on our hands, friends.  Like I said above, he’s been MUCH better this month, but Caleb still loves to be with his mama and will sometimes cry if I walk away or try to hand him off.  When Jordan gets home Caleb gets so excited, squealing and kicking his legs, but as soon Jordan takes him he looks right back and tries to get to me.  I love being the center of his little world, but it’s definitely exhausting when I walk away for two seconds and he starts fussing! I know this is a phase, so I’m trying to embrace the snuggles and know that it won’t be like this forever.

“Mooooooom, why do you have to go outside to take the dog out and leave me all alone??!”

How He’s Eating

This month little man has significantly improved his finger food skills, even if he still mostly just wants puffs and yogurt melts.  We have cracked up over and over watching him learn to pick things up and slowly move them around this hand until they reach his mouth and we cheered him on every time a puff actually made it in instead of landing in his lap!

He still eats lots of purees every day (about two tubs at every meal and he’d probably eat more if we’d let him – this kid is a bottomless pit!) but we’re branching out with new finger foods each day.  So far he’s done pretty good with banana, some avocado, cheese, and the occasional other foods we’ve given him to try like pears, pasta, and other random things.  I’m hoping he’ll get more and more confident with finger foods in this next month or two! Until then, it sure is fun to see him experiment with food and get absolutely covered in it.

How He’s Sleeping

Ah sleep, the ever-changing enemy of the Type-A mom! Caleb’s sleep is so much more consistent these days then it was in the past, and he regularly sleeps about 10.5-11 hours per night and takes two naps per day, usually around 9:00 and 2:00.  However, he seems to wake up at different times each day and the naps are different lengths each day (anywhere from 45 minutes to 1.5+ hours), so bedtime ranges anywhere from 6:45-7:15.

I’m learning to just roll with the punches and stretch him to the next naptime if he wakes up early.  My goal now is to get him going to bed a little later so that 10.5 hrs of sleep will get him past 6:00 AM, because this kiddo has only slept past 6 a handful of times in his entire life.  Luckily I am an early bird too but it sure would be nice to not hear my adorable little alarm clock at 5:30 AM every day!

A Parent Update

Like I said last month, this season of babyhood has been so much fun.  I love how he’s my little buddy who’s so curious about the people and world around him, and seeing him delight in random little things is so much fun.  He’s so much more social these days and I love our little back and forth conversations, even if all he does is babble.  I can’t wait to continue to see him grow and learn all sorts of new skills!

This month I’ve been realizing how blessed I am to get to stay home with our kiddo.  My life is slower now than it ever has been but it somehow feels fuller than it ever has at the same time.  Sometimes it’s a stretch to fill the days and not get cabin fever, especially as the weather gets colder, but I love my slow days at home playing with Caleb, cooking, meeting up with friends, and taking care of our house.  I know that things will get a little crazier as Caleb enters the toddler years and we eventually have another kiddo, but for now, I love the rhythm of our days as a family.

Staying home is by no means easy, but I feel so grateful to get to do it and be a witness to the life of this tiny human who shares my eyes and my DNA.

Happy ten months, Caleb! We love you and are so grateful for all the joy you bring to our family.