As of 7:29 p.m. Central time which was approximately 4 hours and 11 minutes ago our baby turned exactly 10 months old. My little (big) Roo. How can this be? It seems as only yesterday, I pushed him out of my body and gave him life. His birth wasn't the best, actually it was quite scary at the end. And all I cared about was him. And getting enough pictures of him. In that moment, it was never again going to be about me. He forever changed my world, and I'm so grateful for that. In that moment, I became a mother. I try to do above and beyond for him, as my mother did for me. And I hope to one day think that I am at least a fourth or half of the mother to Gabriel as she is to me.
As for Gabriel, he's on the move...and never stops. He has learned to say yeah, which sounds more like "aaahh". He uses this word when I tell him no. It's a very frustrating word, probably as frustrating as no. Usually it goes something like this "Roo...no" and he turns around to look at me, plops on his butt and says "aahh" and turns back around to go directly for whatever he knows is untouchable for him. I then say "Gabe, no!" and he then again does the exact same thing. Then I say "Gabriel Kaige you better stop right there" and he turns, plops, and "aahh's" me...then giggles, smiles and turns back around to grab, throw, chew, or break whatever it is that was suppose to be untouchable. Yes, our living room is baby proofed. But it doesn't mean that we are still new the the fact that he is utterly and completely mobile. So when a game, remote, or anything that doesn't have bright colors, light up, or sing/talk to him...is now what he wants. Does that make any sense? How do the dull, black, non toy things catch a baby, soon-to-be toddler's eyes? Well probably because I have introduced the word no when taking them away...so now they are things he longs to have in his possession. Just great.
Not only is he crawling up a storm, he is standing and pulling himself up on everything. The couch is the main thing, because he also likes to teeth (knawling) on it while pulling himself up. His toy box is the second favorite, because he often has to open and pulls all the toys out--then crawls for the remote when we aren't looking. The others--baby gate, laundry basket, tv stand, dining room chair, and Josh's game chair--which also toppled over beside him (not on top). I was pretty proud of myself for keeping him alive and well (for the most part...not including croup, rsv, and pneumonia) for these past 10 months. I'm starting to wonder if he'll make it to be one, especially since he seems to be a dare devil like I was when I was a kid.
He still hates having a diaper on and will toss and turn, crawl away to get away from getting a new one on. I'm pretty excited for this, as that is a "sign" that hopefully he'll be easy to potty train. Afterall that will be starting around September/October. He is now on half & half (half whole milk, half formula) and will soon be going to completely whole milk as soon as our formula supply dwindles down. Which hey, that saves us $120.00 a pay check :) ....sounds great to me. He still loves puree's and eats about 6- 4oz containers a day, 3-4 (sometimes, yet rarely 4) 8 ounces bottles a day, and snacks on puffs, yogurt melts, diced apples, bananas, and sometimes strawberries throughout the day and sometimes before bed. He wears a 18 month t-shirt, 24 month onesie, and 12 month pants. His torso is so long, and he's got short stubby, chunky legs. He hates to change his clothes, and would rather wear pj's all day. I mean he literally screams his head off in protest. His new favorite thing to do is take showers instead of a bath, which is safer now since he also pulls himself up in the bathtub then slips. Favorite word: dada, and yes it annoys me since I'm now called dada. What happened to mama? He wakes up around 10am but "play" and "talks" to his buddies in his crib for a solid hour before protesting to eat breakfast at 11am. His buddies include: a puppy dog, his Chief's monkey from Build a Bear, a moose, and mickey mouse.
He now has 6 teeth (although the 6th one isn't completely broken through) and loves chomping food, toys, noses (yes I mean your sniffer), among other things. He officially has seperation anxiety, and often makes my heart break when we drop him off at daycare and tears and streaming down his face. It's recently gotten better though. He also has developed stranger anxiety, and will apply a death grip onto me or Josh if he thinks that someone may try to take him away from us. We went to Josh's uncles house and recently found out he is scared to death of people with beards, as we had a panic attack when Josh's uncle held him. Which is all normal for a baby his age, and I'm kinda glad that he does fear strangers, since I apparently didn't when I was a child. He got is first boo-boo after nose diving off his stride and ride dino to catch me before I left the area. Two abrasions to his nose, and a red mark on his forehead that quickly went away. The abrasions, are still there...poor guy. I do believe he is going to be a dare devil like his momma.
All and all, we have a pretty amazing baby on our hands, in our hearts, and through our eyes. Yeah, yeah you may here my moan and groan about how irritating some things can be, but I wouldn't change it for the world. And when he kisses me and hold his mouth to my lips for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes, all the while smiling and laughing... those irritating things are thrown out the window. By far the best part of this month, is wanting to be cuddled to fall asleep again. No more Mr. Independent I'll put myself to bed thank you very much baby. He will cry and scream for an hour if you left him in his crib and let him. I don't mind a bit, I love the snuggles after work. It makes me smile just thinking about it. 61 days. Then he'll be a toddler. Slow down, time your moving way to fast.
