10 Month Review

8:30pm.

Finally The Boy falls asleep! An unfortunate development in the past month is a sudden reluctance to lay down in his crib, either for a nap or bedtime. Lately when we put The Boy down and he'll pretty much start crying right away, eventually sitting up on his mattress bawling, and he ain't falling sleep sitting on his ass.

So our new bedtime routine is we lay him down. He cries and sits up. We lay him down. He cries and sits up. We lay him down. He cries and sits up. This goes on until eventually we lay him down and leave the room. Soon the bawling turns to sobbing, deep sobbing. It breaks our hearts but we let him cry it out for a while. After a few minutes we'll go back into his room, lay him down again, sooth him and watch him tearfully fall asleep.

It's exhausting!

Not to mention we feel like the worse parents in the world leaving our son to cry alone in his room. Here's hoping this is just a phase The Boy will outgrow, because this routine will really suck if he keeps it up till he's sixteen.

Other than this getting-to-sleep issue, The Boy is pretty much always in a good mood. The past month has been filled with lots of laughs, squeals, smiles and uncontrollable arm flapping and foot shuffling. He'd would probably be crawling by now if not for one big flaw in his technique -- whenever he pushes with his legs forward, he plants his face on the floor, seriously impeding his forward momentum. Personally I still think he's walk before he crawls, he's already pulling himself up on anything that will support him.

The Boy is now close to 22 pounds, and has really gotten taller the past month. It's been really cool to watch him go from a gigantic-headed, chimp-armed, barrel-chested infant to wider, longer and better proportioned baby. Like a Chia-Pet, if you nuture and care for him, he'll grow! Now that would be a parenting book I'd buy - Raise Your Child Like a Chia-Pet.

His cognetive development really ramped up the past month as well. Now he actually plays with his toys, instead of just slapping at them or whipping them around the room. The downside to this though is that he's way harder to distract. Once he puts his mind to getting something like say the kitchen knife or bag of nails (Note to self, don't leave the kitchen knife on the floor) you'd be lucky to get his mind onto something else. Not looking forward to baby-proofing our home that's for sure.

He's taking a keen interest in other people. Stranger anxiety is definitely not an issue with him. He'll smile his big grin and call out "Eh" to anyone in earshot. And keep it up until they finally smile back or walk away (which almost never happens because he's so freaking cute - in my humble opinion). He especially likes other kids. If they're anywhere near him he'll reach out to touch them. If they're too far away he'll just gaze in awe. Young kids, old kids, infants, whatever, he's just fascinated with his contemporaries.

The Boy has discovered a new way to look at the world, with his head tilted sideways like a Jack Russell Terrier. Now if I could only get him to bring me the paper we'd be set. P has faithfully been cooking baby food for him, trying out all sorts of combinations. A meal usually starts with her tasting her latest creation, which completely grosses me out seeing she mixes her breast milk into the food -- it's like eating a part of yourself. Ugh!