Timmy at 10 months

Timmy is 10 months old today.  He is more curious than ever.  He loves to explore, searching in the corners, behind furniture, and inside cabinets for new things to handle and taste.  For instance he might happily busy himself rearranging all of our plastic containers for several minutes.  Then he'll abruptly decide he needs comfort and reassurance for whatever reason.  He'll  whine, pop his thumb in his mouth, whine some more, and wait for someone -- usually me -- to pick him up.  Tim says he's a spoiled "mama's boy".  I remind him that he said pretty much the same thing about each of the girls when they were Timmy's age.  They've turned out fine so far, in spite of all my coddling.  Tim's just jealous because as babies the kids like me more -- that is, until age 1 or so.  I enjoy this time as long as it lasts.

It's not hard to see why he might have needed some extra love lately, especially last week.  He fussed, cried, ran a little fever off and on for days, and then he got four new teeth at the same time.  So now he has four on the top and two on the bottom.  It's strange to see him so toothy.  There's even another tooth on the top ready to break through.  That's a lot of teeth in a short amount of time.

Since he spontaneously began sleeping through the night just before he turned 9 months, he has kept it up every night.  It has been wonderful!  I feed him right before I go to bed and don't hear from him again until between 6:30 and 7.  It is so nice to wake up refreshed and not have to drag myself through every day.  Atta boy, Timmy!

Daytime remains the same.  He has a nap within an hour or two of getting up in the morning, as long as we can fit it in.  He has his afternoon nap when Annie does, after lunch.  Then depending on how early or late the afternoon one was, he might have a late nap at around 4 or 4:30.  That last one is only an hour, but it can be a godsend.  When I'm at the point where I have no idea what else to do with him, and I need to start on dinner, it is so nice to be able to lay him down.  I hand him his Lovey (still new and soft and silky), and I see him rubbing it against his face while he sucks his thumb.  He's taking a liking to it.  Annie has passed the torch.  I should come up with another name for his, but it comes so naturally to say, "Here's Lovey."  Some days are too busy and he might have to make do with little naps in the car, and he's OK.  He gets the early afternoon nap, if nothing else.  It takes an act of Congress to make me forego that one.

Up way past his bedtime at Delaney's preschool graduation

He is a charming little man when he's not being a fussy "mama's boy."  He has been clapping and waving for several weeks.  He's begun to pop a thumb in his mouth and wave bye-bye when he's ready for a nap.  I'm trying to teach him to give me kisses and so far I haven't had any luck, but I'm happy with stealing them for now.  He adores his sisters, and the rare time that neither of them are around, he looks for them.  He calls for them at the bottom of the stairs that go up to the playroom/guest room.  He climbs up if I let him.  One time Tim took the girls out for a few hours, and during that time, I took Timmy for a walk in his stroller.  He was content enough, but I noticed him looking to the left and right, and craning his neck to see behind the stroller.  He wanted to know why his sisters weren't walking with us.

He had a non-relative babysitter for the first time ever, earlier this month.  I had an appointment to go to, and I found a new babysitter from Sittercity.  When Katelyn came over, she held out her arms for Timmy, and he went right to her.  Then he laid his head on her shoulder and put his thumb in his mouth.  After picking my jaw up off the floor, I left happily, my biggest worry having been assuaged.  Another day, she came over and I left while he was still napping.  I wondered how he would handle waking up and seeing her first.  I asked her to text me when he woke up, mostly so I would know how much longer I should stay out.  I received her text an hour-and-a-half later, about 45 minutes after she'd sent it: "Timmy's up, but he's doing great.  Take as much time as you need."  I am very pleasantly surprised by how well he's taken to a babysitter he's never met before, but Tim's not.  "He's a boy, he likes any pretty face."

He still doesn't eat much in the way of solids.  He tries things here and there, but most of what goes in his mouth ends up on his lap or down his shirt.  Occasionally there's a food that he can handle eating a significant amount of.  He loves quinoa with black beans and corn.  I don't want to go into yucky details, but it's clear the next day that he's had a lot of it.  Cheerios will keep him happy in his chair for a good 20 minutes.  He shoves them into his mouth eagerly.  Later, I find many of them plastered to his shirt and the floor.  He loves Baby Mum-Mum.  If I need to buy 10 minutes of him being out of trouble, I put him in his chair and give him that (or let his sisters give it to him because they like doing that.)  He loves them because they're sweet and crunchy.  Each bite dissolves in his mouth within five seconds, so it doesn't take him long before it's all gone.  He usually eats one package of these (each package contains two) a day.