11 months old

UGH I am bad at this.

But yeah, Eli obviously turned 11 months old on July 18th.

He is a RASCAL these days!  Mostly I feel all of my time is dedicated to keeping him from mortal peril.  He is so FAST and DESTRUCTIVE and really I don't clean anymore.  He's also a really happy baby and is getting pretty good at entertaining himself (it helps if he finds something he isn't supposed to have).   He is cruising all over the furniture and walls but still no independent walking though we did have our first steps!!!  He has not taken more than three, though, and he has yet to stand up on his own aside from stepping away from furniture.  

Eli says "mamamama" and "dadadada" and "buh-buh" and "hah" (hi) and waves accordingly.   I also suspect he says "duh" for dog, because he points to Simon when he says it, and also "bah" for ball, but I can't be for sure at this point :)

He really babbles a lot.  A LOT.  He talks to himself while he's playing, and it's really cute.  I wish I knew what he was saying.

He points at EVERYTHING.  It's cute.  He also puts EVERYTHING in his mouth.  Less cute.

His favorite food would probably have to be bananas.  He LOVES bananas.  He also love smoothies, but I think that's because I make them with bananas.

He really hasn't taken to meat.  He has eaten it, but I think it's the texture that weirds him out and honestly I haven't given him very much at all so hopefully after more exposure he will be willing to get protein and other vital nutrients from there :)

His favorite move is definitely, definitely, definitely 101 Dalmatians, the one with Glenn Close that you can watch on Netflix.  

As for sleep, no, we are not sleeping through the night.  No, not even close.  He still wakes up at least twice.  It is a rarity that he'll only wake up once (like, really rare) and usually a stretch of sleep will not exceed 3-4 hours.  I let him cry it out with the checking in on him every 5, 10, 15, etc minutes method.  I don't get him out of his crib.  I don't do anything more than give him his pacifier and a reassuring pat and a "go to sleep".  It's not my fault he doesn't sleep, so shut up.  

HOWEVER, I did recently purchase the Baby Einstein Sea Dreams Soother and it has worked wonders.  Previously, we had a Summer Infant slumber buddy, which wasn't bad, but this Sea Dreams soother puts him back to sleep super fast.  At first I thought I was going to have to return it because he would get really excited and playful when I turned it on and it would actually keep him awake LONGER because he was messing around with it.  Now that the novelty's worn off, though, he falls right back to sleep within a couple minutes when it's lit up and playing music.  Obviously I love it.

Also to note: he is still torturing Simon, who continues to be the most patient dog ever.  Who knew?

10 months old

Eli turned 10 months old yesterday!  Holy crap.

In the past month....

- He has switched to mainly formula as opposed to breast milk.  It was my intention to nurse him until he was a year old.  He got over it.  My supply decreased.  It happens.

- He decided to doesn't really like formula, either.  Seriously.  Getting this kid to drink milk is rough.

- His sleep schedule has become pretty predictable, though leaves much to be desired.  He goes to bed at 9, with some exceptions.  He wakes up once around 2, and then once around 6.  Sometimes you can get him to go back down for a couple hours, and he'll sleep until 8.  But lately he's done sleeping by 6:30.  Eww.

- He has become extremely active.  He has army crawled since he was 7ish months (I think?) but now we are exclusively up on all fours, speeding around the house, destroyed everything we can.

- He will pull up to stand and cruise around the furniture.  Still not a lot of interest in standing on his own or walking.  If you hold his hands to help him walk he just sits down,

- I can't really remember all the new foods he's had, but we have slowed down in introducing new foods.  That's mostly because there doesn't seem to be a lot of new fresh options at the grocery store.

- He eats solid foods three times a day.  Really that's about all he eats, since we're having trouble drinking milk.

- Simon has really started to feel the effects of a baby in the house.  Eli is constantly pulling his tail, ripping out his fur, and taking all his toys.

- He waves bye-bye on cue, mostly just to "dadadada" when he leaves for work, and then continues for awhile after he has left for work.

- Babbles a lot more on his own.  I always wonder what he thinks he's saying.

- We have been the park a few times.  Eli is a fan of swinging and watching other kids run around and play.

- He has been swimming in Grandpa Bob and Grandpa Lois' pool a couple times.  He loves water!

Officially 10 months old, making all the mischief.

Also we watch more TV than I care to admit.

9 months old...

Here is a super image/media-heavy post in honor of Eli entering into his 9 month of life on this past Saturday.  He is into e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. these days.  He's getting a little ornery and never wants to sit still.  Which is fine.  Within reason.

He weighed 20 lbs 14 oz at his check up on Monday and was 29 1/2 inches long.

As far as interests, his favorite things to play with are keys and the carbon monoxide detector.

....

Really though, he doesn't sit and play with any of his toys too much.  He's way more into climbing the back of the couch and pulling the curtains.  He also delights in ripping apart magazines.

Dog toys are okay with him, too.

His sleeping is still all over the place.  It's getting a little more predictable as he generally sleeps until 7 or 8.  And I can generally expect him to wake up 2-3 times a night still.  But it's getting better.  He has also graduated to a pretty regular hour-long nap, which is preferable to his 30 minuters of previous months.

I don't exclusively breastfeed anymore.  He has formula bottles pretty often and I think that helps with keeping his belly full and sleeping longer.  As far as solids, he's had a lot, and he's liked it all.  He's had apples, pears, blueberries, bananas, butternut squash, sweet potato, russet potato, peas, carrots, zucchini, avocado, cottage cheese, and just had yogurt for the first time today.  I was introducing a new food every couple days after he first started eating solids at 6 months 2 weeks, but I kind of dropped the ball after vacation because I was just buying jar food.  Also I hate going to the grocery store but finally went yesterday so I have cantaloupe and broccoli for him to try next :)

Mobility - still army crawls.  He doesn't seem to see any need in crawling on all fours.  He gets where he wants.

As far as words, he says Mama.  Not sure if he knows it exclusively applies to me, but he does say it a lot when I'm around and he wants him, but I don't think he has totally figured out that I am mama.  He says ba, ta, pa, and some other not exactly easy to figure out syllables.  He has said "da" a few times but mamamamama is definitely the clearest and most regular of his babblings.

Aaand I think that's it.  Sorry I totally dropped the ball on month 8.

7 months old!

Yesterday was Eli's 7 month mark and  I took him to visit his great-grandparents.  My grandpa has had a crap ton of terrible health problems this past year so we try and see him when we can.  

As of 7 months, Eli is still not sleeping well.  The kid is constantly congested and I can rarely leave him to cry it out because it ends in gagging which begets more crying and ends in a fully awake babe.  Ugh.

As for naps, I never know what's going to happen.  He takes a nap about 1-1/2 hours after waking just because he slept so little.  His naps are generally 30-40 minutes and he takes anywhere from 2-4 a day. Sometimes there's an hour nap but that is definitely an exception to the rule.

He is eating more solid food, right now twice a day, once in the morning and once in the late evening.  His first solid other than rice and oatmeal cereals was sweet potato.  He has also had apple, pear, and peas.

In the past month, he has become a rolling fiend.  He wields his weight well.  He is also the nosiest baby, always grabbing and reaching for EVERYTHING.  Literally everything.  He wants it.  He needs it.  He is less into his exersaucer because it limits his ability to grab things he shouldn't have.

Eli is also sitting up pretty well now!  In probably the past week and a half, his balance has really improved and he can maintain a sitting position even when looking behind him and reaching for things that aren't directly in front of him.  He also sits straight up and not leaning forward.  This comes in especially convenient during bath time.

I keep waiting for real "babbling".  He babbles a bit; mostly he just yells (so much yelling) or makes one syllable noises that may or may not have vowel and consonant sounds.  Everything I read says he should be stringing together more complex consonant/vowel combinations but he doesn't do too much that seems like he's trying to convey a thought.  He will exchange sounds sometimes though. Ha.

He is also gigantic, still.  I haven't weighed him on my own but he is wearing 9 month clothes still, 12 months if it is one piece.

sometimes you win, but mostly you lose

Last night Eli was up every hour again.

That's all.

sweet potato

Yesterday Eli had his first taste of non-cereal, non milk-mixed food.  Sweet potato!  I pureed it with pear juice because we were at my mom's (doing laundry, our laundry machine/dryer and currently disconnected while our basement is being renovated).  He was entirely unsure of what to think about this new food.  The texture was new and we were still getting used to pear juice so I think that might be why he wasn't too sure.  

Today we tried sweet potato again.  We made it at home with milk and the texture was much smoother and based on Eli's reaction, more palatable.  He gobbled it down with similar vigor to his cereals.

By the way, he cut his second tooth yesterday, as well.

And he slept 7 hours straight last night.

PROGRESS.

first solid food!

....kind of.

Rice cereal is a lot like slightly grainy milk, at least the way I made it the first time.   We fed him his first bowl on Saturday morning and he has had it every morning since, though today I am going to wait until evening to feed him in hopes that it keeps his belly full through the night and maybe sleep for longer stretches.  WE'LL SEE.

Obviously we took pictures of this milestone.   Lots of pictures.

Here I am offering him his first taste.

Here he is pleased with the results.

He definitely thought he should be the one to hold the spoon.

See.

About halfway through, Rob took over.  Eli showed no bias.

He thoroughly enjoyed the entire experience.

Until next food....