Graham is 10 Months Old

Well, better late than never this month! Graham turned 10 months last Friday. I have been super busy with work lately and worked over 40 hours last weekend.  The craziness all started right after these pictures were taken.  I had Graham all dressed when Gigi got here to watch him last Friday, because I knew if I didn't take them then it might be a while.  Graham wasn't in to much of a smiley mood, but we got a few cute ones!  I can't believe we will be celebrating his birthday in just 2 short months, unbelievable!  Josh and I are starting to say a lot, that we can't believe the baby stage is almost gone!  It just goes by TOO fast!

Graham didn't have his 9 month check up until 9/20/12 and he weighed 20 lbs 11 ounces (43%), he was 29 1/4 inches long (72%) and his head was 18 inches around (55%).  So he had gained 3/4 of a pound in less than a month.  He really is getting so big, he has definitely caught up more to the size Reed was at this age.  He is wearing almost all 12 month clothes.  We still put him in some 6-9, but they are really to small, we are just trying to make it through the end of the warm weather.  All of bigger clothes are long sleeve and pants.  If Graham keeps growing I may be buying more clothes for him before spring because the next size up are all shorts.  Lets hope the 9-12 month clothes make it to spring!  We still are not very good about putting shoes on him, but the one pair he has that currently fit him are size 4.  I just can't find any I like and he seems to hate shoes, so I just keep putting it off.  Graham is still wearing size 3 diapers, but size 4 has been bought.  Graham also got his 4th haircut a couple of days before these pictures were taken.  It is staying pretty curly and getting thicker and thicker and hasn't gotten any lighter.

Graham loves to play!  He loves all of his toys and does so good playing by himself.  It is very common for me to find him just playing by himself in Reed's room.  I remember this age being much harder with Reed when it came to having to give him attention when I was trying to get something done.  For example, getting ready in the morning, Graham is usually pretty content to eat Cheerios in his walker if he is in the bathroom with me.  Don't get me wrong sometimes we have our rough times, but there have only been a couple.  He also does great while I am getting dinner ready and will either eat in his highchair or play with Reed in his room. 

The big news this month is that Graham has started taking some steps.  He took his first little steps on 9/15/12 and by 9/22/12 he was up to 4 steps.  So far he hasn't taken any more than that.  He is pretty wobbly, but he just wants to go!  I am sure part of it is keeping up with big brother and partly because Josh and I love to work with him.  Reed took his first step at 10 months, 5 days. So Graham has him beat by a few days!  If he isn't up trying to walk or walking behind a push toy he is crawling at lightning speed and in to everything and especially loves anything he knows he is not suppose to have.  His favorite is the fireplace and the little rocks he can get in his mouth.  This kiddo loves to get tiny things in his mouth all.of.the.time.  He also loves Gracie's water bowl, even with it being moved into the corner of the laundry room!  Dumping the water everywhere is still at least a weekly occurrence.

Here he is taking a little step and this is the only picture I got where you can see his little teeth coming in!  The top 2 teeth have also broken through, I only know this because he loves to grit them all together.  Worst noise ever!  This just started a couple of days before he turned 10 months.  Another big milestone this month was moving to the convertible carseat in the car.  The infant carrier was impossible to carry around and once I heard his length being so close to 30 inches (the limit for his infant seat) I was glad we had gone ahead and moved him up.  I don't think he has really noticed and has done just fine in it. 

With the teeth coming in, the nursing came to an end.  After two weeks of being bit almost every day, I had to call it quits.  Once I knew that he was fine with formula completely I also stopped pumping and all the milk from the freezer was gone within a couple of weeks.  I would have loved to make it a year, but as a Momma I feel like you just know when its time to quit.  We were both ready to move on.  He now drinks (or should I say is offered) 5, 5 oz bottles a day at 7,11,2,5, and 8.  At least 2 or 3 of the 5 bottles are a struggle to get him to drink and it is different every day what bottles it is.  He definitely still prefers table food over his milk (which is still so weird for me, because Reed loved and still loves his milk and would drink all day over eating) and will eat anything.  One day at school he even refused his bottle completely, but at all of his food.  On 9/17/12 he fed himself his first meal of whole green beans and peaches.  He loves green beans and all fruit.  I haven't tried a whole lot of variety but so far I really haven't found anything he won't eat.  We are still doing a lot of baby food and yogurt for breakfast.  He loves Cheerios and nutrigrain bars too.  He typically eats lunch around noon and dinner around 6 and then will eat something else if we all sit down to eat dinner together.  He also has improved a ton with his sippy cup and loves to drink water.

Graham is still just such a happy boy!  We get asked a lot, "Is he always this happy?" and he really his!  We also always get told what pretty eyes he has.  My vote is that they are going to be a hazel brown like mine, but they are still dark blue most days.  Graham loves to wave, clap and has really started moving and shaking to music more and more.  He also still hasn't shown much separation anxiety and will go to anyone.  Graham LOVES Reed and wants to be right in the middle of whatever he is doing.  I think my favorite time of day is in the morning.  Graham loves seeing Reed first thing and if Graham is not up yet Reed cannot wait until Graham wakes up and will watch the monitor waiting for him to get up.  We have gotten a lot of Reed's old toys out of the attic this month and the fighting over the toys has begun.  Some of them Reed remembers and it has been difficult to explain that they are now Graham's toys and you can't ride around on the toy push truck all day.  Graham also loves Da-da!  When Josh gets home from work he will almost fly out of my arms to get to him and a lot of times at night he will prefer to be in his lap over mine.

Graham has settled into his school routine.  He typically only takes one nap there, which is typically around 2 hours right in the middle of the day.  He seems to really like his teachers and seems happy to be there.  At home Graham still takes 2 naps a day, one in the morning around 9 and then other one around 1 in the afternoon.  Typically they are both 1-2 hours.  As far as sleeps goes at night, this month has been a mixed bag.  In the middle of the month I had jotted a note that sleep was terrible and he had bee waking up 1-2 times a night, but lately it has been better.  We have had several nights lately where he hasn't made a peep all night!  We have just come to the realization that Graham is not a good sleeper and it is okay we just take one night at a time and we know it won't last forever and it could be much worse.  Although it is frustrating during the night, the next morning I usually can say I enjoyed the snuggle time.  I think most of the sleeping can be blamed on teething lately and partly because of stuffy nose.  The day of his check-up he woke up with a really runny nose and we ended up and still have his bed elevated to help him sleep easier.  We have been doing a lot of saline drops and nose sucking lately.  Yuck!

Graham is still a great cuddlier, but he has started falling asleep easier facing out when he is falling asleep in our arms at night.  Yes, just like Reed did until he was almost 2, Graham falls asleep every night while we hold him on the couch and he is still rocked for all naps when he is at home.  I wouldn't change it for a second!

Graham, we love you with all of our hearts!!  I just can't believe you have been in our lives for 10 months.  What joy you have brought to our lives.  I live every day to see the smiles on yours and your brother's faces!  Seeing the picture of Reed below at 10 months makes me sad because I honestly can barely remember him at that age and I don't want it to be the same with Graham!  I thinik with every child you realize more and more what a precious gift they are.  We have been given two precious, perfect and very different little boys that I couldn't imagine loving any more than I do already.