10 Months

Little Man...

Wow 10 months!

And this has been a month!

Your first steps!

You continue to amaze me and I am learning so much from you.  

You are now in 12 month clothing, starting to fit into 18 months.

You are in size 4 diaper.

Your eating has not changed other than you are starting to eat more finger foods and 

now using a snack cup.  Your new favorite treat is "Yogi Puffs" and crackers.  

You are slowly starting to transition from baby food to people food, not completely ready to leave baby food yet. Your milk intake has decreased to 20-24 ounces a day- WAHOO!!

Less than two more months of Breastfeeding!!

You are still our little champion sleeper, going down at 7 pm and sleeping till 8 am with 1 nap in the morning and 1 nap in the afternoon.  You are a great sleeper!  

The more I talk to my patients who have children, I am reminded how lucky I am that you are such a good sleeper!

You are full of energy now, getting into everything, babbling, playing with toys, trying to climb, splashing in the bath.  You like to pull yourself up on furniture off the floor- you are fearless!

You have figured out how to clap and bang toys together.  You have start to mimic things I do.  

You can now point at something and we are working on waving.  

You found your belly button which you love to play with in the bath.  

You took your first unassisted steps!

I still think you are a little bit off from walking but you are cursing on your own with your car, 

and can take small steps unassisted.

You have mastered climbing stairs.  

You are like clockwork- knowing when feeding time is, when nap time is, when bath time is and when bed time is.  You are starting to make your way to the stairs when it is time for your bath.  Apparently you are like your mother and love being on a schedule.  

You had a very very busy month..

Collin's first out of Utero Snow!!!

Collin's first Christmas celebrated with multiple parties and family gatherings.  

We had 4 Christmas'!!!

Christmas Eve Day was spent at home celebrating just the 4 of us.

 Then we headed to my parents for the Oliveria family Christmas.

Christmas Morning Santa came to our house for the first time ever!!

My family joined our family tradition of "Gay" apparel!

Collin's Big Gift From Santa was his reading chair and books.  

Christmas Day we headed up to Baltimore to spend the day with Joe's family.

It was an exhausting 48 hours but so much fun especially with you.

You loved the lights and bows!

 You love your new chair which is now in your playroom.

You also love playing with the barstool!

And your new security item has been identified as Lovie....

You geared up for the Clemson Victory over Ohio State!!!

New Remote control in hand.  

January is a big month for us...

With lots of RELAXING!!!!!!!

After Christmas, we had Joe's parents visiting so we decided to take them to the 

Meadowlark Walk of Lights.

We had multiple friends that did this this year and raved about it.  

We figured if nothing else it would be something good to do.

We decided to go with the Baby Bjorn instead of a stroller because Collin

loves that thing and is so happy in it.  

We also felt it would let him see more.

Going after Christmas was a great decision as no one was there and we could take our time and now worry about how loud Collin was babbling... which he was.

He was fascinated by the lights... and just kept talking and talking.  

My favorite was the fish pond with flying fish.  

I was actually pretty impressed too as I was not expecting much.

This will definitely be a every year event for us.  

Collin also slept 13 hours that night so I think it was well worth the stimulation!

Your new room

For about 2 months now I had trying to convince Joe that we needed to turn our breakfast nook into 

Collin's new playroom.  He fought me on it.. and by fight I mean just did not agree with me.

Then we went to Clemson where our friends had a little designated area for their little girl to play in,

after this Joe was sold.  

We loved our breakfast nook but the reality was we had a dinning room table that we could use for every day eating.  

My parents agreed to help store the furniture as I know someday we will move and need it, these were also the first pieces I bought myself when I lived up in Baltimore so I have a little sentimental attachment.  

Picture of our old sunroom...

Collin helping mommy move everything out..

So I started to look for options because I wanted a playroom but not a playroom.

I wanted it to look nice but also be functional and if you know me I am a minimalist and do not like things out in the open.  

I looked at Pottery Barn Kids but the price tag was just too much.  

So on the day Collin was suffering from his first cold, Joe and I headed to Ikea 

and after 40 minutes in the store left with the Versa Storage system.

It is actually three pieces placed together and then a glass top applied on top to make them look like one.  It took Joe less than 1 hour to put together and this is one of the best decisions we made.

Let me start by stating this was the smartest thing we have done-
SERIOUSLY- AMAZING!!!!

This morning when he woke up early and I was not ready to function,
I sat in the chair that we moved in to the playroom for the Christmas season to make room for the tree, and reflected on how much I love our playroom.

I love our playroom because for the most part it has made my life easier....

1) It is a confined space that I can let him be free and he can do no damage to anything

2) The cabinet that we purchased from IKEA has drawers which let him open and close, keeping him out of the kitchen.

3) It is a space that I can let him mess up and it does not affect the rest of the house- I am really loving this.  We use to let him play in our living room and I hated it because it is the first thing you see when you walk up to the main level in our house.  The playroom is off the kitchen and a little more out of the way.

Goodbye To a Friend

Last Sunday marked a special day that I will always remember-

Sending my hospital grade pump back to the hospital.

I had it rented for 9 months and I was ready for it to go.

It was a sign that my time pumping was coming soon.  

Thanks to some advice from some friends and also lactation consultants that I work with,

I went home from the hospital with a pump

and it was the smartest thing I did.  

After being admitted to the ICU and then going thru a difficult two weeks

with Collin not wanting to nurse and just wanting a bottle, 

I was so happy to have this.

It was because of this pump that up to this point Collin

has received nothing but breastmilk when it comes to his

liquid intake.

Yes I could have extended the pump to keep me going for the whole first year,

but I have a Ameda portable pump that I use at work that I received thru 

my insurance which has worked great.

Now that I am only pumping 3-4 times a day, it did not seem necessary, 

especially since I hope to be done pumping by the end of January/Beginning of Feburary.  

I have about a months worth of breast milk saved and I will be transitioning him to whole milk a week or two before his first birthday as we are going on a trip and do not want to worry about carrying breast milk with us.  

Goodbye Breast Pump...

It has been nice knowing you....

NOT!!!

I had to get some pictures so that I can show Collin when he is acting up to remind him of all that I did for him =0)

9 Months

9 Months

This by far has been my favorite and my least favorite at the same time.  

You are gaining an attitude and while I love that, it is very clearly that you are going to be your mother's son and be a very willed child.  You laugh when I say no well because it is funny mommy!  

You are also becoming a little more independent which I am loving.  

You can play with your books and toys while I make dinner or empty the dishwasher.   

You are officially cruising and I know any day you are just going to start walking.

You want to get into everything and you are fearless.  Even your teachers at school have commented on how fearless you are.   

Your food intake has not really changed from 8 to 9 months.  

This does not surprise me.

We have started to give you more real people food which you are loving and am hoping that by 10 months you will be completely on real people food.  

I really have not enjoyed the whole baby food phase because it means a lot more planning on my part.  

You have officially learned the sign for “all done” which has helped during meal time. 

You can also hold your own bottle which has proved to be amazing.

You know the sign for milk but are not doing it yourself yet.  

You are sleeping great going down around 7 pm and sleeping till 7 am and then still taking two naps.   Nothing has really changed here either.

You are starting to become more verbal and say "Ma ma ma" all the time but I do not know if you mean it.  

At your recent 9 month appointment, you weighted 21 pounds even and are almost 30 inches long- still 90% for height and 80% for weight.  You are in 12-18 month clothing depending on the brand.  

You are absolutely love Clemson puppy and we spend most of our day chasing him around the house which means him and you both tired.  

This month we had a lot of first such as our 

First Thanksgiving

Our first Trip to see Santa 

(which you rocked by the way)

I was warned that you might cry the whole time but I was smart and went on a Monday Morning when no one was there.  I put you on Santa’s lap and you just started babbling to him and then tried to pull his beard, which was real.

 Up next...

Christmas