10 Months Old

Ok, Drew turned 10 months a few days ago. Time keeps flying by, and each day Drew is more and more fun. As I mentioned in my novel of a post a few days ago, Drew started clapping and playing "So Big" while we were in Colorado. He is loving the dogs more and more each day, which is really sweet and definitely warms my heart. He cruises all over the place, and he can be a very fast crawler if he really wants to get somewhere.  Recently he discovered how fun a toilet paper roll can be.  He also recently started going up the stairs, which is a fun new game.  

Drew has even stood without holding onto anything for a few seconds at a time a few times now, the most recent and longest being this morning. And, I'm not sure, but I think he's starting to pick up on the sign language. It's hard to tell, though. It seems like maybe he knows the sign for milk and for Foudy. We made up our own sign for Foudy and Maggie- the same signs we used for them when Zach was a baby. Because Foudy loves to have people hold her paw, our sign for her is to take our hand and make it look like we're pawing at someone. Lately, whenever I say "Foudy" to Drew, he starts moving his hand up and down. So, it could just be a coincidence, or he could have picked up on the sign. Zach was about 10-11 months or so when he started doing some signs, so maybe this is something. Something else I've noticed about Drew is that if he bonks his head or gets scared or something and starts crying, he really doesn't like being snuggled. He tends to get over it faster if I just let him be, which is interesting. Drew also seems to be making the switch to more table food and less baby food. Today he has only had 1 jar of baby food so far. The kid loves to feed himself, and he will eat and eat and eat. The other night at dinner, he had most of a jar of baby food, and then he ate most of a banana and almost 2 canned pear halves. It'll be nice to not buy baby food anymore, but preparing healthy meals for someone just learning to eat table food requires a lot more thought than grabbing a jar of veggies or fruit that's already pureed. At this point I think we are also making a switch in Drew's schedule. Since we got back from Colorado, he seems to be sleeping a little later in the morning and not needing his morning nap quite as early. This then pushes back his afternoon nap as well. Also, I've been nursing him 4x a day for the last few months, and I think we're ready to cut one of those out and go down to 3x a day. Oh, I also started offering him a sippy cup with a couple of his meals, and he seems to like that and maybe is starting to get the hang of it.   Mostly he just likes to chew on the spout, though.

Here are a couple of pictures from a few days ago.  You can tell my this post that I've been playing/practicing with our new camera.  I feel like a professional photographer using a big, fancy camera, even if my pictures don't turn out like theirs.

I think this next one is cute because Drew looks like a little pregnant baby with his big belly.

In this picture you can see Drew's one little tooth, which is still coming in. It looks like he has another one that is about to break through any day.

A few days ago, Drew realized that he can push his high chair around from underneath. It's really fun. Zach loved doing this as a baby, too.

Yesterday I was changing Drew when he decided to crawl away on me and do some more exciting stuff. So here is a little photo montage of that:

First, I'll play with some blocks.

Then I think I'll do a little reading.  Hmm, what to read, what to read...

Maybe I'll just play the piano instead.

Finally I grabbed him and got him to sit still long enough to get some clothes on.  He sure is cute in the buff, though!

These next two pictures show my boys having fun together.  Zach was trying to help hold Drew up and give him a big hug at the same time.  I was surprised that Drew was as happy about that as he was.  




The boys are both napping as I write this, and just a few minutes ago, I heard Zach wake up crying. After a minute or two I heard him come out of his room, and I went to the stairs to see what was up. He was most of the way down the stairs, wearing nothing but his underwear, which is weird, because he went to sleep in his clothes. We went back upstairs and his clothes were all on his floor. I asked why they were off and if he took them off before his nap or just now, but he was too out of it to answer me. I wonder if I'll get the story later...

A couple of other funny things Zach has said recently:

-We were at the grocery store on Monday and Zach was talking with the check-out lady. She asked him if he liked being a big brother, and he told her that yes, he did. Then he said, "We're having another baby, too. A girl!" The lady was like, "Oh, wow," about at the same time that I said, "NO, we're not! Not right now, anyway!" The check-out lady got a big kick out of that. It all started a couple of weeks ago, when we celebrated Christmas with Mike's dad's family. Zach said at the dinner table that night, "Mom, let's have another baby on Saturday. Let's have a girl this time." Apparently the kid thinks he wants a sister, but I'm sure I could find some big brothers out there who would advise him otherwise.
-After that same grocery store trip, we were on our way home, and Zach was playing with our incredibly long receipt. (A side note- groceries have gotten SO expensive, haven't they!? Holy cow!) He was pretending he was Santa, and that this long receipt was his naughty and nice list. At one point, our conversation went like this:

Zach: Mom, I found a naughty house.
Me: Really? So do those people get toys from Santa?
Z: Nope.
M: What did they do that was naughty?
Z: Ummm...they went potty in their pants after their mom asked them and asked them (if they had to potty).
M: Oh, that's too bad. Did they mean to go potty, or was it an accident?
Z: No, their mom asked them and asked them.
M: Wow, that's too bad. Do you think they should get just a little present maybe?
Z: Maybe. Here's a nice house...Here's another naughty house!
M: What did they do that was naughty?
Z: They threw things upstairs when their mom told them not to.
M: Hmmm. Too bad.

It was very interesting to see what he considered naughty, and what was naughty enough to not get any presents from Santa.

Zach recently discovered this basketball jersey of Mike's from when Mike was in about 5th grade. He loved wearing it, even though it was definitely too big.

And here are my two boys.  I wanted to put these pictures side by side to see a good comparison of them, but it didn't turn out the way I wanted.  Oh well.  One thing that's interesting to me is the difference in the color of their eyes.  Mike and I both have pretty light eyes.  Mike's are a steely blue, and mine are kind of grayish/bluish/greenish, depending on the day and what I'm wearing.  I think it's especially interesting to get a good look at Zach's eyes, which are more brown than anything else.  Weird.