10 Months!

My Sweet Boy! Ten Months! Life is just cruising along smoothly! I find myself counting down the months until summer break, even though I don't get to be home with Ben.

I really thought about not writing this, because I'm sure I'm just jinxing myself....but Things lately (and for quite some time) have been so easy with Ben. I'm not saying that to brag...it's just the truth. The kid sleeps like a champ, he's happy all day long, and is laid back about anything we do. And the things I've been dreading, like teething and colds, haven't been bad at all. He hasn't woken me up in the middle of the night in months. Even when he goes to daycare once a week, I drop him off and he starts playing right away. Then he only gets one nap...and he still comes home happy as a clam. I'm seriously scared for my second child. I'm SURE I'm going to get pay back.

One of my favorite things lately is that he chuckles to himself all day long. It's not a laugh and it's not a giggle. It's definitely a chuckle. He'll be cruising around the house, climbing the stairs, playing with a ball, etc and he'll just be smiling and chuckling the whole time. Joy just overflows from that boy! Another favorite thing is when we play "soccer". Ben likes it when we hold him up and he uses his feet to "kick" the ball. He's just moving his leg and it happens makes the ball move, but he squeals with happiness when he "kicks" it. Also, he loves it when Joel and I kick the soccer ball back and forth in the back yard (with me holding Ben). He squeeeaaaaals as the ball comes towards us and then bounces up and down with excitement when we kick the ball back to Joel. He makes the simplest things so much fun!

This month, I've pretty much stopped breastfeeding. I got a horrible infection and was getting a plugged duct every week. My schedule at work made it nearly impossible to maintain a regular pumping schedule, not even once per day. I tried just nursing him in the morning and before bed. But, pretty soon, he started CHOMPING whenever I tried feeding him at night. OUCH OUCH OUCH!! No no no no no. So, the nighttime feeding isn't happening anymore! We just read a book, sing a song and to bed he goes! I'm going to try to keep up the morning feeding as long as possible....but I think he'll lose interest soon.

A few new skills to document:

• He continues to say "Baba" for bottle and "ba" for ball. Sometimes he shouts it, which is pretty cute
• He can now go down stairs smoothly and orient himself properly to slide backwards off the couch, etc.
• He stands without holding onto anything more and for longer periods of time, although its still not very frequent
• He has learned how to blow kisses and kiss the characters in his books
• His "cruising" keeps getting better. He loves to walk around the house with his walkers and he cruises seamlessly around while holding onto any surface he can find
• He's starting to take direction, like "Go get tucker" or "Go get the ball"
• His two bottom teeth are in. One top tooth has totally poked out and the second top tooth is just starting to appear.

I love watching him grow and see his personality develop more and more. PSAT I went back and read a few of my blog posts from when he was teeny. It's amazing at how little I knew him back then. There are so many things about him that I see every day that are so hard to describe. Things that he exudes or the way he does stuff....Like the way he investigates things...or his unique way of being independent...or his own little way of being happy or excited. Brenna wrote in her blog that Eli gets so excited about things. The same is true for Ben, but they both show their excitement with their unique personalities shining through. These traits are all the things that make Ben who he is. Im excited to see how these traits develop as he gets older!

That's all for now. Just loving life with my sweet little family!