Joey - 10 months

I seriously feel like I just posted this about Joey being 9 months old.  People have always told me that life would go so much faster once we started having kids.  I honestly didn't believe them.  I do now.

Poor kid spent today coughing up half a lung (not literally of course.  If he were we'd be at the hospital and I wouldn't be posting this).  But seriously.  He randomly started coughing last night after he went to bed.  Like nasty, wake-mom-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-because-you-sound-like-your-choking cough.  Despite that, we spent the majority of the day with Neal, out and about, running errands.  Joey got some sweet new kicks so he can walk around outside :)

"All the other kids with the pumped up kicks"...who won't hold still long enough for their moms to take a picture.

We started off the last month with Joey's 9 month check up.  He's doing really well, especially with his physical milestones.  He's not doing as well with his communication milestones, but his doctor said he's still doing fine with it.  I'm making a conscious effort to talk to him more throughout the day, and it already seems to be helping.

Joey's favorite toys right now are his "trucks" and his big squishy blocks.  He can stack 2-3 blocks by himself.  He also tries to copy the sounds I make for each of his trucks.  It's pretty cute to watch him pushing trucks along blowing raspberries :)

Joey got to play out in the snow twice in the last month.  With the Christmas money he got from my aunt we bought him a snow suit.  He's not a fan of the suit, but seemed to like feeling the snow with his hands at least.  I'm sure he'll warm up to the suit once he's worn it more (which requires us getting more snow.....)

He discovered toilet paper.  And toilets.  He no longer gets left alone anywhere near an open bathroom door.

He figured out how to use the "monkey trap" to get his snacks.  And then decided it was fun to turn it upside down and pour all the crumbs out.  The poor floor at our church building.

He watched the last Broncos game with Neal.  He was obviously enthralled ;-)

His favorite thing to do is walk.  In order to save our backs, we put a drumstick in each of his hands and hold onto the other end.  He will now find his drumsticks, pick them up, crawl over to someone, and hold up the other end of the drumstick.  It's hard to say "no" when he asks so nicely.  (I don't have a picture with the drumsticks.  We have to much fun actually watching him.  I'll have to try and get one this month).

He's started dancing a little bit.  If there's music playing and he thinks no one is looking, he will bounce up and down a little bit.  As soon as he sees you looking (or any sort of camera) he stops.  Shy boy :-)

He has the best bed head ever.

The dishwasher is his favorite appliance.  He will be on the opposite side of the house, totally entertained by what he is doing, hear the dishwasher open, and rush over to play with the bottom rack.  He also refuses to eat if the dishwasher is open and he's in his high chair.

We played with flour one day.  It got EVERYWHERE.  As I was washing his face off, he kept trying to climb into the sink.  I realized that there was zero harm in him being in the sink (with me standing there of course) so I stripped him down, and he sat and played with the water for at least 10 minutes.

He is finally tall enough to look out our bedroom window.  He loves looking outside.

He's becoming more attached to the little dinosaur Neal's cousin, Melissa, crocheted for him.  It goes to bed with him everytime he goes to sleep, and he cuddles with it until he falls asleep.  Makes my mommy heart swell with joy. 

He also can completely fall asleep on his own at bed time.  Actually, he prefers it.  Unless he's feeling sick or has had a hard day, he will actually push us away if we're rocking him to let him know he wants to lay down in his bed.  It's making the middle of the night a lot easier because he only wakes up to eat twice a night (usually).  The great part?  We did it without making him scream for hours. No judgement towards people who do cry it out, but I felt very strongly that "cry it out" was not for our family.  I did a ton of research to find something that I felt was more gentle to help him learn how to fall asleep.  Basically, we started with a chair right next to his bed for three nights.  Each night we would pat his back/rub his back/head less each night.  On the third night we moved the chair about a foot towards the door.  Every third night we would move the chair another foot until we were finally outside the room.  I was actually surprised with how well it worked!  It was awesome!

It was a pretty awesome month, and we've got a lot coming up next month, too! (PS.  I feel like I say that every month.  But really, every month with him is wonderful!)