10 Months: Welcome to the house of snot and vomit

Baby's first cold.  How sweet.

Lucas had a cold at the end of last week that made its way into Miles' body. Last Sunday night found us on the nurse's line for our pediatrician asking about tylenol because Miles had a fever of 102.1.  Of course after we gave the tylenol, Miles threw up. And that was the beginning of a week of snot and vomit. We switched to Motrin because Miles handles it better but he does not handle having a blocked nose, getting his nose sucked out, not being able to suck on the pacifier because his nose is blocked, mucus in his throat or coughing. All of these things cause crying. And crying sometimes exacerbates the coughing. And coughing inevitably leads to vomit.

Poor little sad sack, covered in vomit, eyes red and bleary and all he wants is a hug. All I want is not to have to change my clothes for the fifteenth time today.

He threw up so much this week that our house had the subtle smell of a bar bathroom after a particularly raucous night.

And now, after all my talk of a strong immune system, I am down and out. This baby-mutated super cold has moved into my head and chest and it has unpacked. It's here to stay. I look like rudolph but it's the wrong holiday!

Oh, well.  The joys of parenting. This is the first of many, I'm sure.

Here's our sick-a-face this week (pictures are limited due to the general fatigue of being sick):

Fishing for cats

This may be the cutest thing in the whole world

More fishing. Super concentrated on fishing.

Under the table, playing with stuff

Cute little kid in a big basket chair

:

10 Months: Who needs sleep?

There is something really powerful about this whole needing to procreate urge. Even after a week of some of the worst sleep I've had in 10 months, I saw a tiny newborn in the office on Friday and IMMEDIATELY wanted another baby. Miles still needs SO much attention and all of our energy is poured into helping him grow. I hated pumping. I was not too fond of what pregnancy did to my body. And yet, I see a wee one and I WANT, like a deep visceral WANT, another one. Good thing IUDs exist, amiright? It's weird too, because although I wanted a baby before we had Miles it was more an intellectual want as opposed to this... deep seated urge I've had as of late.

I don't know if you missed it in that last paragraph but I got some really, really bad sleep this week.  This lack of sleep left me heaving great giant sobs in the fetal position on the floor at 4am, covered in baby vomit, wishing for just one night by myself in a hotel room.  It got better after that.  Really, there's no where to go but up when you are staring at the proverbial bottom of that lack-of-sleep pit.

In other news, I've fallen in love.  With a house.  The benefit of following real estate trends in Baltimore is that I get a sense of what the market is like, I can now kind of predict when a house is priced at what it's worth or if it's too high or low, and I get a feeling for the neighborhoods our little family might move to in several years.  The downside to following the market is that sometimes I see a house that is PERFECT.  The right price point, a good number of bedrooms, a huge backyard, a nice kitchen, wrap around porch with a swing... ugh, I'm so in love.  Here's the listing: Dream House.  Lucas and Miles and I went to look at it today for the open house.  If we had been actually looking for a house we would have made an offer today.  I guess, at the very least, it gives me hope that there are some cool houses out there and I'll probably see them when we are in the market for a new home.

Miles is doing pretty well this week.  His walking is getting better and better.  We bought some cute new shoes for him so he'll be able to walk outside during the spring and summer.  He still falls a lot and he had a pretty bad fall in our living room this week and ended up with a decent bruise on his noggin.  Ah, the pains of being mobile.

Here's our little walking guy this week:

Fun with the iPad

Giggles!

"Hey Ladies, are you interested in some
pamphlets on menopause?"

Playing with the cat

We started brushing our teeth together after his bath.
Yeah, we're pretty cute.

Chillin' at the aquarium

Jelly tank

Up to his old shenanigans

He's less than 17 pounds but demands the entire bed

Sweet sleepy guy

Reggie is a pretty good cat.

Lunch!  I've perfected the half grilled cheese sandwich.

We got all fancied up for a gala last night.
Also, this is a ridiculous chair.

10 months: Little Punk Rocker

Miles went to his first punk rock show this week to see his dad play.  He was a little out of it because it was WAY past his bedtime but he seemed to like it.  Well, it's hard to say, he seemed... well, he didn't cry.  And after his dad was done playing he walked up to the stage and started bouncing and banging on it.  That's a good sign.  I like that our baby is well behaved enough to bring him out at night.  He did try to scavenge some food from a friend, but well, he's just preparing to live the punk rock, moocher, kind of life.

Our friend Melissa took this picture of me and Miles at the show.

Those upper front teeth are a nuisance.  He sometimes falls and hits his face (which is no different than usual) but his teeth cause bleeding!  I am really unnerved by blood in the mouth.  It makes me imagine the taste of blood which makes my skin crawl.  I'm also not good with loose teeth so I told Lucas he's in charge for that stage of childhood.  When I said I didn't like blood in the mouth Gramps Carscadden asked if I didn't like blood as a rule.  And I was all, "Do you know what I do for a living?  Blood is involved with delivering babies."  I do fine with flesh wounds.  It's teeth and broken bones that I don't want to deal with.

The little dude has reached the next stage of walking: he can stand up without holding on to anything.  He figured it out on Thursday, he gets his feet planted under him and pushes up with his legs, and he has proceeded to do it perfectly since then.  It's kind of funny to be sitting on the couch and watch his head disappear behind the coffee table as he falls and then see his head pop into the field of vision again.  This kid is moving too!  He just walks laps in our downstairs, circling the coffee table, looking outside, tormenting the cats, into the dining room and kitchen and back again.

With walking comes the ability to play with the cats.  Miles is finally earning his keep!  It only took 10 months!



When we thought about how Miles would grow and develop we kind of thought reaching certain milestones, like walking or talking, would be cut and dry.  One day he'll walk.  One day he'll say his first word, we thought.  But walking started with just one step and then falling down.  Now that's certainly not walking, but it's not not walking either, you know?  And his first word is "hi," but he uses it for more than saying hello.  He says it when he's excited or discovering something new.  So, is it his first word if he doesn't use it correctly?  The long and short of it is that we think that maybe Miles has probably started saying "Dada."  Maybe.

Here is some more of our little punker this week:

Talking and breathing into this tube is
one of his favorite things to do. Why we even
buy baby toys is a mystery.

Ever present kitty best friend.

You would not believe what the neighbors are doing.

I cried the whole way home from the store.
I'm a grump.

Lucas playing piano.
Miles is trying to be involved.

I wasn't doing anything, honest.

10 months

Walking? Yeah, my 10 month old walks.  Reliably.  He's even started using it as his main form of locomotion.  He pretty much uses crawling to get to a place where he can pull himself to standing so that he can continue walking.  He walks the entire length of our downstairs, around the coffee table, back into the dining room and over the lip up into the kitchen.  He's certainly not perfect at it, especially with shoes on, as his face can attest.  His face got in a fight with the brick sidewalk in Fells Point on Saturday.  Unfortunately the ground won.  It's pretty awesome carrying a child much too small to be walking down the sidewalk in a busy shopping area with blood pouring out of his mouth.  And by that I mean, "No, I didn't just backhand my child."  Here he is walking around his room.  Reggie is the black thing behind the shade:

Status of Miles' two front teeth: officially in.  I think he's going to take after me in terms of size of front teeth.  His are very wide, chiclet teeth, like mine.  But I love my smile, even though it took many years of orthodontia to achieve it.  Thanks, mom!

You know that feeding problem we've been struggling with over the last five months?  We might have fixed it with a very small and easy change.  We were lucky enough to be gifted an entire bottle system by a friend of my mother's.  With that bottle system came 20 or so four ounce bottles, four 10 ounce bottles, 40 nipples, two plastic handles so the baby can hold the bottle himself, and an entire electric pump and pump parts.  She also gave us rattles, baby spoons, and cages for washing all these small parts in the dishwasher.  Of the nipples she gave us, about half had one hole and half had four holes.  I didn't know this but the one hole "slow flow" nipples are really intended for newborns only and the four hole "fast flow" were intended for babies over 6 months.  We have tried the fast flow nipples with Miles a bunch of times but they're too fast; he comes up gagging and coughing and sputtering and won't take the bottle again.  Even if he is able to take the fast flow bottle in its entirety, he often swallows so much air with the liquid that he's bound to throw up at the end of the feed, essentially making the feed pointless.  So we had been sticking with the slow flow nipples.  Little did I know there were nipples with MEDIUM FLOW!  If I had had to buy any of these supplies myself I probably would have known this but Lucas and I have never needed to enter the bottle aisle of any baby section because we were set with supplies.  Medium flow nipples have totally changed the game.  Before the change Miles was taking approximately 16-18 ounces of fortified breast milk or concentrated formula.  After changing to medium flow nipples, Miles takes in on average 22-23 ounces a day and one day last week he took in 27!  TWENTY SEVEN OUNCES!!!  He's never taken in that much ever before.  One time he took in 28 ounces but he threw up large amounts twice that day!  He weighs in this coming Friday for his 10 month check up.  We'll see how much these nipples have changed the game.  The only downside to this increase in fluid is that he is taking in less solid food.  I think with time, once his belly gets used to this volume, he'll pick back up on the solid foods.

On the skill development front, Miles now points constantly, albeit a little aimlessly.  He also can flip the pages of a board book by himself.  He has been flipping the pages during story time for a long time but now he can kind of do story time himself.  And lastly, but not leastly, Miles has said his first word!  He likes to say it over and over and over again.  It's not "mama," it's not "dada."  It's not even "ball" or "cat" or "no."  He says "Hi!"  He says it when he first sees someone, like when I get home from work, or when he wakes up from a nap, or when he sees Reggie after he hasn't seen him for a while.  But he also says it when he's happy and just because.  Hopefully some other words will follow soon because "Hi" is getting a little old.

There are different types of parenting.  There are "helicopter" parents; ones who hover around their children to prevent them from falling or hurting themselves.  There are parents who are more laid back; a little bit of falling and bruising helps a child learn.  And then there's me.  Lucas says I'm the opposite of a helicopter parent.  He said this right after I said, "Let's see how far he can go" when Miles was crawling away while we were eating lunch on a sidewalk in our neighborhood.  I was also the one present when he fell down the stairs and when his face met the sidewalk this weekend.  I don't even think it's that I'm not paying attention.  It's almost purposeful neglect.  And by that I mean, I don't want to be the thing that prevents Miles from exploring his world in every way possible.  Unfortunately that means he'll explore his world with the taste of blood in his mouth at times.

Here are pictures of my precious independent baby boy this week:

Sometimes I lay in front of the baby gate
so you can't get through.

Frankie and Miles.  Whatever it is, they swear they didn't do it.

Just reading this book.

This weekend was downright beautiful.
Also, this is the sidewalk that broke Miles face.

Swim lessons!

Listen here. I've got something to add.

Gotcha!

You found me!

Sesame Street on the TV.

No really, how'd you get in there?

9 Months: Walking!

Look what Miles can do:

We think Miles is getting his front teeth in because, boy, has he been grumpy!  Whining left and right, sleeping for long naps, or alternately, barely sleeping at all.  Oh yeah, and when he's crying his little head off you get a great view of those white buds underneath his gums right up front.  It shouldn't be long now.
I had my first piano lesson this week.  I can now play "Ode to Joy," "Hot Cross Buns," and "Yankee Doodle." I'm really enjoying it so far.  I even like practicing scales!
We went to a swap last weekend at our friend Anna's house and picked up some pretty great used stuff from the other families.  We got lots of clothes and a great toy that now sits in our kitchen.  It's one of those cubes that has wires with beads on it and activities on each side.  Miles loves it.  That toy and the overalls were the best swaps we made.  We gave away some clothes that don't fit or we don't like.  I don't think anyone took any of our stuff but all the extras were going to a battered woman's shelter so I'm sure someone will be able to use his 3 or 6 month sized clothing.
It was really fun to get together with other parents and their kids.  Here's what I learned: 1. Miles is the cutest. (Of course). 2. We're doing a pretty good job of being parents. 3. I'm glad we don't have twin boys who are three years old. 4. Miles apparently resembles Linus from Peanuts.   5. Overalls are just so darn cute on babies.
Here's our little man this week:

This is my family. Frame-able!

I think that's everything.

Nope, there's still some more that needs to come out.

OVERALLS!!!!

Cutie-pie

Been up for 4 hours, swapping clothes.
Too tired to bounce.

No, really. I like to eat standing up.

Baby jail.

Brains! Braaaiiiins!

I'm on the most boring roller coaster ever.

Here's a video of the little guy movin' and groovin':

This is a pretty long video.  It's just a good representation of what it's like with Miles.  He's constantly on the move.