the littlest carscadden: 10 Months!

We knew so much great stuff was on the horizon, so we skipped a 9 month update.

I was not home for half the month in January. I went on two work trips to Wisconsin and a family trip to Colorado. We got to visit with Frankie, Billie, Julie, and Mike!

Miles has started calling us Mom and Dad (moving away from Mama and Daddy). This makes me a bit sad, that his toddler years, his youngest years, are drifting away. Miles is almost five! A couple months and he's five! School has been challenging for Miles this month. We're going to try to figure out some strategies so he enjoys it more and gets along better in the classroom.

Will has started to move so much. He can stand independently, climb up stairs, stand up from sitting without holding on to anything, and cruise along the furniture with skill. He's started taking several steps independently... he's walking! Still unsteady, but walking. It's very interesting to see a kid learn to walk with the added challenge of being knocked over by his exuberant big brother! Will has started throwing things, he has quite the arm. He's a serious baby, often takes time to warm up in new situations, but once he does, it is impossible to hold him, he's on the go. He wants what he wants and we're doing our best to set limits.

My frozen milk supply is quickly dwindling. Will probably uses 4-6 ounces of frozen milk a day. That is, I'm not pumping enough at work to replace what he eats. I am happy to have made it to 10 months without needing to break into our free formula stash (formula companies send free samples to every pregnant woman!). I did give away 100 ounces of frozen milk when I was still on maternity leave. I gave it to someone online who was having supply issues. If I hadn't done that, we would probably have made it one year without needing to supplement with formula. I'm not super upset but I had this vision of everything going perfectly this time and Will not needing ANY formula until 1 year when he could take whole milk. It just cements for me that breastfeeding and working full time don't work very well together.

Will has 7 teeth, four on top and three on the bottom. He eats well. He's growing fast. At his nine month visit he was 21 3/4 lbs and 28 1/4 inches (81%ile and 42%ile respectively). We're looking forward to the spring and summer so we can get him and Miles out of the house more often. The few nice days we've had have been so refreshing for all of us.

Here are our family pictures for the last two months: