Ten Month Letter

Dear Gabriel,

You are now 10 months old. Time is flying by more quickly than I ever thought it could.

Since figuring out how to crawl last month, you are now pulling up to standing while holding on to furniture. Today I even saw you take a couple of little steps as you cruised along the couch. You’ll be running all over the place before I know it!

A couple of weeks ago we bit the surgery bullet and had tubes put in your ears. You were on antibiotics for the sixth time in six months, so we decided it was time to do something more aggressive about it. I had a little bit of anxiety about sending you away behind closed doors for a surgical procedure that required anesthesia, but when it came time for the procedure, I was really at peace about it. I know it was the right thing to do for you. The only bad thing about the whole thing was the half hour after the surgery when you were coming out of anesthesia. You really were not a fan of that feeling at all.

Since the surgery, it seems that you are sleeping better at night. Which means your days are a bit better as well. You are playing independently more and are less clingy and fussy overall. I should knock on wood now, because I know as soon as I say these things aloud, something will cause a set back.

We’ve been working on eating more table foods…you still have some texture issues, but you’re really happy when you can feed yourself. You’ve been eating a LOT of Cheerios lately because you love being able to pick them up and put them in your mouth. We also realized that you like French fries, so we’ve let you eat some roasted potato pieces. We’re going to try sweet potato fries and cooked carrots soon.

We started supplementing some of your liquid nutrition with formula this week. I gave myself permission to stop working so hard to pump enough milk for you to have breast milk all day at daycare. The pumping routine takes a lot of dedication, and I found that I was having trouble staying committed to it. The plan is to keep nursing in the morning and at bedtime, but to have formula bottles during the day. I think making it to 10 months without any formula is an amazing accomplishment for the two of us considering that I was worried that you wouldn’t ever nurse properly before the tongue tie was fixed. I am so glad that I stuck with it and provided you with breast milk for almost a year!

You haven’t really picked up any new syllables, but you’ve been playing with spitting sounds lately. And you do this funny thing where you suck your lips in around your gums and then exhale strongly a few times through your nose. Oh and you do this other funny thing with your mouth where you kind of suck your lips around your gums while you babble. It kind of makes it look like you have a beak or something.

You’re just growing so fast. It seems like it’s all happening so fast! At night while I rock you before bedtime, I just stare at your sweet face and try to hold these moments in my heart. I breathe you in and let your existence fill my heart and my soul. It could have been a terrible day in every other respect, but holding your sleeping little body in my arms can heal all of the day’s damage.

You’re like magic.

Love,

mama

Easter 2012

Aunt Joanah took photos of Gabriel and his cousin Will on Easter Sunday.
Thank you JoJo!

Yoga, Spoons, Laughing, and Surgery

We've been trying out bathtub yoga.

We've also been trying to hold the spoon.

And we've been laughing a lot.

And tomorrow we're having surgery to put tubes in the ears. Hopefully we'll have many fewer ear infections after that!

Various Updates

At G's 9 month well-check appointment, he was:
weight: 21 pounds 12 ounces (70%)
height: 29 1/4 inches (80%)
head circ: 47 cm (90%)

Topic 1: Mobility
Gabriel is crawling very well now. He can get into anything he wants to. He pulled all the DVDs off Grammaw's shelves. He's pulling up onto his knees really well now, too. And today, while holding onto mama, he managed to stand up. I'm not sure he could have done it without the little bit of help I gave him, but I imagine he'll do that on his own soon.

Topic 2: Family Outings
We took Gabriel to the park last Saturday to help celebrate his cousin Blake's birthday. He loves being outside, so this was a good day for him. He also got to try out the swings!

Topic 3: Ears
This little monkey has been fairly plagued by ear infections. He has been on 5 rounds of antibiotics since November. So, today we met with an ENT to discuss what we should do about it. The doctor could see some fluid in each ear, and a hearing exam confirmed that the fluid is preventing his ear drums from vibrating quite as well as they should. He has some very minor hearing loss from that. That in itself is not too concerning, so we are not pursuing PE tubes immediately. We settled on a moderate approach of checking his ears again in a month to see if his body naturally resolves the fluid in his ears. We're also keeping in mind that we are coming out of cold season, so hopefully his likelihood of ear infection is decreasing. If he still has the fluid in a month or so or if he gets another ear infection in the next two months, we will most likely choose to be more aggressive and have surgery to put in tubes. I just want him to stop getting these back to back to back infections that we can't seem to get rid of. Whatever that takes.

Crawling!

He did it!

Crawling, Day 1

Crawling, Day 2

Crawling, Day 3

It's a whole new world. For baby. For mom and dad. For the cats.

Nine Month Letter

Dear Gabriel,

You are 9. Months. Old. !!!!

I truly thought you were trying to make your mama into a big liar this month. I kept saying you were going to be crawling any day now…any day now…any day now…and you kept getting up on your hands and knees, and rocking back and forth, and reaching for something in front of you, and then sitting back up. Last Friday your dad and I were watching you do this over and over again when I turned to him and said, “I know it will open up a whole new set of problems, but I want him [Gabriel] to crawl SO BAD.” And then within half an hour, you did it.

You finally figured out how to put your little gears into forward…and now you are getting into everything imaginable. Seriously. It’s a whole new world for you now, and you want to put your hands (and your mouth) on all of it.

You’re also working on ‘g’ and ‘k’ sounds when you babble. You’ve had ‘m’ and ‘d’ and ‘n’ and ‘b’ for a little while. You repeat ma-ma-ma, da-da-da, na-na-na, and ba-ba-ba all the time. None of your sounds seem to have meaning yet, but we’re trying to get you to associate mama and dada with your parents.

These developmental milestones are accompanied, unfortunately, by yet another ear infection. You were given your fifth round of antibiotics last week, and when those weren’t cutting it, you got antibiotic shots in your little thighs. We’re calling the ENT on Monday to make an appointment to talk about PE tubes. I hate that you keep getting sick!

I started trying to introduce a few finger foods to you, but you aren’t very keen on the textures right now. I tried some beans, a banana, some peaches, and some pears. You make an ugly face and spit it right back out. I found out today that you like wheat bread a lot, though. So…we’ll start from there.

No new teeth...still just the bottom two. Your hair grows fast, though. You’ve had three haircuts in your short nine months. The most recent one was at a children’s hair cut place. A professional cut! I really should learn to do it myself since after only a week and a half your hair is already starting to grow over your ears. Good grief.

We’ll get official height and weight measurements at your well check this coming week, but I know you’re at least 21 pounds now. You’re wearing 12-month clothes very well and will probably outgrow them sooner than I want you to.

You’re my amazing little boy.

I love you,

mama

Camera found!

The camera was located under Grammaw's guest room bed. Somebody (me) let it roll under there last time we stayed the night. Whoops.

In the meantime, Monkey got his first pair of soft-soled shoes. They are, of course, monkeys. He's not walking, but he spends time in the jumper or the walker on the sidewalk...and it was starting to tear up his socks.

We also got our first haircut at a kids' cut place. He was looking pretty shaggy.

But now he's extra handsome.

The woman who cut his hair had a hard time believing he was on his third haircut and only 8 months old. I told her he was born with enough hair for an adult. And also, please take care of his hair helmet.

She did a great job. :)