Happy 10 month Birthday, Carter!

 

Carter has gone into hyperactive mode this month. After discovering he can crawl and cruise, he just. can’t. get. enough. He can’t sit in a stationary stroller and in his high chair for more than 10 minutes without trying to scramble out. When he’s out, he just scrambles everywhere like “he’s got ants in his pants”, as Chris pointed out. My biceps and forearms are perpetually sore from holding him back and/or pulling him back to me.

Tiring!!

I can’t help but remember how utterly docile and obliging Hunter was at this age… simply just sitting there whilst I had long lazy lunches with my friends. To be fair, Carter does do this too, but not 100% of the time like Hunter did! It makes me fear when he starts walking properly on his own…. man.

 

He’s tipping the scales at around 11KG or so. If you’ve seen him in real life, I guess you’d think he was about 1 year old… most strangers do. He’s hefty, he’s solid, and he makes my arms ache when I carry him!

But the point is, he’s healthy and growing well. He’s at the top percentile for both weight and height, but I’m hoping his weight does come down to average once he starts walking (like Hunter did), so we don’t end up with some overweight kid on our hands..

 

Still doing most of his poos in his potty. He will poo in his potty almost 100% of the time when he’s at home (and he normally poos at night after dinner, so we are almost always at home). But if he needs to go during the day when I’m out, he’ll go in his diaper since I don’t carry a portable potty with me – oops. Will also do pee in his potty with around 90% success rate, but if he’s not plonked on the potty he’s perfectly happy peeing in his diaper.

 

Carter was also baptized this month, which was a very special and meaningful occasion. And thankfully, he did very well, with no crying! He just looked at the pastor with wide surprised eyes the whole time 😉

 

• EATING – I dropped his afternoon feed a few weeks ago, because he now refuses to breastfeed outside. He gets waaaay too distracted and it’s simply impossible! And recently, I dropped his 10PM dream feed too. This means he lasts 12 hours overnight without a feed. I thought he’d have trouble dropping the dream feed, but nope, he never cared. So this means I’m now down to 2x/day breastfeeding, first thing in the morning and last thing before his bedtime. I’ll keep this up til he turns 1 year old.
  He now RELISHES his solids like a starving animal. And he just wants to eat allllll the time. He’s starting to get really disinterested/rejecting baby puree… and wants chunky baby food (that I steam but don’t blend) or food straight off our plates. It’s such a delight to see!!!! He actually goes FRANTIC when he spots us eating when he’s not. So I always need to have a tub of snacks to sate him, or be prepared to give him food off my plate. He has zero teeth but has managed to eat beef, chicken, fish, pasta, rice, etc etc…. straight off our plate. Oddly though, he only wants food placed in his mouth and refuses to hold it to eat (ie. chewing on a chicken wing, or holding a long strip of meat).

 

• SLEEPING – Naps 3x/day… still. Really unusual as most babies by now have dropped down to 2 naps. Doesn’t really affect me and he’s good with napping most of the time, so whatever.
  And… we kicked him out into his own bedroom!!!! By ‘bedroom’, I mean really dull storeroom with tons of boxes and crap piled to the ceiling. Mum reckons we’re mean cos it casts shadows everywhere and scares babies…. she probably has a point 😉 But, we had to kick him out because he was waking up 4+ times a night. The night we kicked him out, and from then on, he’s slept WAY better! I think he’s just like Hunter, who needs his own quiet room and privacy before he’ll sleep. He does have an annoying habit of waking up at around the 3-4am mark, demanding his pacifier. Unbelievably annoying because whilst it only takes a few seconds to stuff it in his mouth and he’ll fall asleep again, it still means we have to get up to do it. Do it yourself, Carter, you lazy ass!!

• PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT – We have on our hands a climber. He has no sense of danger and is game for anything. I don’t even know how he manages to scrambled up stuff! He cruises easily and can stand unassisted for about 5-8 seconds. He does this when he’s holding on to a toy though, because then he feels the security of holding onto something. Nothing that impressive though because it’s not like he’s doing it all the time and knowingly doing it, but still fun for us to see.
  I’m not sure if his hand-to-eye coordination (ie. picking a small piece of food off a plate and bringing it to the mouth to eat) is average for a boy infant, or poor. But I’ve noticed that for small pieces of food, he’ll pick it up with the pincer grip, but drop it just as he’s putting it in his mouth. No problem at all when it comes to larger sized food though. Also made me realise that Hunter was really advanced with hand-to-eye coordination as he could easily do all this by the time he was 8 months old.
  He now drinks water from a straw cup. Still has his milk from a teat bottle but I’ll change that to a regular cup once he’s 12 months old, like Hunter did.

 

 

• SPEECH DEVELOPMENT – Been saying “Dada” for maybe 2 months or so now. And pretty much babbles that constantly when he’s awake.. at various intonations, as if he’s having a real conversation 😉 Will say “Mama” to me when he’s particularly desperate (ie. for boob), but otherwise calls everyone and anything “dada”. Far more vocal and chatty than Hunter was at this age.

 

Hunter has polarized into a love/hate relationship with Carter. He’ll always ask me “Mama, where’s Carter gone now?” and delights in saying Good Morning to him every day. He has a special big-brother power to make the little one gurgle and scream with glee! But.. he’s starting to realise Carter is an actual person now, especially since he’s now so active and stands upright. He gets really annoyed when Carter stands at the train table and slaps the trains around or throws the tracks off. We have to keep reminding him all the toys are “for BOTH Hunter and Carter”, but it’s like in one ear and out the other!!

But more often than not, they are incredibly cute together and I don’t even think Hunter realises there was a life pre-Carter. That’s the benefit of having kids so closely aged 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 10 months, baby wombat! Only 2 more months til you turn 1 year old. Oh my. You are SUCH an easy-going and happy baby to look after… you delight everyone around with your big fat happy grins. I love how you only fuss if you’re tired or hungry, and you’re otherwise happy to just be. I often find myself lost in your bright but soulful dark eyes and you still have your special smile and special cuddle for me.. which melts me into a puddle every single time. I love how you always make all of us laugh with your silly antics and happy giggles! I just love YOU 🙂

 

This video never fails to make me giggle myself!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LL44eM2Eo3M&feature=share

 

Compare with Hunter at Month 9-10 here.

 

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