10 Months Old!

Cormac has been on fast forward with his development this past month. He has hit so many milestones, he is like a completely different baby compared to last month! Mac is an expert crawler now. He usually crawls with one knee on the ground and the other foot on the ground, keeping his leg straight. He can now easily get from laying down to sitting to crawling and any position in between. Not only that, but he has also started to pull up to standing on anything he can get a hold of. With his new found mobility, he is into anything and everything around the house. Favorites include; the fireplace, the dishwasher, the dog bowl, the toilet paper in the bathrooom, cords of any kind, outlets, James' train table and any toy that is roughly the size of his airway. He tires of all of his baby toys in about 3 seconds flat, throws them down and takes off to find something more exciting. 

With Mac's increased mobility, James has quickly learned what it is like to have a younger brother that isn't just a cute blob anymore. James is constantly trying to divert Mac from destroying his Lego and block creations, eating his trains, and going for whatever toy James is currently trying to play with. After hearing me say it once, a common phrase heard from James the past few days is, "Macky, find a more age appropriate toy!" Although James has his moments of frustration with Mac, he is still for the most part completely enamoured with his little brother. He still loves to give him hugs and kisses and tells him constantly that he loves him.

Mac is an eating machine. He typically eats diced up fresh fruit for breakfast with cottage cheese or egg and toast, or with a homemade cottage cheese pancake. Lunch is a yogurt and some crackers or Cheerios. He has recently finished up all of the purees I made and so now he is also getting all table foods at dinner as well. He still nurses quite a few times during the day and before he goes down for naps or for the night and I do not see this changing anytime soon.

Another huge milestone Mac has hit this month is his sleep is finally under control. He typically goes to bed between 7-8 pm and will usually sleep until about 4-5am, wake and nurse briefly and then go back to bed until 6:30am when he is up for the day. He hardly nurses at all when he wakes up that one time, so I think he can easily go without it, but he seems to still need that comfort for now. He takes 2 naps a day, one around 9am for about 1-1/2 hours and one at around 2 pm for about an hour. He can also now easily be kept up past his bedtime and remain happy, which is great since we hate being tied to the house for a strict bedtime, especially during the summer.

Another big change for Macky in the last month is he has finally started to babble consonant sounds. He still prefers just blowing raspberries, but he has definitely found his voice and loves to babble and shriek when he is excited.

 Mac is working on his 6th tooth, so he now has almost 4 on top and 2 on bottom. I don't think the next 2 on the bottom are far behind, so we aren't getting much of a break from teething. He is a pretty happy teether for the most part, but he has had a couple of hard days where the only thing that has made him feel better is frozen bananas in the mesh feeder and nursing about 5 times more than normal.

The final milestone that Mac has hit just in the last couple of days is learning how to clap. He has only done it a handful of times, but he can definitely clap and has always done it while watching James be silly. He will sit and watch James and flap his little arms, spin around in circles and start to clap.

Being able to move where he wants to go has improved his mood greatly since last month, which I am so thankful for. While he would still prefer to be held by me at all times, he also likes to be on the go (as long as I am always within his sight). Macky is still our happy, smiley baby that we love so much and we can not believe how rapidly he is approaching the 1 year mark. Slow down baby boy!