11 months of Theo (almost a full 12!)

Two of my favorite shots from this past month. Hard to believe that cute, naked butt is 11 (well, almost 12 months) old but he is. The shot on the left was taken amidst a rough patch of being sick. The pucker is not one of kisses, but the pre curser to an unhappy wail. Alas, without context, it looks really cute!

Theo has grown leaps and bounds this month. The biggest developments:

• Teeth! He's got 4 on top and 2 on the bottom. Man those things are sharp

• Food - The boy eats, eats, and eats some more. The best thing is he will eat whatever I put in front of him and wants to feed it to himself. No ifs, ands or butts. I can't tell you how magical and easy this makes dinner time. I also feel license to be more creative with food for him. I just wish I had had the same attitude with Sophia. Live & learn...maybe she'll pick up some of little brother's habits?

• Mobility - He is scooting his little heart out and boy can he cover ground (much to Sophia's dismay.) He loves getting into her puzzles and towers which offers some entertaining moments and clear moments of sibling mangling...

Smooches! 

He tries to pull up a little, but doesn't have much interest in it. We'll get there. Standing is fun if someone props him up and there is a magazine he can tear at.

He still doesn't put the effort into rolling from back to front. When I go in to his room in the morning, he's generally still laying in the exact same spot I left him about 11 hours before. With the blankets nestled on him and looking adorable. Once this past week he clearly rolled because he was sitting up quite bothered that no one was around to play with him. So he CAN do it, he just chooses not to.

• Games - he's all about peak a boo and getting better about finding his nose when you ask him. (We generally settle for the generic nose/mouth area.)
• Sleep - still sleeping up a storm. He's been sleeping later in the morning which pushes the whole schedule even later throughout the day. I think that morning nap will be deleted in the not too distant future (2-3 months) so we can actually get out of the house as a family on weekends.

My little man is getting so big! He gives the best sloppy wet kisses, snuggles down on me when he's really sleepy and has such a full belly laugh that it's infectious. I'm so lucky.

How are you? 

Who, me??

Update on the Kids - part 2 - Theo

Somehow, my little man has been around for 10 months now. It's pretty amazing how much he has grown and how much his personality is starting to develop.
Some highlights:

• After months of backing into things, he has learned his own "creative" method of crawling forward. He is now fully mobile and getting into everything, including Sophia's toys. Should be a really interesting next 6 months. 
• He has 1.5 teeth (going on 4!) the bottom left tooth came through earlier this month, with the right one about to break any day now (poor guy). He is handling it like a trooper though. 
• Food - there isn't anything he won't eat. While he's not great at actually feeding himself (he'll pick things up but generally just flings it) he has yet to refuse anything we've offered - from his packets of food through stuff off our plate. Avocado is one his favorites as well as Grandma's applesauce, yogurt, turkey, cheese, sweet potato, scrambled eggs, tzatki sauce and bread. 
• Sounds - he makes lots of Dadada & mamamama and lights up when we come into the room. He also has quite a lot to "say" when he's in the mood. So very cute. 
• Personality - he is coming into such a little personality. He makes eye contact very well and will smile at new people, then duck his head shyly when they start to talk to him. But he just bats those big blue eyes...He also is fully into playing - with his toys or Sophia's. He can sit and play by himself for quite some time. But he makes it known that he's unhappy if we leave him for a few moments to go to another room. At least now, with his mobility, he's able to follow along. 
• He's pulling up on tables & chairs, though not able to get to standing just yet. 
• Anything Sophia does is entertaining - the crazier, the better. He'll just laugh his butt off at her shenanigans...I'm in for it! 

Theo is by far the happiest, snuggliest little guy. He's easy going and still a great sleeper & eater. We're so lucky to get to see his smiling face every day!

10 Months - how big? Sooo big!

Today is Sophia's 10 month birthday. I honestly can't believe it's September already. She has changed so much over the summer. To look back at the photos when we first got to Newport on Memorial Day and to look at today - what a difference!!

No doctor's appointment this month, but she is definitely gaining weight. With all the tasty "solids" she eats, how can she not? Besides loving most every fruit, we recently started cheese, homemade turkey meatballs, scrambled egg yolk with pasta and olive oil, mashed potatoes, broccoli & cheese balls, pieces of turkey from my sandwich - well, anything from what I'm eating she will generally try - as evidence, her first bite of lobster from my lobster roll yesterday! She loved it.

On the locomotion front, she is figuring out forward crawling, but would much rather work on her standing. She gets all over the floor, wherever she needs to go, but it is in a crawl, sit, scoot & full layout combination that is adorable. Here is a quick video of her working on standing:



She is up to 5 teeth now - her latest came in this weekend - upper right incisor. It always takes me a bit to realize that she is teething. But I'm catching on. She's been a good sport about them. She actually chewed one of her puffs with her two front teeth the other day - it was so cool to watch! We also started brushing her teeth and gums. No cavities here!

Finally, her newest trick is clapping. She does this when she gets really excited or is proud of herself for accomplishing something new. My favorite clapping incident happened today in the car - I guess I took a corner at a decent rate of speed and from the back seat I hear her squealing with delight and clapping! When I looked back in the mirror, she had a big smile.

I guess my daughter has the need for speed. Hmm, wonder where she gets that from???

The Elusive Tooth makes an appearance

After close to 6 weeks, we finally have a tooth sighting. Maybe "sighting" is a strong word, being that Sophia's tongue is the ultimate gate keeper, "feeling" might be a better option.

The teething experience has been quite an interesting one. Over the past month and a half, Sophia will have a random wake up once a week/10 days in which she is fairly inconsolable and appears to be in pain. After bouncing, rocking, singing and nursing attempts fail, we end up deducing that it is teething pain and give her a dose of Tylenol. She generally settles back down to sleep and is a happy camper in the morning. But until this morning, there has been no sign of the tooth actually breaking through. Here's a picture that sums it all up though:



I've felt a rise in her bottom gumline for at least the past 3-4 weeks and have just been waiting for that little bugger to poke through. At times, I though I was being neurotic about the teething and that it must be something else that was bugging her (who knows what else??). My mom swears by giving her the good, crusty end of a loaf Italian bread (referred to in our house as the coolie). She said it worked like magic for getting my teeth to pop out. It was on my list to pick up at the grocery store for Monday, but looks like we won't need it! (at least for this time around...)

Sophia went down to bed fairly easily last night (we took her with us to a sailing dinner so she could meet all of Dave's boatmates and friends) and so by the time we got home, she was ready to sleep. About 2 hours later, though, she woke up screaming. I wasn't sure what had caused her to stir, but thought she might settle back down after a few minutes. I quickly realized there was no settling after Dave picked her up and she got even higher pitched. When I lightly touched her bottom gums she about jumped out of Dave's arms, the poor thing!! I gave her a dose of Tylenol (well, the generic kind because of the recall) and let her nurse for awhile to head back to sleep.
When she woke in the morning, she let me feel her gums and low and behold, we had the ridge of the tooth poking out. Hooray!! Now - how long till this little guy is all the way out, I'm not sure. Hopefully it's quick. 1 down, 19 more baby teeth to go.