10 month update

I cannot believe that Zane is 10 months old tomorrow ( I am posting this tonight because I have to work tomorrow).I say that every month, but time is flying by and he is getting so big and independent. Zane is 100% busier than he was a month ago. He is crawls wherever he wants to go, pulls ups, cruises around, and is into everything. Sounds just like a 10 month old, right. Before Zane had surgery people who had known kids with the same kind of condition had told us "just wait until he gets his repair, he will become a little spit fire with all his new found energy." I didn't believe this at the time because I never really thought he was that tired or "without energy" before his repair. However, over the past couple weeks this has really begun to ring true. He also seems completely fearless and not in the least bit cautious. I feel like he has the attitude /personality of a middle child, though I am quite certain he doesn't have any sibling.

Zane thinks he can walk, but in no way can by himself, which leads to a  lot of bonks on the head as of late. He can get from the couch to the coffee table if he really puts his mind to it. He will walk if we hold his hands, but of course would rather crawl ( it's so much faster for heavens sake). His new found ability of getting from sitting to standing quickly has led to many new things to play with and destroy. He can pull things off the coffee table, which leads to hours of fun of tearing up magazines. He can stand up by the couch, drooling on it and trying to climb it, he can get to standing in his crib with ease ( helping to keep him awake), and is enjoying his activity table he got for Christmas much more now that he can stand and play with it.

As far as looks go Zane is his normal adorable self only bigger. He seems very tall and skinny to me, though he is quite heavy. His hair is starting to look more yellow instead of pure white, which makes him look older some how. His facial expressions are all Zach. He has Zach's 'concentration' face when he is examining things and his big smile is purely from his dad. It is unbelievably cute. Also, as you can see in this picture his scar has almost completely faded. The very top of it is still a little redder than the rest of it, but it is amazing how much it has faded over the past 6 months. His soft spot is also much smaller, which I know is a complete neurology nurse thing to keep track of, but I assess it, by habit, on a daily basis.

 An area where Zane has taken a few steps backwards is his eating table food. If I had written this a week ago I would have said that Zane eats everything in sight and totally enjoys feeding himself any sort of finger food or small bite of food I give him. However, over the past week Zane has decided to be a picky eater, much to my annoyance. I feel like somehow I should be teaching him a lesson that he has to eat what he is given, but I don't think he is grasping that concept at all. He still loves putting food in his mouth, but he also enjoys spitting it out just as much. He also loves throwing his food or just hitting it until it is are all over his high chair tray. I do think he has developed a sweet tooth, possibly because he had his first bites of ice cream this month, so he will usually eat yogurt and apple sauce without complaint. I tried to tell him man cannot live on yogurt and apple sauce a lone, or can he??

We have recently started trying to get him to drink out of his sippy cup more, in preparation for the end of formula, which also isn't going to well. I bought new sippy cups that actually don't leak, but he can't seem to figure out how to use them properly. He will chew on it like a teething toy and loves the sound the water makes in it, but doesn't really drink out of it per say. He does still drink out of the ones that have the nipple top, maybe I should just stop fighting it and let him drink out of that. Pretty sure he had his first taste of juice this past month when Grandma Blakley was here, purely to get things moving along, and of course he thoroughly enjoyed it. Hopefully we make a lot of progress in the eating and drinking area over the next two months. We welcome suggestions.

 Zane has grown up in other ways as well. He rarely sleeps with his binki anymore, though still needs his blanket. Sometimes he does fall asleep while using a binki, but promptly spits it out after he falls asleep. He does still find it very entertaining to throw it out of his crib when he is suppose to be sleeping. It is uncanny how he can throw his binkis down to the exact same spot every time. Silly boy! Sleeping is a complete crap shoot with Zane. I would say he sleeps through the night the majority of the time, however on the nights when he gets up he is up for far too long (Sunday night 2 hours). He rolls around, kicking the walls, until he is comfy, leading to some adorable sleeping positions like this one where his little bottom was fully in the air, so precious.

I feel his play has changed a little this month as well. He now plays with multiple things at once, hitting his maraca against his ball, or taking his ball and putting it in the clothes hamper. Oh and he loves the clothes hamper, specifically loves taking out the folded clothes and playing with them ( which is not frustrating at all ). He is much more into pulling things out of drawers (i.e. DVDs) and off the book case. He did find his books the other day and proceeded to pull them all down and take inventory of everything.

Zane's favorite things still remain his mommy and daddy, lucky for us. There is no better feeling in the world than seeing the look of pure joy and love on the face of your baby when you get home from a long day at work. Yesterday when I got home he was sitting on the kitchen floor "helping" with the dishes and when I walked in the door he furiously crawled to me with a look of unbelievable excitement on his face and I melted. We are so blessed. He is an amazing little guy, learning and growing so much before our eyes. I continue to pray for patience and I am trying to soak in each day and each new stage. Happy 10 month B-Day Little Man!