The Big 10

More often than not, as I'm writing my monthly updates on Nico, I get teary eyed at some point. This would be one of those updates. He's growing up so fast!!!! Month 10 has brought the most changes so far from eating to sleeping to mobility. Basically everything has changed a lot... for the better, ofcourse! Every day is a new day!

The stats: Somewhere around 20 lbs and 30 inches long.

The clothes: 12 month clothes! Size 3 diapers. Lives in t-shirts and athletic shorts.

The schedule: Same as last month for the most part. He has started waking up earlier. Booooo! Half of the mornings he'll get up at 6, the other half it'll be more like 630-645. BUT.... drumroll please.... he's been sleeping through the night for 90% of the past 2-3 weeks :)  He naps 1 1/2 to 2 hours both in the morning and the afternoon. Drinks four 6-7 oz bottles/day and eats 3 solid food meals/day.

The appetite: He's moved onto real food! He eats very little baby food now. Sometimes he rejects us trying to feed us with a spoon, since he's a big boy now and can eat finger foods all by himself! Fav breakfasts: pancakes, little french toast bites, fruit (especially bananas), yogurt bites made for babies, cheerios. Fav lunches/dinners: pasta noodles, chicken, burgers, turkey burgers, green beans, peas, carrots, apples, bananas, potatoes.

New things/milestones:

• Stands unsupported! I've seen him stand up in the middle of the room all by himself a few times, but usually he will pull up onto furniture and then let go.

• Drinks good from a sippy cup and holds his own bottles. Here he is drinking his bottle all by himself in the car...

• Cruises while holding onto furniture.
• Sleeps through the night consistently! (Yes, it was worth mentioning again!)
• He can play catch! He's really good at throwing a ball to you when you're 3-4 feet away. It's now looking like he's gonna be a righty.
• Has responded to "no" on occasion. Usually we just get that cute, little, sh*tty grin. He has shown signs that he is aware of our disapproval.
• Imitates us on a new level with different faces and noises. The recent fun one has been him learning to imitate kissing and make that noise. Today I was smacking my gum (David's top pet peeve) and he started making that noise. I've got a great little sidekick now. He still claps and flaps his arms all the time, and usually will do so whenever I say "yayyyyy!" He always looks so proud.
• He gets pouty sometimes when he doesn't get his way. (David says he has my personality.) This usually occurs when he's crawling and getting into something he shouldn't, and you move him. Or when he's being clingy and one of us leaves the room.

The best way to describe him is still smiley, full of laughter, and happy! He has such a fun personality. Wonder if this is indicative of how he'll be when he's older? He cracks us up on a daily basis. He can be a little shit though too. He's very relentless and will keep playing until he is so tired that he can't hold himself up anymore. He also will make noises back and forth with you and get louder and louder. He likes attention! He's extra happy when food is on his highchair tray and when he's around other kids or outside.




The new fav things: a) Jessica says...  twice in the past few weeks, he has been so sleepy that he put his head on my shoulder and his left thumb in his mouth when I picked him up.  Love those little moments.  b) David says... when you go in to get him in the morning and he's standing up and it sounds like he's saying, "hey!"  + playing catch with him with a baseball for the first time.

The fav toys: throwing/rolling balls, banging little blocks/toys together. Half of the time he's not interested in his toys... he's too busy trying to explore things we want him to stay away from! If we have him in the playroom though, he will be good about entertaining himself for a while. He has started to actually play with toys now, rather than just want to put everything in his mouth.

 

If this doesn't say mischievious, I don't know what does.


 




 

I love our little family.

A fun week for us

David has always been such a huge Dave Matthew's Band fan, so whenever it's concert day, it's always a big event for us. We usually get seats within the first few rows because we have the hook-up from one of David's friends! Nico had a sleep over with Dave and Cindy, so we got to be kidless party animals alllllll day!

We have been Top Golfin on a weekly basis, now that I have my new clubs and a glimmer of hope that I may be golf course ready with a little more practice. Golf is definitely one of the most frustrating things I've ever done. Just when I am feeling good and think I know what I'm doing, I have a horrible shot that makes me want to snap my club over my leg!

Nico made his first Top Golf appearance too...

We celebrated our third anniversary this week! David completely surprised me and made dinner reservations at Rick's in downtown McKinney on our actual anniversary, Wednesday! I got home from work, and my mom was at our house to watch Nico. I was VERY surprised since it was MY year to plan! (I actually had plans to go to a nice restaurant Friday, but that idea was obviously thrown out the window). I am totally spoiled by David on an almost daily basis. I'm a very lucky girl to have such a great husband... and he's an ever cuter dad.

While the weather is still nice, we also took advantage of a patio this past Friday, and went to Grimaldi's. I know it seems like all we do is eat! So I gotta brag, Nico is SO good whenever we take him out! He just hangs out, eats, and likes to watch people. Here he is flirting with a girl next to our table.

Well that just about sums up our last week! It was a good one. Life couldn't get much better.

Photo shoot time

One of our good family friends, Mark Myers, has gotten into photography and volunteered to take some pics of Nico! We met up with him at a park in Frisco a few weeks ago. Here are some of my favorites.

My First Mother's Day

I couldn't ask for a better Mother's Day gift than having the privilege of being Nico's mom.

Although, he did spoil me with a pretty awesome gift...

David and I have been playing a lot of Top Golf, and it is my new addiction! I have been using my grandpa's clubs and since I'm so horrible, I could really use some girly ones. They are more my size and make it easier to hit the ball with the bigger club heads. (I'm sinking to an ultimate low with needing girl-specific sports equipment!!) So we already went out and gave them a try, and I was able to drive the ball much further and easier!

My Mother's Day weekend was a really good one! We had dinner with Dave and Cindy on Saturday, and dinner with my parents on Sunday. We just had an overall nice, relaxing weekend. It was perfect.

The night ended with some playtime with this guy. His new favorite hobby is pulling off all of the books from the top of the bookshelf, one by one. I could just sit and stare at him for hours.

I definitely have a new perspective now that I am a mom, and I appreciate my mom even more. She's the greatest. Thank you for everything, Mom. I can only hope that someday down the road when he's all grown up, that Nico will want to call me every day, hang out with me on a regular basis, and think that I'm the greatest mom too.

9 months old!

Well another month has passed us by and sweet, little Nico is 9 months old!



His 9 month checkup went well. He is hitting all of his milestones and developing great. Just what we like to hear. No fun news to report other than that he did have thrush in his mouth which apparently is some fungus that babies commonly get. And as of today, he has a potential yeast infection in his private area too. It's always something. He's on an oral medicine and a cream for those.

And here's the usual monthly update...

The stats: Weight: 19 lbs, 15 oz (38%)
                        Height: 29 inches (71%)
              
The clothes: Size 3 diapers. Wearing 9 and 12 month outfits. Less onesies and more shirts/shorts combos.

The schedule: It's fairly consistent. Wakes up 630-7ish and has a bottle. Breakfast at 8. Naptime 10-12. Lunch at noon. Naptime 2-4. Dinner at 6. Bedtime 7-730. He starts scratching his eyes and sucking his thumb by 7 most nights!

The sleeping: He still gets up in the night. Yes, every single night. Thankfully, David took over the middle of the night shift. He's the BEST! We have encouraged a bad habit by continuing to feed him in the middle of the night. It's a horrible habit we are encouraging but before you judge, let me tell you our reasoning...  So even though it's the middle of the night, it's been 8 HOURS by the time 3 a.m. rolls around, since he goes to bed so early. And get this. he actually drinks 4-6 oz at that time. Very weird. So it's hard to let him cry it out when you know he would easily down a full bottle. Plus, his weight is only in the 38% so you can't help but want to feed the little guy.

The appetite: Pureed veggies/fruits/meats with recent addition of pastas! He is most definitely NOT a picky eater. We've done a few real foods like turkey burger, pancakes, peas, and bananas. He snacks on little cheeto looking things and loves them.

 

So this was finally the month that I gave in and stopped breastfeeding.... *gasp!*  His constant biting (literally with every attempt for a few days straight) made it easy.  I pumped for a few weeks after that for the sake of mixing formula with breast milk, but then figured enough was enough. Freedom at last!!! I was kinda sad about it, not just because of the obvious bond that a mother has with her baby, but just feeling a little guilty that I was choosing to dump powder into a bottle rather than supply him with the best milk option (so they say).  He seems to drink it all up though, so maybe I will quickly get over feeling bad about it!

What he's like/milestones:

He survived the worst of his teething phase and has become really fun again! For the first week or 2 once he turned 8 months old, we were referring to that time period as the Terrible 8's. Did I mention that he has 7, going on 8 teeth already?!?!


On the left: A view from our monitor. Love the pants falling down.
On the right: Ruining his cribrails with teeth marks. Thanks, Nico. 

 

He is crawling all over the place, and especially to the things we want him to stay away from like the ficus tree and doggie door. When we say no, he stops and looks at us with a sh*tty grin, and then continues on his way. He is pretty good at sitting and playing with toys for short periods of time. He is always squirmy whenever you want him to just sit on your lap or you lie him down to change his diaper.

He loves to stand. He has gotten strong enough to be able to pull up on just about anything now. He still will turn and look at us with such a proud grin.

He holds his own bottles now and has started to drink a little bit out of a sippy cup. We call him Frank Jr. like his mama when he does this...

He really gives Miley a hard time. He waves her toys out in front of her and doesn't let her grab them. The best part about it is that he just laughs and laughs. Poor Miley.

Other fun facts:

His first real word: da da!

His new trick is clapping (patty cake, I guess an all star mom would be calling it) and he smiles so big and proud when he does that too.

His fav toys: a turtle on wheels, little toys that he can bang together, and a little light up lantern thing that plays music

The new favorite moment: Jessica says... When he starts to crawl for a toy but then turns and looks towards me and decides to crawl to me instead    David says... the way Nico looks at him with that big smile when he walks in his room after he's been sleeping for a while

 

I do still smile every time he goes in for an attack kiss AKA bite...

Overall, he's usually very happy, as you can see from that huge grin in most of the pics! He smiles, laughs, and is so alert and interactive. He will lay in his crib and just talk to himself for 15-20 minutes.

We have done a lot of fun things in the past month!.....

We have continued to get in our little weekday *family* day which consists of running a few fun errands and lunch. That's always my favorite day of the week.

 
We have taken Nico to a few outside patios lately to hang out, and he's been really well behaved. He loves to be outside and people watch.

 

Nico was dressed appropriately for Ranger's Opening Day! We went to Champps to meet up with friends and watch while my parents watched Nico, then we stopped by to visit cousin Caitlyn.




 

David and I have had plenty of us time this month and are slowly back to becoming the really cool people that we once were (note the sarcasm). With Nico being older now, I haven't felt as bad about handing him off to his grandparents. In fact, we have gotten a night off for 2 or 3 weekend nights this past month! Aren't we such party animals. I also joined a monthly Bunco group with Misty and Deanna (the ones that watch Nico 2x a week) and some of those kid's moms. It's nice to get back on track and have things to look forward to for myself!

I gotta brag on other recent news... David's baseball team won their past 2 tournaments! He is such a great coach and really loves what he does!

And here are some extra pics of our little guy...

 

Even though the teething has been a little frustrating for us, each month truly gets better and better. He is developing into such a cute BIG GUY (as we call him often) with a really fun personality, and we couldn't love him any more.