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A few days ago, Raleigh boy turned 10 months old.

TEN MONTHS OLD.

DOUBLE DIGITS.

He has been here longer than I was pregnant with him. That is a surreal thought.

The mystery of parenthood, experienced all around the world throughout the centuries; how time can go so slow and yet so fast at the same time.

Raleigh at 10 Months Old:

The latest milestones, for our record books:

Eruption hematomas on top molars – Earlier this month, Matt was looking in Raleigh’s mouth for any signs of teeth and he told me that he had “black spots” on his gums. I was like, “WHAT??” After some googling, Matt discovered these spots are called eruption hematomas, and they are little areas of blood beneath the gums, from where the teeth are starting to come through the bone. They were in the spots where his top molars will be, so we will see when he starts to get those!

Noticing what others are eating and begging for a bite – When Matt and I eat pretty much anything, our furry dog-child Remy begs incessantly for a bite. Recently, Raleigh started to notice what we are eating and wants some too. In the mornings, I have been eating my bagel and cheese stick on the couch and when I get to the cheese stick at the end, I have two sets of beady, begging eyes on me: Remy and now Raleigh.

Gives kisses – Matt taught Raleigh how to give kisses. It’s amazing how sweet a slobbery, open-mouthed kiss from a baby can be! I never understood it until it was my own kid.

New bedtime routine – In an effort to make improvements to Raleigh’s struggling sleep habits, I finally took the advice I had read many times. Instead of feeding to sleep in a dark room, I started leaving the light on while we nursed after his bath. Most of the time, Raleigh doesn’t fall asleep while nursing now. After he’s done nursing, we have finally been able to start reading a bedtime story, which I LOVE. Then we sing our prayers and I lay Raleigh down in the crib. It generally goes pretty smoothly with minimal fussing on his part, and then he’s asleep. His sleep habits are still not where we want them to be though, so the next adjustment will be to move that last feeding to BEFORE his bath. I’ve read that there should be a significant amount of time between the last feeding and going to sleep, like 20+ minutes. Right now, there’s probably 5 at most [just enough time to read a story and sing prayers.] So we will see how that impacts his sleeping over the night.

Standing unassisted for a second at a time – Raleigh is getting progressively braver and able to stand for a second or two on his own. He will grab onto the material of my baggy sweatpants [#momlife] and use that to keep his balance. Today, I watched him let go from any assistance for a second or two multiple times throughout the day.

First Times:

Celebrating New Years – Raleigh welcomed a new year for the first time this month! My sister pointed out that it was bittersweet to welcome 2017, because it was no longer the year our babies were born in! That’s a crazy thought.

Having playdates with some ECFE moms – We have met some great friends in our ECFE class, and we had several playdates with them this last month. We went to the indoor playground at the mall one week, to a local hotel pool the next, and to one of the other mom’s houses last week. It is so nice having other stay at home mom friends because the majority of the people I know locally work during the day. I am still an introvert through and through so we balance our social outings with days at home, in our pajamas, with nothing on the agenda but meals and nap times. And watching Heartland on Netflix. 

Going to a funeral and burial for Great Nana – At the very end of December, my grandma passed away at the age of 88. This month, we had her funeral mass and the burial at the cemetery, which Raleigh got to be a part of. He won’t remember being there, of course, but it was special to have him there because my grandma adored all of her great-grandkids so, so much.

Sleeping 8 hours in a row – His previous record was about 7.5 hours. This month he slept 8 hours and 8 minutes in a row one night. But only one night. Then, he decided to get up every 2-3 hours the second half of the month. [eye roll emoji] We are still working on his sleep habits, clearly.

Raleigh’s Favorite Things:

• Thumping his legs when he is laying down – that’s why we call him “thumper.” Although lately, he’s taken to just thumping his right leg mostly.
• THIS TOY from his great grandparents – when he comes into the living room in the mornings, it is the first thing he goes to. I’m amazed the batteries are still good after the nonstop use it’s gotten since Christmas.

• Remy’s balls – Like most siblings, Raleigh and Remy always want to play with the other one’s toys. Raleigh has a living room full of toys, and a lot of the time, he chooses to play with the two toy dog balls that Remy got for Christmas. He will dig through her toy bin and intentionally pick out those two balls.

• Remy’s bone – Why is it that he wants everything he is not supposed to have? He is still obsessed with trying to get her food and water dishes, and he also loves to pick up her dog bones. He likes to taste them too. Mmm… cow hide. Sometimes I just let him chew on them… You have to pick your battles, right?
• Feeding himself – He loves to feed himself, and has really learned how to do the pincer grasp well. He still drops a lot of food, which Remy cleans up, but he is getting better and better.

• Mimicking noises we make; high pitched or low grunts

Raleigh Hates:

• Staying still for diaper or clothes changes
• Wearing hats [he keeps them on for approximately 13 seconds before he manages to take them off]
• Having his nose wiped or booger-sucked
• Getting his hair rinsed

Working on:

Standing alone – I imagine he will do this for longer and longer intervals this month. 

Taking steps by himself – He has taken one, maybe two steps on his own so far. Usually when he is holding on to one thing and reaching for something else, and needs to take a step or so to get there. Matt guesses he will be taking several steps on his own in a row within the next two weeks. I have no predictions. We will see!

Annoys Mama by:

Making himself gag – This seems to have gotten less frequent toward the end of this month, but at the beginning, he would intentionally stick his finger way into his mouth. I HATE the sound of gagging, and I swear he would do it more when I would tell him to quit. 

Dropping his sippy cup 84,752 times in 10 minutes – He cracked one of his sippy cups, and I feel like it’s only a matter of time before the others succumb to the same fate. I am going to make a strap to keep them from hitting the floor when he drops them, I think.

Acting like a thrashing wildebeest during diaper and clothes changes – Gosh, this gets old. It’s like wrangling a wild hog, just to get him dressed. That’s part of the reason why he wears fleece jammies 75% of the time.

Screaming at the top of his lungs when he is frustrated or upset – Oh man… This is probably my least favorite thing he does lately. I know it’s all normal and part of the development process. But seriously. My eardrums. My head. Instant headache. Instant desire to put him in timeout and go eat chocolate in my closet. I don’t because I know timeouts for babies are futile, but seriously. Nothing tests my patience quite like those screaming sessions. Oofda.

Sleeping short stretches and getting up a lot – Raleigh still is nowhere near sleeping through the night. I got him down to 2 wake ups a night right after the new year. Then, for a few weeks, he was back to getting up at least 3 times. And he wakes up for the day between 515 and 6am. So… when he goes down for his first nap of the day, Remy and I have been napping too every day this month. It’s a crucial requirement for my sanity and patience. The night wake ups don’t bother me too badly if there are only 2 of them, and if they’re fast. But when he gets up 3+ times, and has a hard time going back to sleep, then I get cranky. One day he will sleep well, right?!

– – – – –

I feel like my motherhood motto is the quote by Gretchen Rubin: “The days are long but the years are short.” 

Oh, how true that is.

We have been having some very long days this past month with the winter weather, lack of sleep, teething, sickness, leaps and development.

And yet the year is just whipping by.

I am starting to think ahead toward his first birthday coming up at the end of March, and like every mom that has come before me, I can’t even believe it.

For as hard as motherhood is some days and as much as I hate those screaming outbursts he’s doing lately, I can hardly look at Raleigh without a lump of sheer love and gratitude forming in my throat.

We sure love you, Raleigh boy.