Ten Months Old: The Transformer

Last week, Bean turned 10 months old.  I was too busy crying as I packed up his nine month old clothes to post about it on the actual day, but I’ve gotten myself together and decided I better get to postin’.

Ten months is tricky.  Bean Man has been a little cranky this month.  A little fussier than usual.  And he seems to have gotten loud beyond belief.  At this point in the game, he has two volumes:  sleeping and loud.  Whether he’s happy, mad, sad, glad, whatever – you’re gonna know it.  The person next to you is going to know it.  The person three states away is probably going to know it.  He’s just loud.

I’m sure some of his fussiness this past month has been because we just moved across the country.  And some of it is because Bean isn’t in daycare anymore and is staying home with me and Chris right now.  All that change and transition can make for one fussy baby boy.  But I also think 10 months old is just frustrating for Bean himself.  He is just about to walk.  I can tell that he understands the concept and he knows how to do it because when I hold his hands, he walks like a pro.  But he gets so darn frustrated that he can’t do it on his own yet.  Whenever he crawls somewhere, he yells the whole way.  And I just know he’s cussing like a sailor at the fact that he has to crawl instead of walk.

Actually, I think he could walk if he would just stop moving for a minute and concentrate.  But he is on the move from the minute his eyes open in the morning to the minute they shut at night.  He’s crawling or cruising around on the furniture.  He rolls all over the dogs, sticking feet in their eyes and hands in their ears.  Thankfully, Molly just lays there like a rug and lets him climb all over her.  Lucy is a little more nervous about it and so she’ll sit there for a while but when Bean gets a little too close, she usually walks away.  Bean has learned that he can crawl over to the entertainment center and pull up so that he is face to face with the television.  If I’m not watching, he’ll get over there and start banging away on the TV screen.  Its his new favorite game.  He also knows where the dog bowls are now and he likes to splash in the water bowls.  Heaven help us if he ever discovers the toilet.

We are having to keep Bean pretty secluded now because he gets into so much stuff.  Living in a small rental house means we have things out in the open because we don’t have much storage space.  And with a baby crawling around, you have to really watch and make sure he doesn’t get into things that he can’t have.  We are using our pack and play a lot more than before, but Bean actually kind of likes it.  I think he likes being able to throw his toys and have them still stay close to him when they bounce off the mesh walls.  We also use play stations with him.  He has a little blanket on the floor to play with toys. Or, he can play with his activity tunnel for a while, though he seems to be losing interest in that as he gets too tall to sit inside it.  He also plays with his jumparoo, but he actually prefers to pull up and stand on the outside of it and play.

This month, Bean has learned how to go from standing to sitting.  For a long time, he would stand up but then couldn’t figure out how to sit down, so he’d just whine until someone came over and helped him sit.  Now though, he has learned that if he squats, he can then rock back and plop onto his bum.  Its pretty cute to watch.  I never really thought about the process of sitting and standing before, but I guess its just something you have to learn how to do.

Bean is still a really friendly baby.  He smiles to strangers and talks to them and waves to them.  He isn’t too crazy about having strangers hold him yet.  He gets shy when someone reaches out to him.  I think some of that is his age and some of that is because he’s getting used to being around Chris and I more.  It makes my heart warm when he nuzzles into me because I know he feels safe with me, but at the same time it makes me realize how much socialization he was getting when he was in daycare.  To compensate for that, I’m going to start getting out more with him.  Our local library has Toddler Time on Tuesday mornings and they have a group that meets especially with babies who aren’t walking yet.  I’m also so glad we found a good church with a huge children’s program.  I think even the hour in the nursery on Sunday mornings will make a difference, but I’m also planning to join the weekly group of mothers with babies born in 2009 and 2010.  You bring your babies and meet together for fellowship and socializing for your babies.  I’m learning that these are the parts of unemployment that I can enjoy and relish while I have the opportunity.

Bean is cutting back in his eating this month.  He doesn’t really have much interest in eating anything I give him on a spoon.  Some meals are better than others, and for the most part he is still a good eater.  But there are definitely more meals more often where he is fidgety to get down and uninterested in what I’m feeding him.  He is also starting to play with his food more.  And by play I mean throw.  He throws food like crazy now.  And, I’m not really sure what to do about that really at this point.  I know that you’re supposed to let him get used to the high chair and eating and feeding himself, but I also don’t want him to learn that when we sit in the high chair, we get to throw food all over the kitchen.  Any suggestions on that would be HAPPILY welcomed!!  For now, I generally ignore the food throwing and keep on feeding him like normal, until the food throwing becomes the ONLY thing he’s doing and then meal time is over and we try again a little later.

The funniest part of 10 months so far has been that Bean has started singing along with music.  He’s been dancing like a crazy person, too.  Every time he hears music, he starts dancing.  Its pretty funny.  But lately, I think he has started singing.  I hear him in his car seat when I have the radio on and he makes his high pitched little sing-song voice.  He also does it when he’s watching his DVDs with music.  He has also started “reading” his books.  He sits with them open and he talks and talks and talks as he turns the pages.  It is so funny to see him mimicking real activities like these.  Makes me giggle.

All in all, I’m going to chalk ten months up to a transitional month.  He’s transitioning from an infant to a toddler and we all feel those growing pains.  But we also all get excited, too, because we get glimpses at what he’s going to be like as a bigger boy and it is just so wonderful.  I can’t wait to see what next month brings!