Evan is 10 months!!

10 months old

19 lbs.

29"

The realization that my baby Evan is just 7.5 weeks away from being a year old has hit!  I'm in full-on birthday party planning mode.  His theme this year is The Very Hungry Caterpillar!  I can't wait to share all the things I've been creating from the invitations to the banner to the wall decor.  This is going to be one very special party!

Now about my little caterpillar, he's had another exciting month!  He is busy as can be!  Even though he's the world's fastest crawler, he prefers to be walking holding on to one or both of my hands.  His body is ahead of his feet though so when we get him to try on his own, he just lunges forward with his body.  He's able to stand by himself though for a good 5 seconds before he tries to move his chest forward and then his little feet.  I'm confident he'll be walking before his birthday, unlike his brother who started at 13.5 months.  It must be his need to catch up to what Sean is doing!

Speaking of his brother, the sibling rivalry has officially begun!  What Sean has, Evan wants.  What Evan has, Sean wants.  Sometimes it's adorable and they work it out to where they're actually playing together.  Other times it results in Sean sitting in time out for hitting, kicking, or pushing Evan over.  This is just the beginning I'm sure.  But, you sure can't beat sibling moments like this.  Their similarities are so evident in this picture.

Evan continues to add more things to his vocabulary.  He's been saying, "Mum-mum" for the past month and uses it appropriately.  If I walk away from him, he's always crawling behind me crying that out.  He's still good at saying, "Da-da", "Ba-ba", and added, "Na-na" to the list, which went over really well with Nana up north this past week.  He looks right at Bailey or at pictures of dogs in books and says, "Da".  Which is exciting to me since it seems like he's trying hard to say, "Dog".

He took his first vacation this month to Toronto and Niagara Falls and his first trip up north to the cottage for the fourth of July!  He was quite the traveler!  In fact, I was surprised that he was better about traveling and the pace of being on vacation than his brother was.  He went with the flow the whole time we were in Toronto and rarely squawked about being in the stroller or car for long periods of time.  Except for the drive home when he suddenly came down with the stomach virus he caught from his brother who had it driving to Toronto.  It's pretty hard to keep a sick baby content on a long car drive.

He was a fan of the cottage as well with the boat rides and playing on the beach.  I think his favorite part were the pontoon boat rides to get ice cream and the boat store.  We took a risk with his dairy intolerance and allowed him a few licks of moose tracks one night, mint chocolate chip another night, and cookies and cream another night.  Wow...we got ice cream a lot.  A little rash around his mouth never hurt anyone...

Amazingly enough, all the fireworks going on at night didn't wake him up. Although, he was up twice a night the whole week we were up north and the five nights we were in Toronto.  This little stinker is determined to have his middle of the night bottles.  He's really pushing us towards crying it out despite our fail with that a few months ago.  My tolerance for it is wearing thin and I refuse to start another school year of him waking up in the night.  I have a feeling August is going to be our breaking point.  In the meantime, I'm hopeful he grows out of it on his own.  Come on, Evan!

Other than the things mentioned above, he's really enjoying his summer at home with mommy and daddy.  So much so, I think we've entered the separation anxiety phase.  And, of course, it's only me he seems to be attached to.  Don't get me wrong!  I love all the extra snuggles, but it's quite a transition for me.  I went from only seeing the boys and getting to be around Evan for a few hours each evening and the weekends and now I'm home full-time and this little love bug just can't get enough of me.  I'd love to be able to get a potty break without someone whining at the door for me.  Ahhh the life of a stay-at-home mommy, I suppose.

On another note, he's eating like a champion too!  He's starting to refuse being fed by a spoon unless it's applesauce or a yummy fruit puree like mangoes.  Otherwise, he prefers all finger foods.  Normally this would be really exciting since it means I don't have to make any more baby food, but my freezer is stocked of all kinds of purees I've made and froze.  Realizing they're going to wind up in trash instead of his little tummy is a little disturbing.  Any ideas on how to re-purpose the purees?  As exciting as it is to not have to make the purees anymore, I spent the better part of yesterday cooking "toddler" food like veggie pancakes, apple turkey loaf, sweet potato fries, etc.  It's nice to have options when we are eating something Evan's not quite ready for!

All these advances in his eating means that, health wise, he's thriving!  We've gotten the eczema under control thanks to the warm and humid weather.  Aside from the stomach bug this past month he also ruptured his right ear drum from an ear infection that went unnoticed.  But, it's healed and we're hoping for a healthy month of July!  He cut his top two teeth this month as well!  It's so weird seeing him with 4 teeth already!  He's getting so big!

Stats:

• Size 3 diaper.
• All 12 month and 6-12 month clothing.  Some are a little baggy on the waist, but length wise it's perfect.
• Still taking around 30 ounces a day.  Usually it's still 5 bottles.  Some have been only 4 ounces when he was sick, while his bedtime bottles are somewhere around 8 ounces!  Holy cow!
• Eats breakfast, lunch, and dinner with a variety of foods now like meatloaf, taco meat, chicken we've grilled, chick peas, beans, peas, corn, etc.  
• Usually up only once a night, except when he's not at home.  The time varies...
• 2 naps.  A morning nap around 9:30am and an afternoon nap around 2pm depending on what time he starts the day.
• 7:30pm bedtime when we're at home, but on vacation he was up as late as 9:30pm.

Favorites:

• Throwing a ball!
• Snuggling with mommy.
• Feeding himself!
• Corn and watermelon are some of his favorites foods.
• Drinking water in a sippy cup.
• Holding his own bottle when he drinks.
• Playing in the water - splashing, dunking his face in the water, etc.
• Trying to stand up in the bath tub...sigh...I hate that phase.
• Walking while holding someone's hands or the furniture.
• Watching Sean jump up and down - he thinks it's hysterical when Sean jumps in front of him.
• Reading books.  This is new - he wasn't a fan of sitting still long enough to read a book, but now he will sit for a while and let me read to him!  Yay!
• He's now been exposed to Elmo youtube videos and he's mesmerized....it's starting all over again!  What is it about Elmo??
• Playing peekaboo where he hides his face with a towel or clothes and I say peekaboo.  I love that he can lead this game now!
• Waving!  So cute.

It's hard to think that at this age with Sean, we were moving into our house here in Plymouth.  That already seems like an eternity ago.  People at work constantly tell me how fast this all goes by and to enjoy every moment; the good and bad.  It really is true.  Evan's birthday party is August 24th...that's not that far away and it's time to start buying his gifts we'll give him and order the cake...ahhh!  My babies aren't little babies anymore!

Love you, Evie!