10 months under my belt (belated).

I'm a horrible baby mama in getting these blogs written in a reasonable amount of time.  This is the amount of free time I have lately... 0.  Between work, driving to and from work (my commute is about an hour now), getting the kids from daycare, trying (operative word is trying) to get in a gym workout/run a few times/week, having the ability to actually sit down and write a blog is not within my scope of accomplishment.

But, alas, I'm here now, so let's do it.

Temperament:
Jojo is still an angel.  A squeaky, snotty angel, but an angel nonetheless.  He's a bit more impatient these days and will squeal like a large, scary bird when he doesn't get his bottle or next bite of food right away.  His teachers have even commented how he fusses when OTHER babies are eating.  Chill, boy, chill.  He's still a charmer with his big smile and sweet eyes.  He's great with other babies and other people.

Feeding:
The boy is a pig.  He's drinking about 6 - 8 ounces of formula every 90+ minutes.  He isn't too keen on the purees, so we've started introducing regular foods to his diet as well.  He's tried bananas, apples, grapes (cut up super tiny), some cheesy biscuits we got at a local restaurant, and puffs.  He does great with most of the foods although he will get a bit gaggy from time to time - especially with the grapes.  His pincer grasp function is great, so he can feed himself the bits of food.  I'm still not comfortable with the more solid types of food, so he's still eating mostly purees and just drinking his bottles. 

Sleeping:
He's still doing great sleeping through the night.  He will wake up every once in a while with a cough, but I go in his room and give him a pacifier (he only takes it when he's sleeping), and he falls right back to sleep.  He's still napping every 90 minutes or so based on the sleep cycle our pedi recommended, but he does have days where he just flat out refuses to nap still. 

Milestones:
He had a huge month last month with his milestones, but these past few weeks have been pretty quiet.  He's perfected his crawl, and he's able to pull himself and stand while holding onto something.  The other day he stood back from the coffee table and actually stood on his own for about 2 seconds, but once he realized he wasn't holding on, he quickly sat himself down. I keep trying to get him to take a few steps with me while holding his hands, but he doesn't like that too much.  He sits down and is like, "Hell naw." 

He's started blowing raspberries and will mimic you if you do it back to him.  He's also saying one syllable words like da for dada and uh for uh oh.  When I say certain words to him, I can see the little cogs going in his mind, and I know he's just so ready to blurt it all out.  One day, son.

Addendum: He’s clapping and saying dada now.  (2-23-13)

Health:
Well, he still has the snot-nose and the cough, but we have official word from the ER docs that he just has a chronic cold and nothing more than that.  After a pretty big scare one night when his temp was super high, we decided to take him to the ER to make sure he was OK.  After a chest x-ray and full exam, and another RSV test, they ruled out everything other than a common cold and instructed us to just keep suctioning that funk out.  I also got him a cool mist humidifier that I leave on in his room all night. I actually want one for my room now!  It's the perfect white noise, and it makes his room feel so cool and comfortable.  I haven't noticed much difference other than his cough sounds better.  We've taken him to multiple doctors since he's had RSV, and they've all told us that he will have this over-production of mucous until he's a bit older.  RSV is bad stuff, yo.

Size:
He hasn't really grown much lately.  We're still stalled at him being in size 3 diapers and 9 - 12 months clothes.  He's super long, so most of his pants are high-waters.  Size 3 shoes. According to the ER doctor, his 7 month old daughter could eat my son alive, so he’s definitely a peanut.

Activities:
We haven't been able to do much as a family lately - NO TIME!  Hopefully this summer we can all go to Destin for a weekend.  I think the kids would love the beach!

Siblings:
I'm still dealing with the sibling jealousy with Anna.  If I so much as look a JoJo or play with him for a few seconds, she immediately jumps in front and wants me to play with her only.  I'm trying my best to make her feel like she's loved and there's no reason for her to feel insecure, but she still seems pretty insecure about Joe.  So, now I've instituted Anna and mommy time where we go in my bed and have girl talk about her day/my day.  She tells me about her boyfriend Mason and how she's going to marry him at school, etc.  It's kind of adorable.  I hope she knows how important she is and that my love for her has not been replaced, it's just grown.  How do you deal with this as a mom of two?

To add one more checkmark to the mom-fail category, I somehow managed to misplace my camera  battery charger and didn’t realize it until I was ready to take Joe’s 10 month photos (a week late, mind you).  So, I had to use my cell phone, and of course the quality is total crap.  I figure some pictures are better than none, so here are his 10 month photos.



Watch my baby grow: