The Paul + Charity Show

Elijah James, you are 10 months old!

You are growing into such a big, confident, exploratory boy. At your last check up you were 23.2lbs (93rd percentile) and 29 inches long (74th percentile). Papa and I love to watch you navigate your world. You enjoy checking out your surroundings. You stand at everything, pick up anything you can, shake items, and push them around. Sometimes you sit and turn a toy or a book over and over as if you are trying to figure out what its purpose is. You especially love hearing the sound that two objects make when they come in contact with each other. For example you like hitting blocks against each other, against the wall, or on the coffee table.

You also have been enjoying music time with papa! Papa will play the guitar and you hold the neck of it and dance or you like to hit the drumsticks on the coffee table. At school you enjoy playing with the sensory bottles, you love shaking those bottles to hear the sounds. You also have been loving bath time, sitting and splashing has been your favorite. You continue to talk up a storm. Lately you have started stick your tongue out quite a bit. It is pretty cute!

During your 10th month of life, your balance has become more fine tuned. In addition to standing at items that you can lean on (coffee table, coolers, toys), you enjoy standing at walls, cabinets, and doors. You can also stand at different movable items like your walker, kitchen chairs and boxes. You push these items around the house, and often use them to walk from Point A to Point B. You have also started experimenting with standing while not holding onto anything. Papa thinks you will be walking in no time.

Your 10th month started off a bit rough as you caught a case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. You had a fever and sad red spots all over you body. After a couple of days at home with mama you were feeling so much better. You have been pretty healthy other than that.

Elijah, you have really been enjoying solid foods this last month. Some new favorites for you are spaghetti, kidney beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, and steak. You are drinking less formula and breast milk and you have really increased your solids. You also surprised us by cutting two more teeth. You are up to 8 teeth! Four on top and four on bottom.

As the Holiday season picked up we tried to slow things down, so your tenth month was not as hectic. In December you celebrated Christmas early with our dear friends the Kaetzels, applied for your first passport, got your first photo with Santa, you had your first Christmas with mama and papa, and went on your first swing ride at the zoo. You also enjoyed a trip to the zoo and a play date with your buddy Dominic.

During your 11th month of life we think you are looking forward to celebrating your first New Year with the Kaetzels at Seabrook.

Here are a few photos and videos from your 10th month of life:

Helping mama decorate

Home sick with mama

Playing at school

Enjoying your oatmeal!

Mmmmm Spaghetti

Cantaloupe!

A Very Kaetzel-Oremland Christmas!

Visiting Santa

First Christmas!

Playing in your Christmas jammies

Opening gifts with papa

Enjoying your new shape sorter and blocks

Ready for Christmas Dinner!

Snuggling with papa

First swing ride at the park

Zoo Trip

Elijah James, You are 9 months old!

My goodness Elijah, it has been another month of watching you grow and learn new skills. Once you mastered crawling last month, you immediately started pulling up on everything. You love standing at the coffee table, your toys, and at mama’s cooler. At school you like to stand at the table or the rocking chair. Your balance is getting better and you are able to move your weight from one object to another while you stand. You are also taking small steps when you climb up on something that moves, like the kitchen chair. For a while there when you were done standing you would start fussing. Now you can sit down on your own or lower yourself to your knees. You seem to focus extra hard when you are ready to be done standing and it is pretty cute. You are also interested in climbing stairs. Just the other day, with mama close by, you climbed 5 stairs! Papa and I agree, you are fearless!

You are still talking up a storm and everyone around you thinks that you are actually saying words. At school your teachers tell me that it sounded like you said “all done” one day or called your teacher Ms. Barbara by her first name. At home it sounds like you have been saying “papa”. But mostly you’re just making a lot sounds. You love it when we mimic the sounds that you make.

Elijah, you now have 6 teeth! Four on the top and 2 on the bottom. You have started drooling a lot more, so we would not be surprised if you are working on more teeth. You enjoyed trying lots of new food this month like yogurt, kiwi, French toast, steak, turkey, hamburger, sausage, curried veggies, mashed potatoes, chocolate pudding, and stuffing.

Elijah, you are just a happy guy. You typically only fuss when you are tired or hungry. You love climbing on mama and papa. Your favorite toys are your sit and stand, music table, and mama’s blue cooler. You especially like when you can make loud noises while standing at table. You will bang a toy, a sippy cup, or anything else you can find. You enjoy watching Charlie and these days you think her collar is your toy. You love standing at her bed and pulling on the tags that dangle from her collar. You also enjoy watching the washer and dryer do their thing.

During your 9^th month of life you came down with your first fever. This was pretty hard on mama and papa as we were so worried about you. You ended up not getting to celebrate your 1^st Halloween which was sad. It took you a day and a half to kick that fever. You were pretty cuddly while sick which was sweet, but mama and papa were happy once you were back to yourself.

A typical day in your 9^th month of life looks like this: You wake up between 3:45am – 5am. If you wake up closer to 3:45am you get a bottle and go back to sleep. If it is after 4am you get a bottle and start your day. If you are not up, then mama wakes you up around 5am. You and mama head to school around 5:30am and quite often you will take a little snooze in the car. We get to school between 6:15-6:30am. As soon as you get to school you love crawling all over the room. You have a few favorite things you like to do each morning. You love standing at the kid’s table and scooting the little chairs around, you love knocking over the two popper toys (one at a time), and you enjoy pulling out all of the sensory bottles so that you can shake them. It is fun for mama to see you so comfortable in your classroom. You also have a little buddy, Wyatt who is just 6 days younger than you. You guys are often spotted playing together. Mama typically picks you up from school between 3pm and 3:30pm. You fall asleep within the first 15 minutes of the car ride home. Once we get home, mama transfers you to your crib and you will sleep for around 2-2.5 hours. You are catching up on all that sleep you do not get at school. Mama and Papa wake you up at 6pm so you can eat and play for a little bit. At 7pm you start your bedtime routine with papa.

During your 9^th month of life you hung out with your PEP friends, enjoyed special time with mama while papa was in Berlin, celebrated Thanksgiving with your school friends and families, attended your first Seahawks game, and flew to Iowa to see family and celebrate Thanksgiving.

During your 10^th month of life, we think you are looking forward to: celebrating advent, your holiday break, and celebrating your first Christmas!

Here are a few photos and videos from your 9th month of life: