10 Months Old!

Big boy is 10 months old! Last week he weighed in at 20 pounds, 10 ounces and is just about 29 inches long.

He's a very good crawler these days, and likes to constantly be on the move.

He loves to practice his standing, and can balance by himself now. He isn't too interested in taking any steps with help, but is starting to take a few steps along the couch or around his music table.

He and Mom continue with music class on Friday mornings, and he seems to have fun. He likes to crawl from person to person giving big smiles, likes chewing on the instrument, and seems to recognize some songs now that he has heard them several times.

He had his first session with the speech therapist last week. She agrees that he has "low tone" in his mouth, jaw, and cheeks, and believes he has low sensitivity in his mouth as well (meaning food gets "lost" in there). She showed Mom some ways to change how he is fed with the bottle and spoon to strengthen his mouth. Cole is at the age where the best way to show him what to do is to model it for him. So, we will be doing lots of lip smacking, puckering, raspberry blowing, and "MA MA", "DA DA", and "BA BA" sounds for him.

In addition, we will be doing a swallow study on Cole on May 3rd to make sure that he isn't sending food into his airway. He'll take a little barium in his bottle, they'll take a picture as he swallows, and we'll repeat the process with purees. We don't think he's truly choking on his bottle or solids, but agree that it's probably best to air on the safe side and get it checked. We are a little uncomfortable with our little guy getting x-rays, but he'll wear a protective vest, and we're told it's the equivalent amount of radiation of him playing outside for a couple hours.

Mom is trying to learn some basic sign language to give him some extra tools to communicate when he's ready. His speech therapist thinks this is a great idea. The Naperville Library is offering a free 3-week Sing and Sign class about pets starting Monday, so we're going to check it out.

On the food introduction front, we have worked our way through fruits, vegetables, some meats (turkey, chicken, and beef), and we are starting with some gluten free grains. So far, so good! Cole is not a fan of green vegetables, and avocado took some convincing. His favorite food seems to be prunes. We are seeing a pediatric allergist next Friday for re-testing on food.

He has 6 teeth now, and is working on his 7th. He has been a really good sport about teething, but continues to grind his teeth. Horrible sound!!

Cheeks loves to make growling sounds, and now, if you ask him "Are you a lion?" while making the "lion" sign, he will growl. He's also starting to imitate big sighs. It's pretty cute!

We love you, Cole! Happy 10 months!

He still favors that index finger!