Max at 10 Months

These days it is hard to keep up with Max; he is in perpetual motion. He crawls around at 2 different speeds: leisure, when he is exploring a new space, and turbo, when he spots something he wants and thinks he can get to it before we notice. The turbo crawl is always accompanied by a mischievous grin and excited panting as he exerts all his energy hauling butt to his target destination. Max isn’t walking but he cruises around furniture with ease, and loves pushing the Ybike that Aaron’s parents gave him. He hasn’t quite figured out how to turn yet, so whenever he encounters a wall he immediately turns and looks to us for help. Since the weather has been gorgeous we have been taking Max to the tennis courts by our house so he can push his bike around in a resistance-free zone to his heart’s content.

Now that Max is mobile he’s able to grab all kinds of things we’d rather he didn’t (he loves window blinds). We have started telling him “no” when he is en route to something dangerous (e.g. blinds, stairs, the fireplace, etc.). Most of the time he turns to look at us and, upon seeing our stern faces, flashes that mischievous grin before turning back and continuing on his way. It’s times like those that I would love to know what he is thinking.

Max still sleep’s through the night and we still feel incredibly lucky about that. We have tried to push his bedtime up to 7:30pm so he will sleep in past 4am, but so far no luck. If anyone has any recommendations for getting your baby to sleep in later, please let us know! Most of the time Max takes a nap in the morning and the afternoon but their duration varies widely. Since we never know how long a nap will last, Aaron and I usually enter our own turbo as soon as Max goes down and try to get us much done as possible before he wakes up.

When it comes to eating solid foods, Max gets a C- on a good day. We hoped he would take after Aaron, who would basically fed himself a three course meal by the time he was 4 months old, but that hasn’t been the case. Max typically uses one of the following techniques to hinder the feeding process: arches his back and leans over the side of the high chair, making it impossible to reach his mouth; claps his hands over the spoon, causing the food spill out; or waits until the food is in his mouth and then promptly spits it out. Needless to say, there is room for improvement in this area.

Max stats

• Weight: 21.2 lbs
• Height: 29″
• Head circumference: 19.5″

Memorable moments:

• Max’s top 2 teeth are coming in but, unfortunately, not at the same time, so he’s been rocking the 1-toothed look. It’s very apparent when he smiles and it’s a little adorable, but we’re glad it’s only temporary.
• Because he’s top teeth are coming in, he’s been more drooly than usual. It’s not all that noticeable until his slobbery mouth is positioned above your face, then it’s like being face-to-face with one of the creatures from Alien.
• Max has never cried when we take him to daycare but the other day I stopped by to drop something off and he started to get upset when I left. His teachers said he bounced back quickly and was happily playing a few minutes later, but it broke my heart to see him cry like that.
• Max loves music time at Romp’n’Roll. When the teachers lay out an assortment of drums, bells and noise makers, he races over to grab a wooden mallet and proceeds to beat a drum with it and wave it around like a mad man. While it’s obvious the babies love this activity, it’s also obvious that it elevates anxiety levels among the parents. No one wants their kid to be the one that clobbers another baby with a tambourine.

Things we think Max likes:

• Slides - After we place him at the top of the slide, he starts to scoot forward and smile gets closer to the edge.
• Roomba - obsessed! We have started hiding our Roombas because Max is so fixated on them.
• Raffi (still!)
• Mother Goose Club
• Eating Cheerios
• Door stoppers
• Bubbles (especially the bubble machine at Romp’N’Roll)

Things we are pretty sure Max doesn’t like:

• Solid foods
• Having his face wiped
• Wearing a bib
• Being strapped into his car seat

Milestones:

• 2 top teeth came in, he now has a grand total of 4.
• Extremely vocal. Loves to say “bah bah” and sometimes says “ma-ma” and “da-da” but we don’t think he’s associated those words with us yet, they’re just sounds at this point.
• Cruises around furniture and pushes his walker all over place
• Stacking. Up until recently Max would only knock down his stacking toys and spread out the pieces all over our floor. A few days ago he started making attempts to actually stack and reassemble the pieces. He especially loves this stacking toy we received from Aaron’s parents.