11 months (and a few days)

Less than one month until Joshua is a year old! Time has sure flown by. It's amazing to me how quickly he has gone from being a tiny little infant who couldn't even hold his own head up to the little boy he is now. He is all over the place; he isn't still for a moment! He's pulling himself up on everyone and everything, he's a super fast crawler, he walks holding onto furniture and walls, he loves climbing stairs, he's just super active.

He really loves the water. He goes in the kiddie pool at daycare and we try to get him in the one we have at home as often as possible. We're on a wait list for swim class. He's also eating a lot more now - quantity and variety! He eats beans and rice at mexican restaurants and edamame when we go for sushi. I try to make a few meals each week that we can all eat. This past week he ate chicken cacciatore (with brown rice pasta instead of spaghetti since he's still on a wheat-free diet). I can't say he was the biggest fan, but he did eat some.

We went to the doctorMonday for a follow up about the asthma. He weighed in at a healthy 23 lbs, 5 oz. We've been doing his maintenance medicine twice a day and have virtually stopped having to give him the rescue medicine. We're now going to try lowering his medicine to once a day. We're hoping that in the next few months, we can stop the breathing treatments all together! Boy, would that be nice.

Also, he now has 5 teeth!

Rennah's 7th Birthday Party

We went to Bakersfield for my niece's 7th birthday party. We all had a fun time and Joshua absolutely loved the pool/spa.

10 months

Joshua is now 10 months (and a few days) old!
Where to begin? A couple days after my last update, Joshua really figured out how to get around. He went from kind of scooting to full on crawling. He's all over the place now. Also, at the same time, he figured out how to pull himself up to standing. At first he we found him standing in his crib a few times, now he stands everywhere, including the sliding glass door which has nothing to pull up on. We've had to really go through and baby proof. I thought we had done a pretty good job, but there are still things he gets into! He has also figured out how to get himself down from standing by shifting his weight forward and plonking down on his bottom - so cute! He can even reach down to the ground while standing to pick up a toy.

Oh, and he graduated to the big bath this month. He loves the water though it's hard to keep him sitting down in the tub.
On May 18, we had his 9 month checkup at which he weighed 22lbs, 10oz and was 29 inches long. Also at that appointment, we decided to start him on a daily maintenance medicine for asthma since he's been coughing and junky sounding since February.

His sleeping went from bad to worse and back again. The worst night he was up 8 times. Yes, 8 times - worse than when he was a newborn! And then he went through a phase of not wanting to go back to sleep so one night we were up from 1 until after 4 am. During that time, we would find him standing and crying in his crib. We were afraid to just let him cry because he didn't really know how to get down without just falling. He bonked his head a few times. Some nights he ended up in our bed with us. And boy, for a little baby, he sure does take up a lot of space! This past week we think his medicine has finally kicked in and is allowing him to sleep better. He even went through the night a couple times! Most of the time, though, he's up once or twice. We sure are hoping that these sleep issues are coming to an end!

9 months

Joshua is now 9 months old! He has been pulling himself up onto his knees all the time. He doesn't ever just want to sit still and play. He still hasn't really gotten the hang of crawling, but give him enough time and he will get from point A to point B.He fell asleep in his chair one night while I was making dinner. I took some pictures because I couldn't believe it. This baby doesn't ever want to sleep yet he fell asleep sitting up!

Speaking of sleep, he's doing slightly better than last month. Some nights he wakes up once, other nights, like last night, we wakes up 4 times. There is no consistency. I have been going to bed at 9:30 since I don't ever know how the night is going to go. When I go into his room in the night I find that he has rolled over onto his tummy and is up on his knees. I'm not sure why he's crying though since he's not stuck in that position.

Joshua loves the computer, especially the keyboard. He lunges for it if it is in sight. He also likes to eat cell phones and remote controls. He now has two teeth. The first one, as you know, came through on April 18th and the second one followed on the 22nd. No others have come through yet. I took a picture on the 22nd - it's kind of blurry but you can sort of see his teeth.
He so wants to be like us. He loves to eat food and tries to feed himself. He also likes to drink from cups though, as you can see from the wet shirt in the picture, he hasn't yet mastered it.

He has started to put his arms out when he wants to be picked up. He also waves sometimes though it's not really directed at anyone.

For Mother's Day we went to breakfast. Then we spent the afternoon outside. We got him a little pool and he played in it two afternoons. He seemed to enjoy it. He loves the water.

And here are a few more pictures just because.

On his knees

On his knees, frustrated he's not actually moving.

First tooth

So, I know that the last post said that Joshua didn't seem to be teething but I guess that was because the tooth popped through! When he was having dinner tonight, it seemed the spoon was scraping on the bottom so I stuck my finger in there and felt a sharp thing poking out of his gums. I haven't really been able to see it yet, but we'll try to see it tomorrow. Yay! One down, a bunch to go!

8 months

I know I'm a few days late but it has been a little hectic around here. Work has gotten really busy and we've had to add a third day of daycare, so Joshua now goes Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Also, I've been busy with taxes which, thanks to Joshua, didn't turn out too bad.
So, now that Joshua is 8 months old, what's new with him, you ask. He has turned back into a terrible sleeper. On his worst night, he was awake 7 times. The past couple nights haven't been as bad with him only waking twice. The doctor suggested taking his pacifier away since he's using it to soothe himself to sleep and when he wakes and it's no longer in his mouth, he can't get himself back to sleep. Pretty obvious suggestion, but we haven't done it yet since we know we won't be getting any sleep that night and probably for the following couple of nights.

In other news, he has become super squirmy making it hard to change his diaper. He kind of scoots himself around in a circle when on his tummy. He hasn't figured out to get his knees under him to crawl, but he's definitely thinking about how to get around. I think he's also thinking about how to get himself to standing. I see him with his hands on the side of his crib, but he hasn't figured out how to get his feet underneath him. Soon, very soon. He is also a great sitter now. He still tumbles every now and then, but mostly, he just sits. And he can go from sitting to laying on his tummy, no problem.

He still has no teeth. And he doesn't seem to be teething (at this moment, any way!). He's enjoying more solids now. He eats sweet potatoes, squash, peas, green beans, apples, peaches, carrots, bananas every now and then, rice cereal, baby oatmeal, and chicken. This time around, eating solids is going much better. I have tried chopping up some cooked carrots into little pieces for him, but mostly those just stay in his mouth until I take them out. He tries, and we'll continue trying with more solid solids.