Ephram at Ten Months

Ephram is growing up so quickly.  It is hard to believe that my little tiny baby boy is almost ready to celebrate his first birthday!  He is so playful, so good natured, and so cute.  Now, if only he would sleep through the night.  Here is a summary of where he was on his ten-month birthday.

The Stats:
I have given up on trying to measure his height for the time being.  Maybe soon he will be able to stand still enough for us to get an upright measurement.  Until then, I'm going to wait for the doctor's appointments.  He doesn't have another well-child check-up until January.  Still, I measured his weight.

Weight - 21 lbs 10 oz

This is a gain of 5 ounces from the prior month.

Milestones:
Also this month I stopped tracking the week that he did things, but will continue to record the month that he started to do new things.  We had a fun month!  Here are some of the things he started to do...

Point at objects
Easily sit from a standing position
Add a third word to his vocabulary (dada)
Push toys and objects to walk
Play the game "Where's ___"  (which he answers by pointing at the object named)
Started using his first sign (more, which he does by touching his two pointer fingers together)

Teeth:
Ephram added one more bottom tooth in his tenth month, he now has seven teeth.

Food:
Ephram is a big eater now.  He nurses about four times during the day and eats breakfast, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.  He eats everything he has before plus:
Yogurt
Bread
Apricots
Spinach

Favorites:
Song - Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Book - I Love to Laugh
Activity Center - Play table
Toy - MegaBloks Dump Truck
Activity - Television

Nicknames:
Bruiser
Little Bug
Boo-boo

Here are some pictures from his tenth birthday!

A Doctor and a Monkey

We had a lot of fun this October.  As usual, each of the boys had shirts for Halloween that they enjoyed wearing throughout the month.  Actually, Charlie is still enjoying wearing it and it is nearly December!

When Halloween night finally arrived, both of the boys seemed excited to put their costumes on.  We had some fun playing around in the house before we headed out to go trick-or-treating.  

I took both boys to the houses on our street, and then Andy and Charlie went back out to finish filling up Charlie's bucket.  Ephram and I played in the house some more while I answered the door for the trick-or-treaters that came by.  It was a very fun Halloween!

Bath time

Bath time is something that Ephram typically loves.  Even so, I often find myself hurrying through washing, rinsing and drying him just in case he heads for one of his occasional bath time meltdowns.  Because of this, I have never stopped to take pictures of him during one of his favorite activities.  Also, baths most often occur at the end of the day, just before bed.  In other words, they happen when I'm too tired to care about the camera.

On this day, I actually was giving Ephram a morning bath.  He had managed to get oatmeal all over his hair, so I figured I'd just wash him.  And, he was being so super-smiley that I wasn't at all worried about a meltdown.  So I had Andy grab the camera and took a few pictures.  I think it is easy to see how much he loves playing in the water!

What he does not love is getting dressed.  So after he is dry, I usually give him some time to play around before launching into the getting dressed protests.  Here is my clean, happy, playful, naked boy... with hair that is finally long enough to stand up!

Halloween at Andy's Work

For the second year in a row we headed to The Commons at Microsoft for their Halloween party.  We had such a great time last year that we had high expectations for this year.  The event did not disappoint...

After we parked the car and unfolded the stroller, we took a picture of the boys.  Charlie was soooo excited to trick or treat at daddy's work.

Ephram, on the other hand, was just excited to be wearing a monkey suit.  Really - he actually even liked the head piece.

They had a photographer there to take family pictures again.  This year we actually got the picture.  And yes, it's the same one on the blog heading... but as that heading will eventually change, I figured I'd put it in this post as well.

Charlie showing me the candy in his bucket.  Yes, he likes candy.  Imagine that.

Stomp was there to do a little performance.  I love Stomp.  Charlie does now too.

They had a lot of neat decorations put out.  I had Andy take a quick picture of us so that there would be proof I was there.  And, as a friend pointed out, Charlie does have the 'creepy doctor look' perfected.

The Commons has a ton of restaurants.  I sat down with the boys while Andy picked up lunch for him and Charlie at Steamers.  Ephram was very excited to eat his cheerios while we waited!

Charlie was excited to ham for the camera while he waited.

When Andy got back he brought yummy fish and chips for him and Charlie.

We went outside for a little bit to see what they had set-up in the other building.

Then we saw a sign for train rides and headed over to wait in line.  Charlie decided to show everyone how good he was at being a doctor while we were in line.  Luckily everyone played along well.

I have never seen Charlie laugh as hard as he did on this train.  The driver was having fun pretending to hit people as he went along.  Ephram slept through it peacefully!

We headed back home for another Halloween party that night.  Charlie was primed and ready for trick or treating!

Mission: Magnet

Look!  I can see my reflection in the fridge!

Ooo... what's that colorful thing?

Just need to stretch a little further....

Ah, success!

Why'd mom put that thing back up there?  Must get it again!!!

Two Little Pumpkins

A couple of days before Halloween Charlie and I sat down to carve out our pumpkins.

Early in October, Charlie picked out a Potato Head pumpkin kit to turn his pumpkin into a witch.  He was able to do it almost all by himself.  (Andy helped start a couple of drill holes for him because parts of his pumpkin were very tough.

I had started out with the intention of using a pattern for my pumpkin, like I do pretty much every year.  But then I decided to do something different.  A smiley one-eyed pumpkin.  I don't know why, but I really liked it.

We had a lot of fun doing our pumpkins this year.  Next year Ephram should be able to join in too!

Preschool Pajama Party

Charlie's preschool had a pajama party for their last class before Halloween.  He was so excited to wear his pajamas to school!

They also got to bring a stuffed animal with them.  Charlie's choice for the day was Alien.  We strapped alien into the seat next to Charlie's.  Charlie thought it was pretty funny that he fit in the seatbelt.

We got to school a few minutes early and I had fun watching all of the kids running up to each other, talking about their pj's.  I got Charlie to hold still long enough to take a picture of him - but the other kids were all running around.  When the teacher opened the classroom door she was dressed in her pajamas too.  Charlie thought that was "awesome".

Charlie had a very fun time.  They had a pajama parade and partied for most of their class time.  He came home with a spider that he had made.  Charlie really likes theme days!

Getting Around

Ephram's more and more active.  He zooms about a room now doing pretty much whatever he pleases.  We had fun watching his movements change during his ninth month.

He started trying to jump out of his swing to get to Boone.  He really loves that dog!

Then he started only crawling around if he had toys in his hands.  In the past he had crawled with toys before, but now it is very rare to seem him crawling anywhere without a toy.  Often he is using them to help him glide along more quickly.  (Books and DVD's work best for this!)

Then we started noticing that it took him almost no time to pull up to standing anymore.  We'd turn around and he'd be up.  He also started leaning on objects much less, which limited the falls he was taking.  He still falls down plenty though!

Then he started lifting toys up to see what he was looking at.  His favorite toys to show around?  Mr. Giraffe and Mr. Monkey.

Next he started going over to the baby gate, standing up, shaking the gate really hard and calling Boone over.  We also often found him at the fridge, oven and dishwasher - standing tall and staring at his reflection whilst dancing and laughing.

Before we knew it he was ready to push things around.  He started with this MegaBloks truck that used to belong to Charlie.  Soon he graduated to pushing around our kitchen chairs, his high chair, and anything that he could manage to push along.

We decided it was time to get him his own push toy.  Right around the time he got it, he also started squatting, kneeling and then standing back up.

He is one mobile little boy now.  He has yet to walk across a room, but I don't think that day is far off!