Herring Family Happenings: What I want to remember: Graham at 10 months

Graham turned 10 months last week (on my birthday!). It's hard to believe he's this close to a year old. I've been trying to plan his birthday party, but I keep getting hung up on a theme; he really only has a strong attraction to me and his pacifiers. Everyone and everything else can come and go.

Seriously, could he BE any cuter???

As is expected developmentally, we've been dealing with a bit of separation anxiety lately. Most of the time, only Mommy will do. Making this worse was a few instances this month of new babysitters. They were great, but Graham loves his momma. Not even Daddy will do: one morning I made the mistake of trying to take a shower while Graham was awake. Josh said he crawled to the closed bathroom door, pulled up on it, and stood there screaming until I came out (Daddy doesn't know the art of distraction). One of my friends came over to visit today, and Graham immediately started crying because he must have thought she was a new babysitter and that I was going to leave him.

Participating in eating at his first restaurant: Cracker Barrell

Speaking of babysitters, they were all awed at how much Graham eats. He's a machine! He still nurses four times a day with the occasional early morning feeding thrown in there, but he gets so distracted that I have to feed him in the dark of his room, alone, every time. Sometimes I really have to work to get him to be still and focused enough to nurse; he'd much rather be down playing, crawling around, or talking. But man, the boy doesn't mess around when it comes to real food. If we are in the kitchen or dining room, Graham thinks we must be preparing his food, and he wants to eat it NOW! We have dramatically cut back on the baby food he gets. Now, I'm good to get one jar in him before he demands to feed himself. He hasn't turned down anything I've given him to eat, and nothing has caused an allergic reaction (although I haven't given him yogurt, cheese, or buttery food yet). I remember Piper being hesitant to eat meat; Graham shows no preference. He loves to feed himself peas, blueberries, peaches, soft and peeled apples, kiwi, green beans, sweet potatoes, white chicken chili, ham, pumpkin bread and muffins, blueberry muffins, cheerios, crackers, bananas, carrots, french fries, hamburger, black beans, and even broccoli! As much as I like not having to worry about prepping baby food much anymore, it's a little bit of a challenge to make sure I always have nutritious finger foods ready for him to eat. But this means that our days of making separate meals are numbered!

Putting away some peaches

This month brought new games to Graham's attention. He's now a pro at the "dropsies" game. He also loves balls, much to Piper's dismay. It's probably no surprise that she would much rather have those all to herself. His favorites are a big, squishy purple ball that he can grab easily and even bounce a little on his own, two different balls Tam-Tam gave us that are meant to be water toys (he can easily manipulate these because they are soft), and whatever Piper is playing with. He has also learned to push around wheeled toys like trains, trucks, and cars.

Playing ball by himself

Pushing around the zoo truck

He still only has two little bottom teeth. I was certain he was teething earlier this month, but there's no sign of any other teeth. But that surely doesn't stop him from gumming up all his food!

Happy boy!

Graham is so efficient at crawling that I doubt he'll be an early walker. He's cruising a little more than he did a month ago, but he's not really standing by himself at all. And this is ok with me!

"Mommy, why are you so far away from me?! I can't get to you!"

He loves to mimic and be mimicked. Today my friend was chomping really hard on her gum, and Graham was chomping right back at her. It made her self-conscious! He's also learned to smack his lips and likes it when we smack back at him. And Josh noticed that he responded well when Josh mimicked his little baby sounds.