10 months

Our little guy is now 10 months! The photo at the left is courtesy of Mike, because I keep forgetting to take pictures of Steven on the actual days he turns these month-ages. Not that you would know if we took a picture one day earlier or later!

The last month has seen Steven getting faster and more steady on his feet. He loves exploring the house and trying to get into things he shouldn't. One day he found the toilet paper in the downstairs half-bath and then the cabinet full of baking dishes in the kitchen. Even though we do have a lock on that cabinet we mostly leave it unlocked, since there isn't anything in there that could hurt him, and it keeps him entertained.

He's also been popping some more teeth in the past month. The bottom two that he first got on New Years have come in fully, and he's got two more up top and at least 3 or 4 more that look like they're on the way. I'm wondering if this is the reason he hasn't been napping well lately. Not that he's ever been a great napper, but lately it seems he'll only go down for 30 minutes at a time, and so he's still tired when he wakes up. I know eventually he'll figure it out, but it's frustrating in the meantime.

He also is "talking" a lot more, babbling pretty constantly to himself while he plays and to us while he eats. He says "dadadadadada" and "mamamamama" and sometimes seems to associate those terms with the two of us. I'm pretty sure he's said "up", since I have been constantly saying it to him every time I pick him up, and I think I've heard it several times when I come to get him out of his crib in the morning or after a nap. We're also 90% sure he's said "kitty", since there was a day when he said something that sounded like "giddy" twice, both times right as Knute was walking by. And Mike swears he's said "shoes", since he loves to play with my shoes in our room while he's in there with Mike after work and Mike says he was walking around holding them and saying "choose, choose."

He's been eating like a fiend lately and has finally gotten back on his growth curve. At his last peds appointment he was at the 50th percentile for weight by height, a great improvement from his 6 month visit, when he was less than the 2nd percentile for weight by height. He's trying more and more table foods; pasta with marinara sauce was a big hit this past week. He has days when he's all about feeding himself and days when he doesn't really seem to want to pick anything up. All trial and error! Knute has discovered that mealtime is a good time to lurk beneath the table, particularly on days when we're trying tuna or cheese crumbles. He's not such a fan of the dropped peas, though!

Some last pictures, this time of an exploration of the office, which is kind of a catch-all mess right now. He found Daddy's spare stethoscope and spent the better part of an hour playing with it.

9 months--lots of new things!!

Steven turned 9 months last week, and a LOT has happened since I last posted on December 17. For one thing, he took his first steps literally the day after my last post. The first night it was 2-3 steps at a time, then 4-6 the next day, and by Christmas he was crossing rooms and starting to make smooth transitions between surfaces. Now walking is definitely his preferred mode of transportation and we've had to speed up our baby-proofing endeavors. Mike installed locks on almost all of the lower cabinets in the kitchen, and we also installed a gate between the family room and kitchen to keep him contained in the family room while I'm cooking or cleaning and don't want him underfoot in the kitchen. We also took all of the DVDs, board games, and non-baby books off of the shelves in the family room so they wouldn't be teething fodder. Now the family room is a pretty Steven-friendly zone, where I can feel comfortable leaving him unattended if I need to pop upstairs to throw in a load of laundry.

A favorite pastime, pre-DVD removal

Of course, Steven had his first Christmas since the last post, too. Mike had to work over the holiday week, so we had a small and quiet Christmas with just the three of us. Steven is still too young to really "get" Christmas. He did notice the different decorations above the mantle in the family room and he seemed curious about the tree, but other than that not much reaction. He seemed very confused when opening presents. Normally we try to stop him from tearing paper! But he did enjoy his gifts.

I didn't get a picture, but guess where the paper went next?

What's this new thing?

I don't know, but it's in my mouth now!

Knute kept a close eye on the proceedings.

My new bomber hat from the Raykovs!

Go Cardinal! Beat the Badgers!

After a busy week over the holiday, Mike had the next two weeks off. We enjoyed some downtime at home (although some of the time we spent babyproofing!) for the first part of his vacation. Steven helped cheer on Stanford to a Rose Bowl victory on New Year's Day, but that evening he was extra cranky and had a slight fever before bed. Then our little man who had been sleeping through the night consistently since 3 months woke up crying several times overnight and needing comfort. At about 3:00 am it occurred to me that extra cranky + fever + frequent waking = teething, and sure enough, the lower middle teeth made their appearance the very next day! Mike is a little melancholy over the loss of his toothless grin, but he's cute with his two little teeth, too!

After some time at home, we headed out to Minnesota for a belated Christmas celebration with Mike's parents. Nick and Krista and the girls came up for part of the weekend so the whole Unruh clan was together.

Grandma's wrapping paper was the most fun toy of all!

Cousins inspecting each other

Grandma and Grandpa in a magic shot where everyone is facing the camera!

With Uncle Nick

Helping Grandma open her package of new tops

Playing with everyone's shoes in the front hall

Steven had a great time exploring at Grandma and Grandpa's. The kitchen cabinets had all sorts of fun things and there were books and papers everywhere, not to mention shoes (a favorite--especially if they have laces!) in the hallway. He did have fun with some of the "real" toys as well, including the plastic food from the toy kitchen downstairs. He carried around a plastic chicken drumstick for quite a while, holding and chewing the appropriate ends, and spent a good bit of time with a plastic corncob as well. Mike takes this as a sign that he is a future Cobber.

After a week of visiting in Alexandria we headed home and had a few more days of vacation before Mike had to head back to work. A little more baby-proofing--this time anchoring the TV to the console. This was actually a bit of baby-proofing and a bit of Knute-proofing, as he likes to jump up and walk behind the TV. Steven found it all very interesting and investigated the toolbox thoroughly.

A little too heavy, but he tried!

Overall, a busy month of growing and walking and teething and Christmas and trips and we are all exhausted but happy.

No more pictures, please!

Video Test

Here's a video of Steven from earlier today. This is mostly a test.