I’m pretty sure I’m the only one counting, but this is my fourth post in as many days. Yep. I’m pretty amazing. I was about to say I’ll have another one tomorrow, but my in-laws are coming into town tomorrow evening, so I’ll probably be madly cleaning instead of writing a post.
Okay, so Abe is ten months old now, which is dangerously close to a year old and putting me into freaking out about how quickly it goes by territory (even though, if I’m being totally honest, I find this stretch of baby/toddlerhood–from when they get mobile until around 18 months or so when they start to get a tiny bit of common sense–the most exhausting part. But they’re awfully cute). Anyway, I’m really, really glad I’ve been doing these monthly posts; they’re the closest thing to a baby book I’ve attempted since way back with baby #1.
He has his nine month check-up a few weeks ago, and he finally broke 20 pounds (barely…just under 21), putting him around the 50th percentile for weight and still hanging out around the 20th in height. Itty bitty baby!
He’s completely hilarious and charming; he went through a growling phase a couple of days ago, but it was gone as quickly as it started. He’s definitely saying “kitty cat” and “doggy” and saying and signing “all done.” In fact, we are reasonably sure (I even have non-family witnesses) that he says “good kitty cat.” Often right before a cat lands a claw on his poor little nose. He probably also says “da da” and “mama” and maybe “car.” It’s hard to tell. He says so many things; who knows how many of them mean something?
On the less charming side, his sleeping is so terrible now compared to when he was younger I could cry. Why, sometimes I do! He wakes up at least once between when we put him to bed at 7:30 or so and when we go to bed around 11. And then he wakes up at least 2 more times after that and is up for good by 6:30. He’s in bed with us for most of the night now, which is fine; all I’m really asking is that he stay asleep until after we go to bed…I hate having my kidless time interrupted every night! His naps are sometimes good and sometimes not….I never know what I’m going to get.
This month’s photo session was tacked on at the end of the all the kids session where I took pictures for our Christmas card, so here are just a few I got in before he was all done with the camera.
Look at those eyes! If I could see those in the dark when he wakes up an hour after I put him to bed, I might not be so annoyed about it ;).
Here are a few of the pictures I didn’t choose for our card this year. Because it’s not nearly hard enough to get a picture with four KIDS all looking reasonably good, I decided to throw the three dogs in, too. I figured we’d give it a try for a minute and see what we could get, then put them inside and do just the kids. But some of the with dog ones turned out pretty well, and the one that went on the card has the dogs in it. Here’s a with dog runner up:
And here’s the one I almost chose….the winner among dogless photos:
he’s so cute, i just want to dig a hole and stick him in it. 😉 he he. really though he is so stinkin cute!
LOL–thanks, Cassie! Pretty soon he’s going to be too BIG to put in a hole. sniff.
so cute! he always looks like he’s thinking SO HARD.
Everybody looks so handsome 🙂 Fabulous photos! I apologize in advance for having helped hiking up the weight curve of babies. B hit 20 pounds at 4 months. He has been surfing the 90th percentile pretty much ever since 🙂 – for some reason you are never in the 100th percentile even if your dot on the curve is way above the graph. Someone explain that to me sometime 🙂
My first three were all like that, too; that’s why I’m so fascinated by this tiny little creature! Milo was 20 pounds by 4 months, too :). I’m short and DH is tall; I guess my short genes were bound to show up sooner or later if we kept having kids 🙂
Abe is so handsome! haha, I think it’s hilarious that he will not be tricked into walking 🙂
He’s all, “I get along JUST FINE crawling, thanks!”
Great pictures! I can’t believe Abe is still so tiny. I never would have thought you made tiny babies. LOL
I didn’t think I had it in me, either, Di Linh 🙂
Such sweeties you have girl!!! And oh how cute is Abe!!! 10 months..yep! It is flying! My last 2 were the worst sleepers and we are still working with our 13 month old. She is up at least once now. You will get there…and I hope we do too!!! Such beautiful shots Gretchen!!!
Love them all so much! Love the doggies in the picture!
(I think you should have picked Abe in the hole on your holiday card 😉 totally jk )
ha! Totally going to do that next year 😉
what handsome men! And baby Abe looks a bit like Ewan Mcgregor…does he get that alot? and does his dad get very annoyed 😉 My son (who is almost 3 now) has always been waking up a few times a night crying for the pacifier etc. I thought all kids do that…? And now we have a brand new baby and guess which one of them keeps us awake?? The oldest!
Thanks, Alla! I’ve never heard anyone say he looks like Ewan Mcgregor, but now that you mention it I can kind of see it :). Mine have run the gamut with sleep; my first spoiled us by being an amazing sleeper from the beginning, but the next two didn’t follow suit. Abe kind of tricked us by starting out as a great sleeper and then falling apart once the teeth started coming in. But he’ll sleep someday, right?
What a good looking bunch of kids you’ve got there.
Abe makes me want a baby. I’d tell you not to tell Nate but I keep telling him a lot lately. Maybe I should show him Abe but not let him read the part about waking up all of the time. (I just skimmed that section for my own good. ;p)
You’ll notice I have four despite the lack of sleep. So, uhh, I guess that means I think they’re worth it? Yes, of course, totally worth it (ask me again when he’s sleeping better, and I’ll be more convincing ;))
I could, but its boring stats stuff… I’ll try to simplify.
A percentile is the weight everyone falls below – so to be the 100th percentile you would have to have the heaviest baby in the world, then 100% of the other babies would be under the weight of your baby. Since you are at the 90th percentile, 90% of other kids are lighter than yours, and 10% are heavier. The probability of moving into a higher percentile diminishes as you approach it since outliers (stats that don’t follow the normal curve) increase as you move away from the average.
Sorry – this was in reply to Katja above – dunno why it went to the bottom.
I’ve had my share of “above the 99th percentile” babies :)…at least with weight. I guess when they’re 95th percentile for height and also super chubby that’s bound to happen :). It’s nice to have the lightest baby when my back is the oldest, at least 😉
We’re having the same problem with Edie! Darn teeth…or separation anxiety…or whatever… I still need to get that planter sent off to you but I’ve been too much of a zombie lately to pack it up! Also, I don’t know how you got 4 boys under the age of 18 to all look at your camera at the same time! Can’t wait to see the final pick.
no rush whatsoever on the planter! between thanksgiving, birthdays, christmas, and life in general, my bathroom remodel’s going nowhere fast :). Fingers crossed that both our babies get over this soon….there’s always another tooth to blame things on, isn’t there!?
I couldn’t agree more about the mobile to 18 month stage. I’m dreading it. I’ll just stay over here in my corner and cuddle my little one and just pretend that isn’t around the corner for me!!
I find denial to be one of my most important parenting tools.
So many words already! Love that you got some pics of him crawling and that the Christmas card photo will have the dogs in it too.