The Halpern Home: 10 Month Update

Wah!? Ryder is 10 months old? How the freak did this happen? In the two weeks preceding Ryder's 10 month "birthday," we saw an explosion of new milestones. He's crawling now. Like actual, up on all fours with his belly off the ground, crawling crawling. He still mixes in some army crawling, which I believe stems from pure laziness, but he can and does crawl normally. He also mastered the transition from laying down to sitting and from sitting to laying down at 9.5 months. It's become quite entertaining to watch him on the video monitor in his crib at night (before he falls asleep) and in the morning when he wakes. He sits himself up, yanks at the bumper for a while, tries to throw his paci over the side of the crib (and often succeeds) and generally runs amok (as much as a 10 month old can run amok in an empty crib).

He still loves to wave "bye-bye" and clap his hands to celebrate, but that's about the extent of his party tricks. Despite my tireless exertions, I haven't succeeded in teaching Ryder to speak any actual words yet. He says something that sounds exactly like "ball," but I have no concrete evidence that there is any meaninful connection behind the utterance. This morning I could swear he said "uh-oh." But again, I'm not confident enough to make any affirmative, blog-worthy representations.

He still loves his solids, when it comes to pureed baby food, but is such a toot when it comes to finger foods. Here are the list of finger foods that he loves:

-bananas
-mum-mums (baby crackers)
-saltine crackers
-graham crackers
-puffs (baby cereal)
-cheerios

As my friend Emily pointed out, these are all bland, tan-colored foods. You'd think he'd like some more exciting, colorful options, but nooooooo. Every other food that I've tried has been rejected outright. If I put something new on his tray, he either violently swipes it off of his tray or deliberately throw it over the side. If I try to put a bite/piece of something directly in his mouth, he makes a face as if I have given him a taste of dog feces and immediately spits it out. Lots of babies have issues with gagging, but Ryder doesn't even gag. He just thrusts the food right out of his mouth with his tongue (while making a horrendous, overly-dramatic sour-puss face). These are the foods I have offered him that he has rejected:

-mashed potatoes (with butter)
-noodles (with and without butter)
-plain toast
-toast with fruit jam
-avocado pieces
-peach pieces
-nectarine pieces
-grape pieces
-apple slices
-rotisserie chicken
-cottage cheese
-monterrey jack cheese
-peas
-carrots
-green beans
-corn
-pumkin muffin

I'm sure I am forgetting some as well. It's really the oddest thing. If I hand Ryder a mum-mum or cracker, he can't get it into his mouth fast enough. If I hand him a strip of toast, he drops it like a hot potato and won't touch it again. As you can see, Ryder has rejected foods of all colors, flavors and textures. You would think that once I put something yummy into his mouth, he'd see that it tastes good and take over from there. What kid doesn't like cheese, for goodness sake? CHEESE! No child of mine will dislike cheese, I assure you of that. And what about a pumpkin muffin? It was pretty much a glorified, un-iced cupcake. Anyway, I'm assuming it's not a flavor issue because Ryder loves peas, carrots, peaches, etc. etc. when they come in pureed baby food containers. Which leads me to believe it is, indeed, a texture issue. But how can a baby have such a pervasive texture issue? I've offered him all sorts of textures! And he likes crunchy puffs/cheerios and slimy bananas. So why are those items exceptions to the rule? If you are a mom with some insight who happens to read this blog, please feel free to clue me in to this mystery.

Ryder is down to 3 bottles a day. I fill them each to 6 ounces, but often times it's a struggle to get him to take more than 3 or 4 in a sitting. On average, I'd say he is taking 12-15 ounces a day. I'm still working on the sippy cup (with water) at meals, but I haven't seen a lot of progress. He'll figure it out eventually.

Ryder is in 9 month clothes, for the most part, but can even fit into a few 12 month items. He is in size 3 diapers. I don't know his exact weight but assume he is closing in on 19 pounds. The most noticable change in his appearance during the past month has been his hair. His hair is becoming curly. This change literally seemed to happen overnight a couple of weeks ago. It was always very straight and then suddenly the ends started curling and the sides started waving. It's still hard to tell whether he'll truly have full-on curly hair (like his mama) or whether it will be mostly straight with a bit of texture/wave to it (like his dada). We'll see.

Ryder still demonstrates some pretty bizarre behavior, especially before bedtime (when he is tired). He STILL has this weird ritual/game where he lays on his back, places his lovey over his face, and kicks his legs wildly up and down. To give you a better mental image, he lifts both legs up off the ground and then slams them both down to the ground. He does this over and over again, rapidly, with the lovey laying over his face. He then yanks the lovey off, looks around the room, smiles, puts it back over his face, and repeats the entire routine. The other thing he likes to do before bed is crawl over to his closet door, lay on his side, and then open and shut the door over and over again. After a few minutes, he'll crawl a few feet to the main door of his room, and open and close it over and over again. Back and forth he goes between the two doors, swinging them open and shut, open and shut, open and shut. Forget the toys in his room, forget the people in the room, forget the dog in the room... he just likes to open and shut doors. Lastly, he is in love with the door stops. We have the springy kind that make a cartoon-like farting noice when you pull and release them. He likes to pull them over and over again. Oh, the things that keep babies entertained...

I haven't taken any official 10 month photos of Ryder yet, but here are a collection of photos from the past month. Enjoy!

Ryder makes a very nice center-piece for our kitchen table. We put him there every morning to eat cheerios while Blake enjoys his breakfast, so that I can finish packing his bag for school.