We’re almost there, almost to the big ONE year birthday! This year went by so fast (and yet each day seemed so slow, funny how that works). The little guy just melts my heart. He’s got big smiles and belly laughs and it’s the best thing ever. I’m not going to get any more mushy…I’ll save that for my one year post.

Go to my earlier post, A Look Back: Wesley’s 9 Months, to see 0 to 9 months!

October - 10 Months Old

Sleep training Round 3 - Ugh, does it stop? Let’s sleep dude!
Cruising - He’s walking along tables & able to move from one thing and then across to another
Standing for like 3 seconds without any support
Short distances with toy walker independently
Loves to play with water - splish splash!
Tongue side to side - Funny blub sound with tongue going back and forth (so cute)
Climbs up to stand grabbing the back of mom’s legs
First Halloween! Went as Batman’s (Caleb) sidekick, Robin!

November - 11 Months Old

Getting down from a standing position to crawl or sit
Loves the freezer especially opening and closing it on his own
Walking around with the toy walker (but not great at navigating, yet)
When mom sits down, he loves to walk around her again & again
Bee lines to the laundry room, freezer, or front/back doors to go outside when opened
Wheels, wheels, wheels…all the wheels
Walking and pushing the stroller!
Climbing up the stairs
Started the standard crawl (still does the army crawl, too…but this crawl is faster)
Almost walking, so close…
First Tooth! (on the bottom left)
First Thanksgiving - didn’t really eat much of the food. A bit of a roll perhaps and then playing with the rest.

Have you seen the meme (this one) where the photo of the first child is all done up with cute props and then the second child just has a post-it note? LOL. I’m not quite at that level, but I didn’t get to post monthly for Wesley as I did for Caleb. I did get monthly photos, though. I also took my monthly notes on development and other things I wanted to remember. All that said, now I’m going to play a bit of catch-up and share some photos and notes of Wesley over the past nine months. Better late than never!

Look how much he’s grown. He’s now almost eleven months. Life has sure been busy! Life with one kid really changes your life, but having two is another ballpark. Free time? What’s that! And that, my friends, is why this blog has been so quiet this year. I’m sure I’ll pick it back up, but for now we’ll have a lot of “Looking Back” posts. (FYI: I also have Raising Tacoma that I’m trying to keep going, too). But I absolutely adore my kids and cannot imagine life without them. They are my heart. Can you see why?

Wesley Photos: The Past 9 Months

December - First Month

Born on Saturday, 12/7/18 - Read the post here
First Outing was to Caleb’s Preschool Christmas concert
Lots of sleep
First bath at home
At four weeks we saw tears (so sad), but also smiles, and opening his eyes more
Holding head up a few seconds

First Christmas

Wesley’s first holiday is my favorite, Christmas! We thought he’d be in time for Thanksgiving, but instead it was Christmas.

January - 1 Month Old

Only waking once at night (but sometimes two).
Lifting head high up when on his tummy
First cold (with a cough, so sad to hear)
Rolling from tummy to back at 7 weeks
The dreaded fussy time: 9-11pm! Ugh!
First time experiencing Snow (2/4/19)

February - 2 Months Old

Big snow storm, 8-10 inches! Crazy for Tacoma
He’s really lifting his head high when on tummy (higher than before)
Lots of smiles and coos
First step in his transition to his own room - taking his naps in there!
Loves chewing his hands
So wiggley
Crazy kid, lots of back arching making almost hard to hold him
Grabbing for toys and things
At 11 weeks we’re starting to feel a rhythm to the day…maybe we’ll survive after all

March - 3 Months Old

Very curious
Lots of coos and smiles when you talk to him
Grabs everything!! Everything.
First night in the nursery (in his bassinet next to the crib)
Finally down to bed in his bassinet and not doing the fussy time in the carrier (whew, our evenings might be back!)
Turning into his side trying to roll from his back to his tummy
Score! He slept 8.5 hours straight
Loves the Mirror
Laughs

April - 4 Months Old

Breaking out the exesaucer for some jumping & activity time
Distracted eating…mommy grumbles
Teething (we think) & everything goes in his mouth
Sleep Troubles…dreaded 4 month sleep regression
His first night in the crib in his room - room transition complete!
What do you know, he sat in a high chair (sorta)
Found his feet!
Laughing loud - cracking witch laugh (too cute, though)
Shimmy from one corner to the other on his play mat
Commence Rolling: He rolled over back to belly

May - 5 Months Old

Oh my, sleeping on his belly (He rolled over while sleeping)!
Grabbing for everything…including during diaper changes
Down to 4 naps with 1.75-2 hrs wake time
Sleep seems to be getting a bit better, gosh that regression was killer (2x wake up)
Pushing his butt up trying to wiggle & crawl
Wiggling enough to make movement around; he’s getting places!
Consecutive roll overs…wheeee
Start sleep training (yup, gotta do it)
Kicks his legs and flaps his arms when happy and excited
Starting to shriek
First Food was sweet potato then carrots and banana…he was unsure about it all

June - 6 Months Old

Sleep issues again. He stopped sleeping through the night and back to waking up once a night
Sooo close to crawling - getting up on all fours!
Wants our food and will grab for it…watch up!
More foods to try and oatmeal baby food
First time on a swing…loved it, yippee!
Babbling, Ba Ba Ba Ba Babbling
First trip on an airplane and down to California
First time experiencing the beach & ocean

July - 7 Months Old

Army crawling everywhere - room to room, pokes his head in and smiles (so proud)
First time in child care - it was at the church’s nursery and went great
Speed army crawling and going everywhere
Down to two naps a day
Sleep Training Part 2 - by night 3 he was sleeping through the night again
Now he’s sitting up for long periods independently
A favorite activity: the swing at the park
He enjoys making a clicking sound with his tongue
Standing up while holding onto the table independently
Goodbye pacifier

August - 8 Months Old

Said “hi” and “ma ma” (or at least I think he did)
Pulling himself up
Standing for a longer time holding onto things
Sleeping through the night
Enjoys sausage, yogurt, sweet potato, bambas
Diaper changes are the worst - he won’t stop moving and wiggles…help!
Wants to be doing everything, being everywhere, and moving
Starts steps with the walker toy (with assistance)
Brings things to you…let’s play

September - 9 Months Old

Dancing (head and shoulder bop) when music plays or singing
Flaps arms in excitement with toy in hand, pretty funny (especially the little dog toy with string arms)
Da da da da & Dada (we think)
Able to do one or two stair steps
Cruising along tables and furniture
His mom is his jungle gym - she can be the support for standing, walking, pulling, etc
Loves opening and closing things - again and again
Pushing cars/balls/toys/anything around the house
Loves wheels and inspecting them, testing them, seeing what they do
Standing - all he wants to do is stand. No sitting! And loves to stand at the little activity table.
Still Mr. Wiggles and won’t stop moving
Sometimes he’ll sleep through the night, sometimes he won’t (argh)