We have been decorating the house for a while like always. He has gotten a kick out of looking at the lights and cobwebs. I went looking at Granny's for a Halloween costume for Tom. I found a bee costume and thought that would be perfect. My softball team went as bees last year so I had a bee costume. I also had the flower costume that I made last year to go with the bees.
We spent the weekend before Halloween over at Entiat celebrating Vansee & Eedee's birthdays and Halloween party. We also paid a visit to my softball team who was playing in a Halloween tournament in Chelan,
For Halloween night we stayed home and handed out candy. We had lots of trick-or-treaters, and everyone was excited to see Tom all dressed up. What a great Halloween.
This months has been packed full of changes and new adventures.
Tom got sick yet again this month. I am sort of tired of this routine. Although we are learning to manage it better. They think he keeps getting a stomach virus. So people quite passing on your virus to Tom. He has had his share for the first year. The most important thing you can do is wash your hands after you go to the bathroom. Thanks.
Tom has had a lot of fun exciting things happen this month. He has switched over to formula. I probably would have nursed him a little longer but with him being sick so much my production went down when he stopped eating and then it was slow to come back. So he was up a lot at night eating. We are now back to him sleeping 12 hours at night. Sometimes he will have a 3 AM bottle, but not every night. We had one weekend of fussy Tom because he missed Mom, but he started taking the bottle after that. The nice part is he is now taking the bottle a lot better and from pretty much anyone. It makes it a lot easier for me to get help. I has been a lot easier on my mom and Eric when they watch him.
Tom is also now on fruits and vegetables. He has been eating rice cereal for a while now so we knew he would be fine with the actual process of eating. He is already kind of doing a chewing motion and trying to hold the spoon.
We knew he was really wanted to move on to more exciting stuff than rice cereal because he would get fussy when he saw and smelled whatever Eric and I were eating. So we were super excited to see what he liked. We have heard there is a theory that if you start with green foods first that they will like them better. So we picked from our baby bullet list of first foods and we picked zucchini. I have been making baby food from stuff in our garden for months now, so I just pulled some zucchini out of the freezer. We weren't sure what to expect since zucchini is one of those things some people really don't like but he loved it and had a smile on his face. After that we tried peas. I don't think he liked the texture so I added more water to turn it into a liquid then added rice cereal and he ate it with no problem. After that we tried squash which so far is his absolute favorite. Then we tried avocado. I don't think he like the texture either. Then he had bananas which he sort of liked. Funny thing about bananas is they turn purple 5 minutes after you blend them. Then he tried sweet potatoes which he liked almost as much as squash. The funniest thing so far had to be the latest one that we tried which is apples. I prepped a lot of apples and froze them thinking who doesn't like apples. Well so far Tom doesn't like apples. I tried them and they tasted great but the face Tom was giving me was like they were too tart. It was pretty funny. Maybe he will learn to like them. Or I will just have to mix a little in with other stuff. Can't wait to try more foods.
Tom has also tried to move around a lot more. He is officially sleeping on his stomach now. He turns himself over every night and he will only sleep on his stomach now. He is rolling around a lot.
He is attempting to crawl. It is pretty funny. He moves his legs back and forth really fast but does nothing with his upper half so he doesn't go anywhere.
He also tries to walk a little when standing, but he is not very good at it. He sits up pretty good on his on now only falling when trying to reach for something.
We are working on converting the pool table area into a play area for him so we don't have to baby proof the entire house yet but it is moving a little slowly.
We have had to retire a bunch of his stuff that he is too big for now since he is 21 pounds. Including his infant car seat, which was an expensive upgrade to the next size. And unfortunately the Johnny Jump Up that he loved so much. But his bottom was almost sagging to the ground. So he has moved exclusively to the free standing entertainment center and he has figured out how to jump pretty good in that. He is just getting so big.
Probably the most amazing thing that has happened this month in his development is his communication and knowledge. Eric has been out of town a lot for work lately. I was sitting on the couch with Tom on my lap and Eric had just got back after four days. He came in and said hi and Tom was so excited. Eric had to leave and go take a shower and Tom lost it. I didn't realize he knew that well who we were and was keeping tabs on our how often we were around. But we started to notice more amazing things as well. For instance he has been very interested in the cats lately, watching them walk across the room, or reaching out and wanting to pet them. So I noticed that when I ask him where the kitty is he looks around the room and looks at the kitty. I have seen him start to do that with some of the other things that we talk about all the time. It seems like he is really starting to understand some things that we are saying. It is too bad that he hasn't figured out how to communicate back yet and tell me what he wants instead of crying or fusing. I guess one thing at a time. He is making more funny noises as he tried out his voice though. It is very cute to listen to him babble.
