He has finally transitioned to the right way of crawling. After over 2 months of army crawling, he finally figured out the ands and knees approach to getting places. However, he still prefers the army way. Maybe we have an armed service man in the making :)
He is also cruising everywhere. His favorite spot still seems to be the fireplace though. After numerous attempts to safe-guard it (bumpers, duct tape, and even rubber cement), we have resorted to prayer. The kid destroys everything in his way and apparently the bumpers "are in the way." So I've given up. I've surrendered. Now I just sit close by, watching and praying intensely as he happily plays on the fireplace. He even enjoys crawling into Sister Sister's bed and climbing up on top of it. Lord help me.
He is also a master of the stairs now. Again, minor heart-attacks every time he wants to play on the stairs. He is so cute doing it, but trust me when I say prayers are present every step of the way!
His ability to communicate with me continues to amaze me daily. He shakes his head no when he doesn't want something (yes, including kisses now-totally breaks my heart), signs more or claps whenever he wants more of something, and even points to which snack he wants. He sits and eats a bite of snack, then grabs his sippy cup and takes a sip. Watching this warms my heart. However, seeing how big and independent he is becoming does make me a bit sad :( Speaking of communicating....he is now the king of temper-tantrums! If he wants to play with something and you remove him from the situation, he arches his back and throws a full-blown temper-tantrum. I can't help but laugh when this happens. Not sure if its because he is giving a taste of what's in store (and laughing is a better option than crying) or if its just because he is just soo darn cute. Either way-they are ever too present in our house and I'm doing my best to nip them in the bud. He is a very stubborn kid who knows what he wants and is willing to try everything to get it. Wonder where he gets that from :)
He also understands "NO" fairly well. I'd say about 90% of the time I only have to say it once with him listening. We do have those times where I have to repeat myself several times before he thinks I'm serious enough to listen. And trust me-we also have those times where he wants to be stubborn and test me, and I have to remove him from the situation with the ever-so-lovely temper-tantrum following right behind!!! However, seeing that he is only 10 months old, I'd say he is understanding my seriousness more than he'd probably like and I'm very proud of him for that.
With only 4 weeks in a month, I thought for sure our doctor's office was going to call DHR on me. Seeing we've been there once a week, every week in April I thought my time as a mama was over! I mean, don't get me wrong-we are there a lot every month (all the front desk women, nurses, and lab ladies know him by name)-but for some reason, I feel this month took the cake! I added up my co-pay and medicine bill for the month and the total was close to $300.00. And that's just 1 month! Hopefully no more visits in our near future.
As if I didn't give them reason enough to call DHR on me for the 4 visits this month, I definitely gave them a reason to on the morning after our 4th visit. Phoenix was fussing and to calm him, I handed over the bottle of aspirin for Sister Sister. I know, I know...how dare I do such a thing. Well, I've just been feeling soo bad for him (remember now, he has been sick basically this entire month), and the shake sound made him light up with excitement. He was happily shaking his stuff on the floor in the den while I was trying to straighten up a bit. I was in the room with him the entire time. I noticed he got quiet so I turned around to check on him and I saw aspirin EVERYWHERE. I grabbed one out of his mouth and quickly gathered up the rest. Did the calculations to see how many were suppose to be in the bottle and came to the conclusion-3 were missing. Lordy-what I have done now. I called poison control and they did not seem worried about it one bit. That eased my worries about him getting sick, however; I still had an uneasy feeling of DHR knocking on my door at any minute. I quickly devised a plan. As soon as he woke up from his nap, we were outta here. There was no way I was going to let them take my baby. He got up and I was taking off his onsie and wouldn't you know it-3 aspirin came tumbling down. Thank you God! I quickly called poison control to let them know he didn't actually swallow any aspirin. Boy was that a relief.
Happier news. We have had some fun this month. Story time at the library finished up this month-we are ever soo sad about it, however we have made some friends there and we have a group meeting at the zoo for a fun time. We are really looking forward to this. We are still doing story time at Whole Foods and are still loving it! We've been to the zoo (tagged along with Cahaba Heights Elementary School's Kindergarten field trip) and even got to feed the giraffes! We've been spending Saturdays at the ballpark watching our girls play softball as well. We bought a bouncy house/moonwalk from a girl online and Phoenix has loved it. He would play in it all day, every day if I'd let him. It is now residing in our playroom, but since Daddy bought himself a home theater system, projector and screen for himself for his birthday-I have a feeling the bouncy house is going to be kicked back out to the curb pretty soon!
We also had a fab lunch with the HWCH (Housewives of Cahaba Heights). These girls are very dear to me and they love Phoenix like no other. I love seeing him get spoiled with love by my girlfriends. It warms my heart more than they'll ever know. We are truly blessed to have each one of them in our lives. We love you girls!
He is also starting to tan. No, not on purpose...but over the past month his skin has turned into such a pretty light olive tone. Palestinian skin-might be the only thing he got from his Mama (who happens to be one of the whitest Palestinians to live)! His curls are also more present. People comment on them all the time and I can't help but cringe. At this point, they are cute and will continue to be as long as they don't take over his whole head. His top 2 teeth have also come in a pretty good bit. Jason always asks him why he has buck teeth-poor kid :( I think they are adorable though! Last week at the doctor he weighed in at almost 22.8 lbs. He is continuing to grow like a weed!
Thank you Phoenix for 10 months of wonder, amazement, love, laughter, and tears. Words can't describe what you mean to your Daddy and I. You are simply precious My Sweet, Sweet Sweet Ray! As always, may God Bless you to the Moon and Back!
