I find that the older Grady gets, the less time I have to myself. I have a forever list of blog posts that I just never have time to get to. If he’s napping, there’s laundry to do, floors to mop, toilets to scrub…the list goes on! Not to mention the cooking I have to do for this crew! What’s it going to be like with a SECOND baby??? (Not that I’m pregnant or anything.)
Grady’s Schedule
Grady’s schedule has pretty much stayed the same for the past month. At one point, I was trying to push him to four hours of wake time rather than 3.5 in between his two naps. This was causing him to get overtired and wake at 5 o’clock every morning! If you’re wondering what I’m talking about, this book is my baby sleep Bible! It has helped me with his sleep from day one. And helped us with ours too! It’s so good that my husband will skim sections and ask “what the book says.”
6:00 am – wake and 4 ounces milk
6:20 – 7:30 am – play, stroller ride
7:30 am – breakfast
7:45 – 9:00 am – play
9:00 – 10:00 am – nap 1
10:00 am – small snack and 2 ounces milk
10:20 – 12:00 pm – play. trips to park, pool time
12:00 pm – lunch
12:30 – 1:30 pm – play, park, pool
1:30 – 3:00 pm – nap 2
3:15 pm – small snack and 2 ounces milk
3:30 – 6:00 pm – play, stroller ride, etc.
6:00 pm – dinner, bath and bedtime routine
7:00 pm – bedtime
I try to stick to this schedule because it seems to work. There are times when we are out and about and he does fall asleep in the car and it doesn’t seem to mess up his day or anything. I just try to make sure he gets 11 hours of sleep per night and 2.5 hours during the day.
What Grady’s Eating
Food and feeding Grady has become a breeze! I’m so glad I started right away with baby led weaning. If you’re interested in seeing how we got started with baby led weaning, you can visit THIS POST. Now that he’s older and we’ve been doing the food thing for a while, I have a general idea of what he likes and what he doesn’t like. I always offer him a variety of food and I’ve started offering him dips for his vegetables. When I cook, I just make sure all the ingredients are either no salt added or low sodium. He eats at the dinner table with us every night as a family. We’ve added a few things to his high chair and it seems to work:
*A silicone placemat that sticks to the high chair. We had a problem where he was slinging food all over the place when he was finished. Now, he just slides the mat away from him and we know he’s done. It’s also less messy. I linked the one we purchased and we love. We also bought this big boy placemat from the same company so he can use it when he’s out of the high chair and at the dinner table. One thing we’ve learned is that you have to stay consistent with the feeding routine!
*Grady has been wanting to feed himself with utensils so we originally purchased these spoons to help him out. I didn’t think about it but they were for right handed babies! I would scoop the food into the spoon and place it on his high chair at his right. He would pick it up with his right hand but would immediately transfer the spoon to his left. Looks like we need left handed spoons! I found these left handed toddler spoons at a pretty decent price and we’ve been practicing with those.
I’m currently working on a post that shows what Grady eats in a given week. It’s going to have links to all the recipes I use to feed him and our family. If you’d like to see what he eats in more detail from nine months, CLICK HERE.
What Grady’s Doing
Grady started taking steps at 10 months and a few days. Being a new parent, I thought he would just start walking. Or maybe that’s how it is for some parents. I was ready for him to just GO and I would no longer have to lug him around. Apparently, that’s not how it works. One of the things we’ve noticed is that he takes a few more steps every day. When he takes those extra steps every day, he walks a little bit longer before falling down. We can see him develop strength and confidence as he is learning this new skill.
Grady loves climbing stairs and furniture. He opens all my cabinets and pulls it’s contents all over the kitchen floor. Sitting and playing with toys is not something that he enjoys doing. Grady would rather be moving around than messing with a toy. It’s a little frustrating for me because there are times when I would like for him to just sit………so I can sit……..and no I ain’t putting him in a cage! He would just break it down anyway.
We still go to story time at the local library. I’m alway so embarrassed when we go because he doesn’t sit for circle time. He’s usually in the middle of the circle – screaming. Or running around. All the other babies sit so nicely in their mommy’s laps. At one point, the librarian asked me to stay close to him for safety reasons. As a teacher, this behavior is appalling. I’m hoping he grows out of it.
Friday’s is gym day. Grady OWNS gym day. Everyone knows who he is and everyone stays out of his way. Gym day is still his favorite and he can scream and run all over the place without restrictions. His new favorite activity is running up the ramp and falling into the ball pit.
I thought I would always have a quiet, sweet little boy. As he grew in the womb, he become more and more active. He basically hit the ground running.
Don’t let that face fool you….
