10 Month Update and Stupid Mommy Mistake

On April 15th, Shaan reached the 10 month mark. The age of 10 months is magical: pure bliss!!!

Maybe I'm just not very good with infants, but I was talking with my sister about how Shaan has taken his first steps and is getting close to walking and she told me she was sad because that means he's no longer a baby. I proceeded to remark how I wasn't really sad at all (which made me feel like a weird mother b/c you are supposed to be sad when your child is no longer a baby, right???)

But then I spoke with my mom about it and evidently she's the same way. I guess it's genetic. Or we just have really fussy babies in our genepool...both my mom and I apparently don't miss the "baby" days of constant crying/unstoppable fussiness, 24/7 teaching (i.e. reading, talking to the babies, so on, so on) with no visible results.

That's where I was with Shaan up until about 9 months (ok, of course there were bright moments as well - first smile, giggles, any time he slept (little angel!)) But 10 months - I mean, this is heaven. It is sooo much fun. Every day I wake up excited about what we will experience together - he truly is a little sponge at this age. He is constantly exploring and babbling - he even has a small vocabulary.

I've heard him say the following words: bye-bye (and he waves "bye" as well), duck, dog, dada, mamma, "night-night", "nana" (for banana), up, no, ball, and balloon (although balloon sounds more like "blooo") and "duck/dog/dad" are almost indistinguisable (I can only tell what they are by what he's looking at or pointing to).

I've also noticed he is aware what other words/phrases mean although he can't say them yet. For instance, he knows what it means to clap (he'll put his fingers together and start clapping), "high five/gimme five" (he reaches out and slaps your hand), he will point to your "nose" and "tongue", he knows "bottle", "light", "on" and "off" (we have a toy in his crib with a button that he likes to turn "on" and "off"), "bath", "cup", "hi", "book", etc...

It's crazy how much absorbs and picks up in a day's time now. And I absolutely love it! Teaching him at this age is so much fun - learning anything is just a game to him (and to me too!)

In addition to babbling/becoming more vocal, he's also getting more mobile as well. I already mentioned that he has taken his first steps and now he can glide on furniture and walk with assistance (sometimes even with only one hand). Alas, we are still not crawling though (don't think we ever will!) So, since he's not really crawling I made a TERRIBLE mistake the other day...

My mom called and wanted to Skype, and I was in the process of putting on his pj's. I told her to give me one minute to get them on, then we could Skype. Shaan's pj's were already laid out on the bed, but we were in the den since I had come in there to answer my phone. I very stupidly left him sitting on the couch for about 30 seconds or less (couldn't have been more...we have a less than 900 square foot apt and the bedroom is literally connected to the den) and I came back/saw he was on all fours at the edge of the couch, I screamed, and watched the following in slow-motion:

Shaan lunges forward (keep in mind we have yet to crawl, but I guess decided we wanted to try then and there!)
Shaan does a somersault
Shaan lands on the HARDWOODS on his back/back of his head

I was terrified. I called my mom shaking/upset and she said to go ahead and Skype and we would see if we could distract him/see how he was behaving. Literally, by the time I got to the computer he had quit crying and was excited (he loves to Skype) and by the time they called us he was clapping his hands and smiling. Needless to say, I monitored him very closely over the next 24 hours and learned my lesson!!!

At least this boy is resilient! I'm sure this will be the first of many falls/scares to come - I guess that's just part of having a boy!