Leander Roxas // Ten Month Update

10 whole months with this smiley little boy – I can hardly believe it.
I love that his little personality is really starting to shine & I feel more & more like I’m getting glimpses into who Leander is going to grow into – and I love it. He is so sweet & sensitive & caring, with a silly, mischievous side that makes everyone laugh. He is literally the best little dude in the whole world.

• Almost every month, I’ve started out by saying that I am moving Leander up to the next size clothes. Thankfully, we seem to have hit a little bit of a lull in his gigantic growth spurts! He’s landed solidly in some 12, but mostly 18-month clothes. Honestly, he would probably fit just perfectly into a size “15-months”, but since they don’t make that size, it’s mostly 18-month sizes for Leander. (Why don’t they make a size 15-months? Baby clothes go from size 0, to 3 months, to 6 months, to 9 months, to 12 months, and then it suddenly jumps to 18 months – what happened to 15? Current Mommy-conundrums.)
• Leander’s current favorite pastimes seem to be pulling Braelynn’s hair (he’ll pull anyone’s hair that he can get close enough to – but he loves Braelynn’s hair the most – he’s pulled out several large fistfuls). He is obsessed with splashing in the dog water & attempting to eat the dog food (ugh). And he is very quickly learning to make a beeline for the steps if I haven’t put the gate up.
• Speaking of “beeline” Leander has officially graduated from army-crawling to real-crawling! And dude is he fast! I just love the little sound his knees & feet & hands make as he speed-crawls across the floor – it’s so precious! I kind of miss the army-crawling though, because even though he was fast, he was still not as fast as he is now. Now I literally have to run to catch up to him (as he giggles & crawls away from me).
• With the crawling, he’s been doing more exploring than ever before. He definitely knows his way around our house now! And with that, he discovered that our house has a staircase. I honestly don’t know how he didn’t figure it out sooner – he’s so observant!! One evening, I ran upstairs to grab something, and the stinker decided to follow me up. Thankfully, Derrick was keeping an eye on the little dude & followed him. He only made it about 2 or 3 steps up before I started coming down & spotted him. He instantly collapsed into a fit of giggled (and thankfully, Derrick was right behind him to catch him). He just thought he was SO funny to have figured out this new “trick”. Needless to say, our very next action was to bring the gate down from the 3rd floor!
• Leander pulls himself up to stand on everything. It used to be just his little activity table, but now it’s the couch, the fridge, my pantleg, chairs, bookshelves – you name it. He has enough balance to only hold on with one hand, but he hasn’t been brave enough to completely let go yet. It’s coming – so so soon!!
• Two new teeth popped thru this month (one just today)!! That brings the count up to EIGHT – he’s literally a baby shark.
• He has been all about talking this month – trying out new sounds, new inflections, new volume (watch out!) He’s been saying “Mama” for a while now, but this month he figured out how to say “Dada”. It’s not quite as easy as Mama, but it’s coming out more and more & it’s adorable.
• Along with all of his new sounds – he’s also learned how to make kissing sounds! If you ask him to give you a kiss, he’ll pucker up & make the kissing sound (usually – tricks on command are still a little hit-or-miss).
• The dude certainly loves to eat & has graduated to eating multiple baby foods in one sitting. We’ve also introduced a whole host of “regular” food to him this month too – he’s tried avocado, peas, cauli rice, bananas, peaches – but his absolute favorite BY FAR is cantaloupe & arrowroot cookies (look thru his photos for this month for proof of that one!) Further, he has also learned how to feed the dog – and Abby has learned that if she puts her nose right up under his tray, he’ll gladly pass things down to her. It’s hilarious & silly (& something we’ll eventually have to correct – I guess).
• Leander is an extremely enthusiastic wave-r. If you wave at him, he will wave back, and typically, it’s not just his hand that goes – it’s his whole arm & body. Absolute hilarity!!
• Last month he learned how to show off his muscles when you ask him: “How strong are you?” So, this month, we’ve been trying to teach him to raise his arms when we ask him: “How big are you?” The problem is: those questions are so similar, that they are easily mixed up! So, he knows the responses, but no guarantees that he’ll give the right response to the question you’re asking!
• We traveled to Ohio a few weeks ago & Leander got to meet his Great-Grandma & Great-Aunt Katie from Texas!! They had come up for a memorial service, and since 3 hours is much closer than 22 hours, we drove out to see them for a few hours!
• Leander was a part of celebrating his Great-Grandpa & Great-Meme’s 60th wedding anniversary this month! We had a big party & he was literally an angel. I was a smidge nervous: there were going to be a lot of people there & it was right in the middle of naptime – but he was fantastic!
• I mentioned above that Leander is super sensitive – if Brealynn is crying about something – Leander cries right along with her. He isn’t even sure why he’s crying, but his big sister is crying, so he pouts up & cries too. It is so sweet & breaks my heart every single time.
• It’s funny, I was just talking to Derrick about how – at this age, Braelynn was really starting to get into watching TV. She loved to watch Baby Einstein & would watch anything that Derrick & I would watch. Leander could care less. He’ll stand & watch the TV for about 5 seconds, and then he’s off to do more exploring. He simply can’t be bothered with it.
• Speaking of differences between Braelynn & Leander – Braelynn was (and still is) a huge cuddler. She loves to snuggle right up to you & be very close. Leander is not a snuggler. He loves to be held, but he doesn’t want to snuggle up while you hold him.
• Yes, he still sucks his 2 fingers & it’s perfect. Everyone comments on how sweet it is & it truly is the sweetest little self-soothing method ever.
• But he isn’t all sweetness, I promise. He broke 2 of my necklaces this month – snapped them both right off my neck before I could even react!

Here are his Ten Month photos! It blows my mind to look back & see how much he’s grown & changed – One Month photos & Two Month photos & Three Month photos & Four Month photos & Five Month photos & Six Month photos & Seven Month photos & Eight Month photos & Nine Month photos. Time can slow down anytime now!

I seem to remember this with Braelynn – but 10 months is a hard age to photograph!! This dude will not sit still!! I’d set him down, lift the camera to my eye to take his photo, and he was already gone – just in the half a second it took for me to lift my camera!! A huge challenge. Thankfully, I think I got a few good photos – but there are lots of “candids” this month – mostly because the dude WOULD NOT SIT STILL. Also, you’ll see toward the end, but this post should be sponsored by Arrowroot Cookies – as eventually, I bribed him with a cookie & that was the only way I got a few photos in!! I could have hidden them from the photos (and Photoshopped the crumbs off of his face), but I decided to embrace it & just go for it!

If you’d like to follow along with what our little guy is up to on a more weekly basis – I’m taking weekly photos of him (just like I did with Braelynn) too! I post those updates every Monday on my personal Facebook page, as well as my Instagram account!