10 months

Dear X,

At ten months old, you are an adorable, roly-poly baby with almost four teeth on the bottom and two on top. You drool constantly, still spit up with some regularity (but nothing like the fountain you used to be), and since starting daycare there is pretty much always snot coming out of your nose. You laugh with delight when you see someone in your family, and you think pretty much everything your big brother does is the best and funniest thing ever.

When I come home, you immediately crawl over to me, grab my pant legs, pull yourself up and lift your hands up for me to grab and walk you around. If I leave the room after you first see me, you get upset, which is why I prefer to immediately sneak upstairs, change, and then come back down so you don't get spit, snot, and food crust all over my work clothes. The other day when I dropped you off at school, you cried. Then you crawled over to me and wanted to be picked up and were happy again. Then when the teacher took you again, you cried again. Are you suddenly developing separation anxiety? At least I know you like me.

You say "da" and "ga" but I have never heard you utter any kind of "m" sound, which makes me think it will be a very long time until I hear "mommy" from you. We are trying to teach you some basic signs (more, all done, milk, eat, drink, water, please, thank you, diaper, bath, play, up), but we haven't been terribly consistent and I think the only ones you recognize are "all done" and "milk". I may be imagining it, but I think you are starting to say "a-da" (all done) at the end of a meal.

You are still eating some jar food, but you prefer finger food and will happily eat anything and everything we're eating. Your digestive system can't always handle it, but your mouth is ready! Stay with that. No more picky eaters in our house, please!

You can move around easily and are getting more steady on your feet, but you can only stand by yourself for a second or two. I predict that you'll walk some time around your first birthday. You crawl if nobody is around to hold your hands while you walk around. You can pick up the teeny-tiniest objects (like a single round sprinkle) from the floor and shove them into your mouth, and you get annoyed when we prevent you from eating your objects of choice. Especially shoes, wires and cables.

You hate falling down. Even if you're not hurt at all, you get angry and cry. It surprises me because you're usually resilient. But then again, you never did like to be thwarted. You also do not like lying down. Luckily you're strong enough now for standing-up diaper changes.

You love being held up in the air, turned upside down, and spun around; watching ceiling fans; and clapping, snapping, and other body-movement sounds. You are ticklish, especially on your feet and on your sides around your belly. You laugh when I blow on your head, making your hair fly up.

You get tired really early. Around 6 p.m., your eyes start to get red. At 6:30 you enter a fun manic phase where you laugh hysterically at everything for no reason. By 6:45, if we have not started bedtime preparations, you become miserable. If you are not asleep by 7 p.m., we are all miserable. A bath can keep you happy even if it's getting late, but once you get out of it, you move quickly past fun-manic into upset-manic.

I can't believe you will be a whole year old soon. I'm excited to make your first birthday cake. The other day I gave you a little piece of an Italian cookie that a neighbor made and you tried to eat my face, looking for more. I think you may have a sweet tooth like Mommy.

You are an awesome baby and you make me so happy every day.

Love,
Mommy