Dear Gray: Month Ten

Dear Gray,

Ten months? Really? For some reason I am having a hard time with the whole double digits thing. I cannot believe that my baby is almost a year old!

The cruising, crawling and teething all continue. I thought you'd probably be walking by now but you don't seem too inclined to try to balance on your own, so that may be further off than I thought. Doesn't matter though- you can get where you want to go with lightening speeds. In probably my first very-bad-parent moment I ran upstairs the other day to let the dogs out, thinking you'd never be able to make it across the basement in that amount of time. Well, you CAN make it across the basement AND halfway up the stairs. It about gave me heart failure, and I learned a hard lesson. You were fine, laughing in that "heh heh heh" way of yours but it scared the daylights out of me.

Your first Christmas was a quiet one. Well, except for the Animal Train that Auntie Laurie gave you! It was just us three, and you had very little interest in the whole process, of course. The Animal Train was probably your favorite present since you come running anytime we make it play it's (very LOUD) song: "Hop on board the Animal Train, COME ON! everyone...)" I was impressed at how little you cared about the tree since I envisioned having to buy a fence to put around it. You were interested in it, but not intent on tearing it apart. I can picture you crawling up to it and doing that thing with your hand where you open and close your fingers a couple of times before you actually touch it very gently. You're such a good boy.

At this point you have four teeth, and with the amount of drooling you are doing I wouldn't be surprised if another was on the way. Poor thing, you have a two little chapped spots on your cheeks that surround your mouth like parenthesis that we keep slathered with goo day and night. Luckily, (VERY luckily) teething hasn't impacted your sleeping. You are a champion sleeper. I would enter you in a contest, if there were such a thing, and we would take top prize! You continue to nap at 9, 1 and sleep from 7:30 PM-7 AM. I love it and I thank you for it!

You learned how to do "SOOO big" this month and you learned it after seeing me do it twice. That made me realize that you could be signing as well, so I am trying to sign more with you. The other day I signed "all done" to you after eating and I noticed your little hands making the sign- I was so proud of you! The "SO big" thing is funny too, because you raise your little arms up while inhaling all this air and it is just the cutest thing. You have moved from "uhoh" to "wowowow," "mamamama" and "dadada."

Reading is becoming a little more meaningful to you and you love your "Ten Little Ladybugs" and the "Dogs" books. Those are the two books that you will always sit and listen to. You continue to be fascinated with any and all cords (ARGH) and when anyone shuts a door on you (to keep you trapped in the basement) you wail and sob. You are suddenly this big dancer because any time you hear a beat you will start to bounce. You seem to prefer techno, at this point. You will catch our eye and play peek-a-boo with us, which makes you laugh and laugh. You love waffles, jam on toast, cheese and any fruit- especially pears- that I give you. You'd rather avoid pasta and green beans. We tried fish with you the other day and after spitting it out, you looked in the bowl like "what IS that?" and then yelled at me. Let's just say you didn't care for it.

Yesterday I was on the floor with my head in your lap while you played with my hair and laughed hysterically. You smelled like diaper and baby and it was all I could do not to just eat you up. Even when we have a crappy day together you will give me this huge smile when I walk in the room and all is forgiven. There's nothing I like better than to pick you up and have you put your thumb in your mouth and head on my shoulder. It's the best thing in the world.

Love,
Mama