Letter to a 10-month-old on His Birthday

You had your 9 month pediatrician appointment on July 9th. You weighed 22.5 lbs and your height is 30.5 inches. You are in the 80th percentile for weight and 95th for height. Your head is 90th percentile. You are all 'caught up' on your shots, although you never had rotavirus cause I skipped missed your two-month appt. I have a feeling I will be very busy for your 12 month vaccine-a-thon appointment.

AND you started crawling, like the day after your turned 9 months. AND my life changed! Oh kid, you are amazing. You are so darn quick; you can cross a room in seconds. You crawl and giggle and charge and snort. You put the grossest things in your mouth. You constantly want to fall down next to hard edges. This was absolutely the month of babyproofing for us. We got fences for doorways and latches for drawers and rubber mats for tubs :-).

Just days after your mastery of crawling, you started pulling yourself to stand. You're a pro now, and you 'cruise' furniture like it's nobody's business. Now you LOVE to 'help' mama pick up i.e. throw everything on the floor.

Dax 'helping' mama

You definitely must have read the textbook on baby development, because you don't do things before the book says you will nor do you do them after the book says. You are always right on target. Baby rolls over at 4 months? Check. Sit up at 6 mos.? Crawl at 9 months? Check.

Other tricks?  Pointing, playing chase (you love to chase after us in your walker and when you catch us you burst into a thousand laughs), playing with Diego (you use the cat toy to lure him and then you laugh when he goes for it), you can also go get the ball when we say, "Dax, where's the ball?" You crawl after it and then roll it to us! A genius baby!

You eat a ridiculous amount of food, child. For example, just this morning you ate half a bagel, half a banana, a handful of strawberries & raspberries, some grapes, and a bunch of Cheerios. You only want to feed yourself now--all my homemade delicious baby purees in the freezer are officially useless. If I try to spoon feed you, you shake your hands really fast and try to turn your head all the way around away from me. You also SCARF down food. Like hand over fist. Our grocery bill has noticeably increased.

You love fruit the most. There is no fruit you have not loved--mangoes, pineapple, avocado, grapes, you name it. Veggies are a bit dicey (haha) for us. In the green veggie department, I can get you to eat a few zucchini spears and perhaps a broccoli crown. You do, however, love warm sweet potato and butternut squash. You abhor cucumber, peas, and cauliflower. When you don't like something you systematically drop each piece, one by one, on the floor.

True to your Midwestern roots, you love anything made of bread or pasta. I can fix us pasta dishes and you grab a fistful and squeeze the little noodles in your mouth. You're a fan of tortilla and bagel too. You dig meat too, although we don't give you a ton. Shredded chicken or beef or sausage? You mow it down. But cheese? Not so much. What kind of baby doesn't like cheese?

Your teeth are coming in on top, but only one is showing now. You look like a pirate now. Where is that other tooth mister?

Of course, we had another busy month in the visitor department. San Diego is a magnet for friends and family in the summer. Your cousin Tatum was first up. She stayed with us for a week. She sure knows how to get you giggling.

you & Tatum & Uncle Cole

The day after Tay left, Beth & Nic came to visit you and help us get our organic garden growing. I want to make you fresh food right in our backyard buddy! They brought the coolest drawers that we hand-painted and we are going to turn into our planters, since we are only in a rental and want to take the food with us when we leave. This is you in one of our finished planters!

What does YOUR garden grow?

watching the tube with Beth & Nic

After they left, the next weekend, Dave's friend Tim came to visit. I am sad I didn't get any pics :-(.

This last month or so, I've also started switching babysitting with one of my new friends from the local mom's playgroup I joined. Her name is Christine, and she has a cutie pie little daughter named Michelle, who is just over 3 months younger than you. She, like me, loves to carry her baby in the sling, and last time she was here she had you BOTH--one in front, one in back! It was so cool.

the double carry!

In the sleep department you have made some strides. For example, you naps are pretty aaahhhhmazing. For naps, I nurse you in the rocker until you are asleep and then I gently lay you down in your crib. 95% of the time it works, you curl into your blanket and sigh. When it doesn't, I assume you aren't ready and we go about our day. You nap for 1-3 hours twice a day.

Although when that top tooth was coming in you reverted on your naps a bit, and I even got to hold you while you napped like we used to do ALL the time the first couple months. It was nice to do that again, but I'm glad we've passed it.

                                         from my camera phone, Dax napping how we used to!

At night, Daddy gives you a nice bath and then you two play for awhile. Around 9 pm I nurse you in the rocker and you sleep nicely in your crib. It is only hard for us when we travel (which seems to be alot) because we don't have a rocker, so you tend to fight it and then Mommy doesn't know what to do.

The only thing that is still haywire and fairly unpredictable is your night sleep. Early this month when that tooth was coming through we had lots of night wakings. However, most of the time, you wake up once at night around 2 a.m. Daddy then brings you to bed with us to nurse. I am so sleepy that I rarely wake back up and you sleep like an angel with us until morning, smooshed in the crook of my arm. If I'm semi-awake, after your 2 a.m. nurse, I will nudge Daddy and he will take you back to bed where you'll sleep till morning. 

You wake up for the day typically around 7 or 7:30 a.m (this is still very hard for mommy, because I am not a morning person and unfortunately this year with you hasn't changed that a bit). After that, we rise to go downstairs where I'll make breakfast with you in the sling. You love to be close to me in the mornings.

You have, for the first time this month, slept through the night on a handful of occasions. Every time, I run to the monitor to see if you're breathing :-). I hope you get better at it. We are much more used to your wakings, but a good nights sleep is the holy grail. 

This is a novel. We adore you so much little mister. Your smile and sense of humor is seriously the most joyful thing I've ever been witness to. We thank God for entrusting us with your being.