10 Months

Dear Mr. Will,

You are 10 months old! TEN. As in, two months shy of being a year old.

You are getting around like never before, and it was nearly impossible to take your picture for this month. I most definitely cannot take your monthly pictures unassisted anymore. I did try, and quickly realized that I would just have to wait until your daddy could help distract you. I literally have a series of pictures of you from this month of your daddy trying to lay you down on your "backdrop," and you immediately flipping over as fast as you can to crawl away. The next two months should be interesting. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe I should just try to photograph you while you sleep for months 11 and 12.

Well, surprise, surprise, we're battling yet another ear infection right now. Same ear. Same story. This is number three in three months. We actually spent your 10 month birthday in the office getting an ENT consult, and we have tubes scheduled (and possibly adenoids) on your 11th month birthday. Praise God, your hearing has not been affected. I assumed that it hadn't, as you are still very much a verbal communicator and respond well to our commands, but it is nice to have it documented that no, your hearing has not in fact been affected yet. They tested your hearing right before we met the ENT doctor, and you did great on your hearing test. But what does make me sad is that not only do you continue to fight these ear infections, but you apparently have a ruptured ear drum that is healing as well. Poor baby, you have been SO strong through all of this. I typically don't even know that you are hurting, and the only reason we find out that you have another ear infection is because you usually get a little touch of a temp, and you'll get super congested and have a terrible cough. I really was worried this time that it was turning into something more serious, but it turned out to be just croup and an ear infection. Enough to make you feel puny, but thankfully you are now on the upswing.

You are finally pulling up on your own. Well, I say finally, because it wasn't until the weekend that you turned 10 months that I saw it. But apparently you had been doing it for a while at daycare, but I didn't know it. Wanna know how I found out? I had to sign an injury report that stated "Will was standing up, and he lost his balance." The injury report is nothing new- you bump your head on something at school almost daily. But, I questioned her about you "standing up," and she apologetically told me you had been doing that for a while. I thought it maybe was a mistake, but no, you have been pulling up to stand on your own, you just don't like to show off your tricks once we get home.

You are also finally saying "dada!" We were so proud of you when you finally figured it out, and the whole way to school that morning, you were saying "da da DA DA! da da DA DA!" Once you realized how proud we were, you were pretty proud of yourself as well. And although you are definitely a momma's boy, you are crazy about your daddy. I think you get more excited when he comes home than you do when I pick you up in the afternoon, which says a lot.

You have 6 teeth! Five are fully in, and one broke through the skin the weekend you turned 10 months. You have 4 on the top and 2 on the bottom. I can't see any potential new teeth yet, but I assume the next ones will be on the bottom.

You weigh 23 pounds, and are wearing size 4 diapers. You are mainly in size 12 month clothes, and most of your 9-12 months things are too tight on you now. You are quite the chubby baby! But we don't mind. Your fat little thighs and chubby cheeks are quite possibly the sweetest things I've ever seen.

You still have blonde hair and blue eyes, although your hair shows up strawberry blonde, almost red, in a lot of pictures. Your hair continues to grow, and you have what we call a "side mullet" behind your left ear, that is starting to develop a little bit of curl to it. If your hair truly does end up having some curl to it, I don't think I'll ever be able to bring myself to cut it.

You still get some pureed foods, but you really prefer to feed yourself, especially if you are somewhat remotely tired and it is the end of the day. You've apparently made some strides with this at school as well, as I was told this week that you love ritz crackers, goldfish, string cheese, and pancakes. Seriously, buddy? From a baby that's never had anything but his momma's milk and her homemade baby foods (with the occasional bought organic baby food), your favorite foods at school are the processed foods? I know I can't control everything you eat for the rest of your life, but I was shocked at what you apparently like to eat at school. I think an exact quote was, "Will likes to eat anything someone else is eating." Little stinker. I had been so careful at home about everything I even offered you to eat, and come to find out you have been splurging on bites of pancakes at school.

We are still working on a cup. Now that you are 10 months old, I will be sending your milk in sippy cups, with a bottle as a back up if you need it until we can get you weaned off. I'm NOT ready for you to be weaning from nursing, or bottles for that matter, but I am ready to not have to wash so many parts every night. We've done the Dr. Brown's bottles from the beginning, and even though they've been great, it's kind of annoying to wash all of the pieces that are involved. So that is one thing that I'm looking forward to with the transition to a cup- fewer pieces! Right now you are still working with the soft top cups, not ready for the hard plastic tops yet.


You still nurse twice a day during the week, and take two-three bottles at school. At this point, you've nearly dropped the 4:00 in the afternoon bottle. There has been one day that you didn't get it at all, and you were totally fine. But since it is just part of the schedule for the class you are in, you will usually drink 1-2 ounces out of it before you are over it. On the weekends, you nurse 5 times per day, but again, that 4:00 feeding is an abbreviated feeding for you. However, that 5:30 am feeding is still going strong for you. You are seriously my little alarm clock. You start waking up every morning around 5, although I don't go in there and pick you up until 5:30. You always seem famished as soon as I pick you up, and you will nurse really well and then go back to sleep until about 7. I've tried feeding your more food at night to see if that helps with your early morning hunger, but you honestly don't care that much about eating in the evenings.

You like to open and close books. You'll sit with me a read a book for about 2 pages, and then you either want to open and close the book, or eat it, or both. I'm trying really hard to read to you as much as I can, but you're kind of getting into a stage where you are so busy that it makes it kind of hard to.

I'm praying you aren't turning into a biter. You've bitten me while nursing more times that I care to count, and let me tell you, that's probably one of the worst feelings in the world. You usually do it when you are done eating and just want to play. You've also bitten me and your daddy both while playing around. I think sometimes you just get so excited and worked up that you don't know how to control your emotions. Thankfully, we haven't gotten word from school yet that you've done it to any of your friends. We always tell you "No!" when you do it, but you think it's funny when we say "no." Again, praying that doesn't turn into something major.

But besides the occasional "love bite," you are such a sweet baby. You rarely ever fuss, and if you do fuss, it's more than likely when we are getting you out of the bathtub and you want to stay in there, or when we have to wipe your nose. You always give me the biggest hug when I come to get you at school, and you always start waving your hands like crazy and then clap when you see me walk in the room. When I pick you up from your nap, you will wrap your little arms around me and pat me on the back. You pat your sweet little chubby hand on my back. I pray that I don't forget these sweet little things that you are doing, because it absolutely melts my heart. You also pull at your right ear (your "good," non-infected ear) when you are sleepy, and you like to rub your food into your "side mullet" when you eat. You also DESPISE getting your nose wiped, and you would think by your reaction that someone was cutting off a finger.

You are ALL boy. You love to play with your train, and you are attracted to anything with wheels that will move.

You are SO much fun right now. You amaze us daily that the things you are doing and trying to say. A lot of the "words" you say are just you trying to mimic us, and we know that you truly don't understand what you are saying, but it amazes us how smart you are and how quickly you pick up on things. You are making me a nervous wreck with all of the pulling up and moving around you are doing now, and I've come to accept the fact that you might just have a little bruise somewhere on your forehead for the next year or two.

Mr. Will, we're crazy in love with you! Happy 10 months!