A Letter to Carter at 10 Months

Oh, Mr. Man, you are such a blast!  That personality of yours is something else.  You are easily entertained and quick to laugh.  I am loving that you are still extremely cuddly.  You love to be held and when you're tired you cry if I try to put you down.  You'll reach your arm around my neck and play with my hair very gently now.  Before you would always pull it like crazy and rip a bunch out.  Then you snuggle your head down in and I'm in heaven! 

There's still been quite a bit of clapping this month and you have also picked up waving.  Instead of waving your hand, you wave your entire forearm, it's adorable!  When I pick you up at daycare you wave to me and frantically reach for me sometimes throwing yourself on the floor to get to me.  With all that desperation and throwing your body, you'd think you would be crawling, but still no dice.  You still prefer to roll or scoot everywhere you go.  You can pull up onto your knees and do that quite a bit.  You have also taken a few steps while I was holding your hands.  After the first few steps you realized it was more efficient to hop which was hilarious! 

Bathtime has been even more fun this month.  You have saved your poo for the tub a couple of times which makes things interesting.  While in the tub you love to play with your letters and numbers.  I put them on the wall and you love to reach up and pull them down.  When I pull you out of the tub and onto your towel you put your legs straight out to stand and drip dry a little bit before I dry you off.  Splashing has gotten even more intense with water sprayed all over the bathroom.  

This is your "get anything I want" pose.

Sleeping has been a bit all over the place again this month.  You were sleeping through the night.  Then all the sudden you were waking up once a night.  Instead of going right back to sleep you would be awake for 2-3 hours at a time not showing much interest in sleeping.  There were a few nights you went back to sleep, but then woke up 3 more times.  It's been a bit frustrating and confusing, but we'll get it figured out!

Your favorite toys are cars or anything with wheels, your baby doll, and books.  During your 10 month photo shoot you rolled over to your book case, pulled out the bath book version of "One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish", and played with it throughout the rest of the shoot.  I love the pictures that resulted!

 

Something new you've started this month that cracks me up is sitting with your legs to the side like the little girls in my class do when they're wearing a dress.  One day you moved to sit like that and have been doing it every once and a while since.  It's either that or your legs spread wide with a toy in the middle.  You are a hoot!

You still LOVE to stand.  I'll hold your hands to help you pop up from a seated position to a standing position and you will stand by something for support.  You actually do better popping into a standing position from sitting down than you do popping up to a sitting position from laying down.  When you are standing you love to bounce and it is precious.  I'm tempted to turn music on just to make it look like you are dancing!  You have even let go of what you were holding to while standing and stood on your own for a couple of seconds.

Napping at daycare is all over the place like it always has been.  You usually take two naps and have gone to a longer hour and a half to two hour nap most days followed by a short 30-45 minute nap in the afternoon.  At home on the weekends you take 2 good naps.  You are usually awake for 2-3 hours, nap for an hour or 2, are awake for 3-4 hours, and take another 30 minute to hour nap.  We still start your bedtime routine between 7 and 7:30 and you are asleep by 8 or 8:30.  

Meals have been the same this month.  You still eat rice cereal or oatmeal cereal in the morning for breakfast after you nurse.  At lunchtime you have 4 ounces of a fruit or vegetable puree followed by a bottle at daycare.  At home you get a cut up vegetable or fruit and then nurse.  At daycare you get a snack with the other kids around 3:00 of rice cereal and puffs.  For dinner you eat cut up chunks of food with a side of yogurt or cottage cheese.  The batch of puree we are finishing up will be your last.  Then I plan to cut up your food and send it with you to daycare for lunch.  You don't eat purees at home anymore. 

You've had an easier time eating table food because your top 2 teeth have come in.  they are still pretty short, but look adorable!  Your daddy and I crack up because you grind your top teeth and bottom teeth together sometimes.  You are also gnawing on anything in sight: your highchair tray, the edge of the table, your finger, grandpa's finger, toys, anything that is within your reach!  Your gums are all swollen so we're thinking you may even get some more teeth soon.  For a couple of months you've been giving open mouthed slobbery kisses which I love.  I can't remember if I've mentioned them before.  Now you sometimes scrape your teeth across my teeth or bite down a little when you do it.

I tried really hard to get a picture of your top teeth.

These pictures were the best I got.

The new things you’ve had this month are pumpkin, graham cracker, papaya, egg yolk, and broccoli.  So you’ve had apples, avocados, rice cereal, bananas, pears, sweet potatoes, squash, green beans, apricots, mangos, nectarines, peaches, plums, prunes, carrots, peas, zucchini, chicken, tofu, plain whole milk yogurt, Cheerio's, cantaloupe, grapes, kiwi, asparagus, eggplant, mango, cottage cheese, pumpkin, graham cracker, papaya, egg yolk, and broccoli.  Whew, that's a lot! 

You didn't have a well baby appointment this month and I ended up weighing and measuring you by myself.  I'm sure the measurement wasn't too accurate, but I did my best.  I measured you at 29 inches long.  According to our scale you weigh 19 pounds. 

Same as last month, you are wearing mostly 9 month and 12 month clothes.  You have some 18 month jammies you wear, but you definitely have room to grow in them.  Your feet are starting to catch up.  You are now in 3-6 month socks.  You still don't fit into any of the size 3 shoes we have.  This month I've been loving your little jeans on loan from a co-worker.  You look like such a little man in them!  They look so cute paired with your blue and gray striped onesie.  I don't know what it is about stripes, but I think you look adorable in them! 

Every day when I get to daycare to see you, my mood completely changes.  In that moment I am so happy.  You bring so much joy into my life and I know you do to many others as well.  You are still just the sweetest, most amazing little boy!  We have enjoyed watching you grow and are looking forward to all the fun milestones to come!

Now on to daddy:

Happy Halloween! I am especially excited this year because you and I are dressing up and running together in a Halloween 5k race. We will both be pilots and I am making a WWII era fighter plane that attaches to the front of your stroller! It will be so much fun. Hopefully you and I can win the costume contest together. I think having you on the team makes our odds really good!

It has been so much fun helping you stand. It seems to be one of your favorite things to do. Lately you have been taking steps in the direction you want to go. Some are normal steps, some are crazy long and wide steps that throw you off balance! Whether you tumble to the ground or we catch you, you think its hilarious!

Just recently you have been having some struggles at night. It is hard to not be able to comfort you and help you get back to sleep but we must let you learn to soothe yourself! So very hard to do.

You still always greet me with a smile and little giggle when I come home from work. I love coming home to see you but you make it special as I walk through the door. It won't be long before you are hopping up to meet me at the door!

Next month you will get to see your Uncle Paul and Aunt Amanda. They are so very excited to get to see you again. I am sure they will want to hold you and play with you but they are going to have to wrestle your Grandma Cox for you!

You are growing up so fast sometimes I wish we could take a step back and slow down the experience but honestly, each new day is a complete joy.

Love you buddy!

See you later!