Ten months

Dear Jack,

Ten months? TEN MONTHS? How in the heck is my baby 10 months old today?

This past month you have learned to express yourself with great gusto. Daddy finally heard the sweet babbling sound of "DaDa" which has become your new favorite word. You say "HaDa" a million times a day and we're convinced you're saying "Hi Dad" but then again, you could be saying nothing and enjoying the faking us out. There's a lot of consonant sounds going on now -- Bs, Ds, Ws, Rs, Hs and Ms to name a few. You still say "Mama" a lot and I tell Daddy that's because you clearly love me more.

Both Daddy and I try with all our being to get you to walk or stand unassisted. But you don't want any part of that. You will walk holding one of our hands and you barely even need a finger for balance, but when you know we're not holding on to you, you just plop down on your butt and crawl.

Since you've learned to cruise along the furniture and crawl with confidence, you don't have too much interest in walking on your own. You can get just about anywhere with your system, including all the way up the stairs.



Daddy told me a few weeks ago that you learned how to crawl up the first step in the living room and last week, you crawled all the way to the top with Daddy behind you. There is now an ottoman blocking your path to those stairs because we have yet to install a gate for you.

While you've gotten more adventurous with your movements, you have kind of regressed in your eating this past month. You won't eat anything except stage 2 baby food, applesauce, cheerios and veggie booty. You will occasionally tolerate a few bites of lunchmeat turkey or chicken and bread, but you act like you are being stretched on the rack if we dare try stage 3 foods. You like your baby food smooth and the pieces of potato and rice distress you.

Seeing as we don't want to make meals a battle at this stage, I try to hide my frustration. But it was hard to hide it on Thanksgiving when you turned up your nose at very expensive organic turkey, mashed potatoes and just about every other thing we put in front of you. Of course, you sucked down baby food turkey dinner and sweet potatoes like it was going out of style.

I know you will eventually eat table food. But I will probably be prying the baby food jar from your kindergarten-sized hands.



Of course, it wouldn't be a month anniversary without mention of your sleeping habits. And for the first time, I am delighted to say you have made solid progress. Your naps are lengthening out to over an hour twice a day and you now sleep from 7:30 p.m. to 5 a.m., eat, and go back to sleep until 7:30 a.m.

I nurse you to sleep and usually you are asleep when I put you in your crib, but sometimes you fight it and you are still awake. When that happens, we put you down and turn on the magic -- your crib soother. It's a turtle that plays lullabye music and we call it a miracle in this house because it puts you out in a few minutes. You might fuss a little, but you settle right down.

Fuss is the name of the game this month. You cry if you can't play with a toy the way you want to. You scream if we take away the remote or a cell phone. You arch your back and squirm and cry if you don't want to be held and if you do want to be held, you crawl over to us, pitifully crying and pull yourself up on our legs, begging us to hold you. Which of course we do every time.

But it's been a trying month with you trying to exert more independence, but wanting Mommy to hold you 24 hours a day. Daddy will do in a pinch, but Mommy is the one you want. And usually it's endearing, but I have to be honest with you, when you are whining and lunging at me for the 547th time in a single afternoon, there are times Mommy needs a break.



At the end of the month, we took a trip to Puerto Rico just the three of us. Daddy was a little apprehensive about the five-hour plane ride and not having anyone to babysit so we could get some time alone. But it was a great trip all around. You were a trooper on the plane and we kept you mostly entertained. The boobs were a big hit, which always serves as a great distraction. We took you to a rainforest and hiked to a waterfall, we walked around Old Jan Juan and we took in the Bacardi tour. You had a good time in the pool and on the beach. The sand was an exquisit vintage, you showed us, by the amount you shoveled into your mouth.

We should also call it "The Month of the Continued Teething With No Teeth" because again, hands in your mouth and drooling constantly, but not even a bud to show for yourself. Your pediatrician said since both Mommy and Daddy didn't get teeth until 11 months, you will likely follow along the same path.

Your big accomplishment this month was learning how to wave. At first you would open and close your hand and look at it with astonishment. "How do I DO that?" it almost looked like you were thinking. Then you started to get control of it. Now, you wave at us when we're feeding you and we constantly have to stop and wave back.

It's adorable when you wave and talk and give kisses and chase after us. Which is so awesome for both Daddy and I. We love spending time with you playing and cuddling and sometimes just hanging out. We know it won't always be like that, so we are treasuring our time with you now.

Just remember when you're 14 and you want to go out with your friends, there was a time in your life where all you wanted to do was be with us. And I would not give that time away for anything.

Love,
Mommy