10 Months

Double digits, baby!

Yes, I'm posting without pictures.  We're all recovering from the plague around here, and no one is feeling very photogenic.  But I might as well go ahead and post this, because we're already a week late.

So, right now, you love clapping.  To paraphrase Buddy the Elf (yes, you watched Elf for the first time last weekend) "I love clapping.  Clapping is my favorite!"  You clap when you're happy, you clap when you think other people should be happy, you clap when you're proud of yourself, and you clap when you think other people should notice and be proud of you, too.

Just in the past few days you've started flopping forward from sitting onto your tummy, instead of falling backwards onto your head.  While this is an improvement, I wish you would listen to your PT and involve your arms a bit more.  Doesn't that hurt your nose when you flop over?  Oh, but you're trying so hard, it's impossible not to be proud of you when you show off your new skills.

You're getting smart enough to find ways around the skills you find challenging.  Your PT would like you to use two hand to pull a ring off of the cone-toy.  You have instead mastered the skill of knocking the toy over so that the rings come off.  And then you wave the rings in the air, proud as can be, waiting for cheers.

You're not mobile yet, but you're getting better at letting us know where you want to be.  Usually this means diving, head first, toward the person you think should be carrying you or the toy you think should be in your hands.

You're developing your own take on separation anxiety.  That is, you'll go off with just about anyone, happy to make a new friend.  But later on, when you get tired, you will not settle down for anyone outside of our family.  This means we often come back to a tired nursery worker or babysitter, and to you with red eyes and a quivering pout and an accusatory stare that asks us how we could have let-this-happen.

It's clear that you were born in Indiana.  Like all these other crazy Hoosiers, three weeks out you are still protesting the switch from Daylight Savings Time.  Dude, look, having the same clocks as the rest of the country helps us keep in touch with our friends and relatives elsewhere, and is good for the economics of the region.  Your world is bigger than Indiana.  So please, please, adjust your sleep-wake cycle accordingly, okay?

This month has gone quickly.  Since Halloween there's been no special events (and between the dwindling sunlight and my fritzy camera, very few photos), no trips, no "firsts" to add to the neglected baby book.  We're all hunkering down a bit in the colder, darker, weather, and you're happy to play at home with your family.  We're happy to have you here with us, too--and we're starting to get excited about sharing your first Christmas season with you in the coming month.