The Ten Month Mark

The C Man is inching ever closer to that one year mark! Its one of those bittersweet moments in time that come increasingly often since we became parents, where we simultaneously rejoice at his amazing growth and want to weep that he's not still a newborn baby. Its really been a wondrous time watching him change lately. He has acquired many new tricks recently: waving, clapping, dancing, talking with more authority. Oh, and he's also started WALKING...no big deal.Waving: he started out by waving to himself in the mirror, then when greeting people, then he moved on to waving bye-bye (traditionally the first step in the waving process, but he's a non-traditional kinda guy) and now he's waving without any verbal prompting.
Clapping: he has been a big fan of clapping for quite awhile now, but he's been slow to do it himself. He liked to sit on mama's lap and hold her hands while she clapped. Now he happily claps all on his own, and he never fails to be delighted by this.

Dancing: we were starting to think that C might be the one musically indifferent member of the family. But it turns out we just hadn't found his type yet; as soon as we played the New Orleans Playground CD for him he started dancing his little socks off! It unleashed the beast and now we have another music loving, dancing machine in the house. He gets so into it, too: bopping up and down and shaking his head all around.

(this is one of the songs on his favorite CD)

Talking: he said "mama" and "dada" months ago, but very rarely (if ever) with any clear intent. This past month he's been pointing and grunting with the evident expectation that we will understand what he wants and fulfill his need/desire. Not long after that he started saying our names and meaning it! Its the most amazing, fuzzy feeling to hear your children ask for you. Makes my heart swell just typing about it.

Walking: he began by trying to cut corners when walking along our couch (a sectional, so there are two corners he can gap among the three sections). Then he realized that he could walk/push their wooden cart across the room, which he successfully did on the first try. The next day he just walked away from the couch...four steps. There's no wobbling and falling involved with this guy either. He takes steps with confidence, and if he loses balance he regains it enough to remain standing for a bit or goes into a very controlled sit. The most we've counted so far is six steps. He's not very into holding our hands to walk longer distances, he'd rather walk on his own or crawl. He's usually on a mission, not really walking for the sake of walking. He's all business.

And he's finally eating real food now, and giving his mama a much needed break. He will pretty much try anything and everything all of a sudden (especially if someone else is eating it). True to what we're learning about his personality, he can't be forced into anything he doesn't want to do and he has no problem following his own inner time line.

Its also very nice to see him and his big sis B play together and get along so well. They seem to genuinely care about one another and treat each other with respect.Since he's making it quite clear that he can do just about anything he puts his mind to, we are very excited to see what new trick we'll find him doing next!