Ten Months

 Look who is 10 months old! This was our hardest picture month yet. Mr. Busy didn't want to sit still at all. You never remember how much a 10 month old moves until you are with one all day, every day. They move a. lot. He's a very curious boy.

 We had some tears and half the pictures are blurry with him lunging forward and crawling away. Next month I think we'll call in the big guns and bribe him to sit with a Dum Dum sucker. We can't quit now, only 2 photos left. Sniff, sniff.

 Finally he concedes to sit but not smile. Still, I love it. I think he's about the cutest baby ever (except when I look back at my other babies they were pretty cute too).

 He stands and shakes his crib when it's time to get up. He will wake up Reed if necessary to get some attention. It works quite nicely for him too, Reed sits right up and starts talking and cooing at him.

 Owen loves his bath. Loves it. He arches his back and cries every day when I take him out. When he hears the water he comes crawling. He also crawls down our long hallway and around a couple corners to find me in my bathroom in the morning when I'm getting ready. It's a cute little surprise (until he tries digging in the garbage or playing with the toilet, yuck).

He's taken to sliding around on his stomach and 'swimming' with Reed. He loves his older siblings. They dote on him, ooh and ahh over him, carry him, spoil him, laugh at him and always vie to be his favorite.

 He's had a rough couple of night and with his age, I'm blaming teeth. He's been giving out extra snuggles during the day and I take every one of them. I'll even take them at 3 or 4 in the morning though it's not my favorite time get up and soothe him.

At 10 months he---

-babbles baba, mama, dada, nana. Sure he doesn't really know what he's saying but it's cute.
-makes the funniest noise with his throat. I don't know how else to describe it but it sounds like he's coughing up a hair ball. He does it all the time and has gotten many comments on it.
-still squeals but thankfully not as much.
-when he's standing up holding onto the couch or chair, he moves himself into the splits to sit down and then happily crawls off.
-quiet as a mouse, he made it 3/4 of the way up the stairs without any of us noticing. This is new, we have never had a crawling baby and stairs in our house. The kids are getting pretty good at hopping over the baby gate and I'm getting less paranoid.
-crawls all over grass and likes to pick up one blade at a time and eat it. I've found it in his diaper even. Poky grass doesn't stop this kid.
-is a great eater if he's feeding himself. He just started dropping food off the side of his highchair tray and laughs as he makes a huge mess. Not a fun clean up.
- likes his binki to sleep but not so much to just play and crawl around.
-has two teeth and I believe is working on some more.
-already, he loves to crawl in the dishwasher. He just laid right down on the door and started splashing in the water. This one sort of drives me nuts.
-loves watching animals. He squeals at birds and dogs and follows their every move if they are close enough for him to see. He went crazy over some seagulls at the park one day.

I am feeling very nostalgic that he's so close to being a year old. A whole year! He's my last baby and I'm aware of that around every corner and at every stage. The 'last of this' and the 'last of that' have left me a little emotional more than once in the past ten months. He's the sweetest baby. I'm ever grateful for his darling self and I love him very much.