Dear Baby Jack: 10 Months

Happy 10 months!

(I believe this is the VERY first time that I have your monthly post ready on the 30th/your actual "birthday", I'm going to guess this will be the first AND last time this will happen). You have spent the last month perfecting your ability to move around the house and pull yourself up onto things. Your favorite spot so far has been the coffee table where you can pull up and grab at everything on top like a hungry hippo.  You've been able to get your hands on remotes and magazines (that end up in tiny shreds on the floor), and you've been taking toys with you to bang against the top of the table like you are Ringo Starr. This has led to you putting the toy in your mouth so you can use both hands to pull yourself up, and apparently gave you the idea that your mouth was the perfect thing to hold your toys while you crawl around. People will definitely assume that we are letting Oliver raise you.  We caught you a few times standing on your own for about a millisecond, and the idea of you being able to walk and get into things is semi-terrifying...

Your favorite things to play with are almost always things that are not meant to be toys, like magazines and oatmeal containers, but you've started to really enjoy some of the large blocks you have because you've figured out how to bring them together to make the maximum amount of noise possible. Your favorite non-toy so far has been string/drawstrings/shoelaces. It used to be that I could quickly hide the drawstrings of my pants under my shirt, but you're clearly a genius and have figured that game out as well. The best way to keep you occupied in the car is to make sure that we've put you in sweatpants with a drawstring for you to play with, hours of fun.

You've become very vocal with your babbling, lots of "dadadada", "tssssss", "
geeeeee", and the like. You've started clapping for yourself a lot, which probably means we've been praising you just a LITTLE too much. I mean, we are proud that you learned how to put food in your mouth, but we probably shouldn't be throwing a parade every time you do it. You also learned how to growl when you're frustrated, which isn't quite as cute as you think it is, and for some reason has been very frequent. Clearly, we aren't quite living up to your high standards as parents.

I know these milestones aren't in the baby book, but you had your first case of pink eye AND you went to Houston for the first time! One of those was a cause for antibiotics. The drive down to Houston was a little bumpy with you once again vocalizing your disgust for Dallas traffic, but we survived both there and back, even after you ended up with a fever, cough, and runny nose on the day of the drive home. The pink eye turned our entire house into a clean room, with us sanitizing all the toys and books daily, lots of sheet changes and more washing of hands than when you were a newborn. It felt like it took a lifetime to get rid of the pink eye, but somehow we all survived.

At the beginning of the month you met your Aunt Carol and second cousin Sarah when they came down to visit. You probably have already figured out that your Aunt Carol and family will spoil you rotten after you ended up with a new baby pool that weekend. I wouldn't say you were a fan, but that COULD be because we inadvertently filled it with cold water from the hose, and you have very high standards on the temperature of the water you like to be placed in. We had a great time with them down here, and your mom even got to dust off her old Spite and Malice skills (only to lose to your dad...).

We can't believe you're so close to turning to 1, only two more months!