ten months

Dear Matthew,

I like you. I like you and I love you. You are ten months old now, and feeling (not to mention looking) less and less like a baby. As with every month, this one caught you continuing to grow. You're mostly wearing size 18 month clothes, and a few days ago you sprouted your first tooth. Cutting that created a bit of a rough patch in your overall outlook on life, but even so, you still rank as one of the happiest little boys I've ever known. I am especially tickled by the way you let yourself get so overcome with giddy excitement that you can hardly contain it.

Your curiosity seems to have some not-so-secret pact with your hands because you are constantly grabbing at everything. And most of what you manage to pinch your little paws on ends up in your mouth. This is a challenge during your playtime on a messy living room floor. But it sure makes meal times a lot easier! I love that I can cut up bit of the soft food the rest of us are eating and let you feed yourself. Now, if I could just get you to hold your own bottle -- or figure out what the purpose of a cup is.

I can't say that you're crawling yet, but you have become mobile. You scoot, both on your belly and on your bottom, as well as both forwards and backwards, to get at what you want, and you've mastered the pivot turn and the extreme reach. You are most motivated to move by the promise of Dad's pen, which you adamantly adore, but you are propelled to it by anger and frustration because it always seems to be just beyond your reach. I imagine that if you can keep your determination up you will fully figure out crawling in the coming weeks -- and then nothing will be safe.

Matthew, I love you. I love you and I like you.

Love,
Mama