James - 10 Months

What a cutie! So we've made it to 10 months. I say it every month, but James is such a happy baby boy! He can feed himself finger foods, does well with a sippy cup, can hold his own bottle, army crawls all over everywhere, loves his Allistair the alligator, LOVES his mama and reaches for me when other people hold him, did really well at Christmas with all kinds of new faces and places, can play the recorder and duck call (thanks, Poppy!). Let's see, what else... When he is near chairs he can pull himself back up to sitting from being on his tummy, but hasn't sat up on his own in his crib. I've heard that bigger kids take a little longer to get their full mobility because they have more mass to move, and I believe it. However, James' army crawl is really fast, you can't turn your back on him for a second!

He is REALLY LOUD. I'm not surprised, really, but sometimes I think he is going to pop my ear drums. Happy noises, crabby noises, they are both quite voluminous. No words yet. He's got a lot of consonant sounds he can make, but doesn't really put them together. I had hoped he was trying to say "mama" - but that's died out mostly.  I weaned him over Christmas, and that's gone fairly well. He's STILL not sleeping through the night, mostly because I am a softy this time around, and haven't had the heart to really make him cry it out (although this morning at 5a.m. I did let him cry for quite a while before I got up and got him a bottle). I'm not sure what he weighs at the moment, but I'd say hefty is a good descriptor. His 12-month pajamas are stretched to the max, length- and width-wise. I put him in an 18-month outfit yesterday and they were none too baggy, and the PJ's he has on above is an 18-month size.

Still in love with my little man. And he's giving me big kisses now which make up for all the hair-pulling that goes along with said kisses. I love those slobbery kisses!