Ten Months Old

Dearest Owen,

I simply cannot believe I am writing your ten month letter. Each and every month that has past you have brought more joy than the month before. How can there be this much love in our house?

This month you have become so much more a boy and less a baby. You are a participant in our conversations, our dinners and our playtime. You've made leaps and bounds this past month. You play peek-a-boo in our bed every morning. You pull the sheet up over your eyes and wait until I say, "Where's Owen?" about a million times and then pull it down with a giggle, PEEK-A-BOO! I taught you to stick out your tongue and to make a clicking sound in your mouth. Both are ADORABLE. You say, 'Mama' 'Dada' and lots of other random sounds. You are doing a great job with your "talking."  You've also started to mimic us. I can tilt my head and you follow suit. You repeat sounds and when I sing, "Laaa" you sing right back, "aaaaah". Melts me every time.

You LOVE to read books - especially books with fuzzy animals to touch. When we read I say, "Owen, turn the page" and YOU DO! You love when I sing to you and we've taught Daddy some of your favorite songs, like 'Five Little Ducks' - he never gets the words quite right but you don't seem to mind.

You have finally taken to eating solid foods (it's about time!). You eat 2-3 times a day in addition to nursing and gobble up almost anything I give you. You are not a fan of fresh bananas or cottage cheese but we'll keep trying. You love yogurt, prunes, pears and butternut squash the best. Each morning you eat a HUGE bowl of organic baby oatmeal with fruit stirred in. You pump your hands and feet letting me know I need to shovel it in faster for you!

In a matter of days you transitioned from belly to sitting, sat up in your crib and pulled up to standing in your crib (at 2am and almost gave me a heart attack!) Now you think you're crib is a place to party-party-party. You pull up and cruise around the perimeter, babbling away. You are up on all fours rocking back and forth but still no crawling, although your army crawl allows you to get almost anything you want.

Lastly, you're starting to develop separation anxiety and this has made you quite the Mama's boy. You will still go to other people but as soon as your are tired or hungry you reach for me. You only want to nurse to sleep and cry if I put you down. This has made for a rough couple weeks of sleep for both of us. You have so much going on in your little mind right now, I want you to feel safe and loved. We'll keep working at it and I hope soon you'll be back to sleeping like an angel.

I wish I had a single story to tell you about this month but no one thing comes to mind. Mostly because every single day brought something new. Your Daddy was so sad to go to work this month because everytime he came home - you had done something else. Now he says, "How many milestones did Owen achieve today while I was gone?"  My highlights of this month were hearing your say, "Mama" (you curl your lower lip under to say it and the sound makes me beam with pride) and the face you make when you stick out your tongue.  I love when you turn the pages of the books and I can see your little mind soaking in everything we do together.

Everywhere we go people comment on how sweet you are. I tell them they have no idea. I am so proud to be your Mama.

You truly are my greatest joy.

All my love,
Mama