10 months

April 27, 2007

Dear Matthew,

Happy 10-month birthday, my baby love!

Dude, you have 4 teeth now. What is that about? Every time I look in there, you've grown another one. Craziness.

YOU ARE CRAWLING NOW!!!!!!! OH MY GOD, all of a sudden you just took off. And you are FAST. You ditched your brief creeping period, and you are off and running – okay, crawling. Whatever. Anyway, you pull up to stand as well. So your crib mattress has been lowered, although I see suspicious bite marks on the crib rail. I know what you've been doing, Mr. Teeth.

So besides the crawling, my baby boy, you have discovered a new trick. I practiced with you, and you finally got it on Good Friday. Wonder what it is? Here's a hint: "yaaaaaay!" Yes, you clap your hands. Which is so funny, so cute, and makes you look soooo grown up. It also makes "Patty Cake" less work.

I brought out the Learning Home, which Nana and Papa Bear gave you for Christmas. You enjoy randomly touching parts of it and pushing the door open. You also like throwing up in it. Somehow it already looks 400 years old.

You also have experienced your first Easter, and it was fun! We went to Grandma and Grandpa's. You saw lots of your family (and we took lots of pictures!), and Easter morning was so exciting. You crawled across the room and dumped out your baskets, and when you realized the Easter eggs were filled with veggie puffs – your favorite food, the one you would sell both Daddy and I for – it was scooping-up-off-the-floor-eating-with-both-hands joy and glory. You wore plaid pants with a tan short-sleeved button-up shirt and blue vest with matching diamonds. SO SO SO cute. Easter lunch at the Kempkers was lots of fun – you were raring to go as soon as we got there, flirted up a storm, then got overwhelmed and exhausted, leading to a meltdown. My funny sweet baby. :)

There's so much you did this month! You went to Double Blessings' Easter Egg Hunt (not to hunt eggs, but to have your first visit to the park.) You and Ryan loved the baby swings, which you sit in back-to-back. You spent an evening with Nana and Papa while Mama and Dada went to the Candlelight Bowl, and you were SO good – even after an afternoon at Nicholas Ciolino's birthday party! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

At the 9-month NICU follow-up clinic, they were very impressed with you, all except for the part where you freak out when I leave the room (normal) and that you are STILL on the damn apnea monitor. We'll get it figured out. You are 19 lbs. even and 29 ½ inches long. Such a big boy. I love you so so so so so so much, my precious.

All my xs and os forever and ever,
Mama

April 27, 2007

Dear Ryan,

Happy 10-month birthday, cutie pie!

You have another tooth. And every single day, you become more mobile on me. The creeping is GONE, replaced with nothing but crawling, pulling up, and cruising. And now, for the newest mobility trick – using things as stepstools. This has included, so far, the basket for your diapers (you dumped all the diapers out and used it to climb up higher against the TV), the green area of your Learning Home, and the bumpy stair-type things on your dinosaur.

Now let's talk your Learning Home, which is your favorite new toy. You like opening and closing the window (particularly closing it). You crawl in and out of the door (and I almost died laughing one day when you fell through it and then looked totally dumbfounded about what had happened to you). And worst, God, the worst of all – you ring the freaking doorbell OVER AND OVER AGAIN. "It's music time! It's music time! It's music time!" So I figured I would distract you by leading you around to the other side of the house … but you found the light switch. Guess what the house says when you flip the light switch? "It's music time! It's music time! It's music time!" I would have turned the damn thing off, but you were so happy.

You also have experienced your first Easter, and it was fun! We went to Grandma and Grandpa's. You saw lots of your family (and we took lots of pictures!), and Easter morning was so exciting. You crawled across the room and dumped out your baskets, and when you realized the Easter eggs were filled with veggie puffs – your favorite food, the one you would sell both Daddy and I for – it was scooping-up-off-the-floor-eating-with-both-hands joy and glory. You wore khaki pants with a green-checked long-sleeved button-up shirt and green vest. SO SO SO cute. Easter lunch at the Kempkers was lots of fun – you slept in and then enjoyed piles of adoration after sleepy Matthew got crabby with everyone. You were even less shy than usual! I am so proud of you.

There's so much! You went to Double Blessings' Easter Egg Hunt (not to hunt eggs, but to have your first visit to the park.) You and Matthew loved the baby swings, which you sit in back-to-back. You spent an evening with Nana and Papa while Mama and Dada went to the Candlelight Bowl, and you were SO good – even after an afternoon at Nicholas Ciolino's birthday party! Yaaaaaaaaaaay!

At the 9-month NICU follow-up clinic, they were a little worried about your speech. They just don't know that you babble up a storm when you're not terrified of your evaluators. The PT said the stiffness in your legs is getting much better. Good news! You are 17 lbs. even and 29 ½ inches long. Such a big boy. I love you so so so so so so much, my amazing little man.

All my xs and os forever and ever,
Mama

P.S. I had to call Poison Control on you after you accidentally ate Germ-X (long story) to wash down Daddy's birthday money you were gumming.