A Pinch of Love: Letters to Nathan: Ten Months

Dear Nathan,

Happy ten months, my love! We're in the double digits now. If last month was all about your physical growth spurt, then this month was a developmental spurt. I've seen so many changes in you these past few weeks.

You're transitioning down from three to two naps. Some days you still take three (especially if your teeth are bothering you), but mostly you survive on two naps and you're able to stay awake longer. Your demeanor has improved - you're less cranky and fussy. You just seem much happier and more smiley.

Suddenly it seems like language is clicking in for you. You're doing more babbling with consonent sounds and you seem to understand a lot of what I'm saying now. You said your first word pretty clearly, and it was....."Daddy"! Your dad was so proud. So was I, but clearly telling you to "say mumma" dozens of times a day has had no effect on you, haha.

You might be a budding engineer. I can practically see the gears turning in your head when you're figuring something out. You especially love playing with zippers and spinning wheels on cars.

You're starting to eat more solid foods and drink a bit less formula. There is less crying during mealtimes, and you're eating chunkier foods. You love feeding yourself, and you really like fruit and pancakes. The downside to mealtime is that you love throwing things over the side of your chair to watch them fall. I pick up your sippy cup and toys and bits of food a million times a day.

Clearly you're not going to be a vegetarian - this is how you feel about broccoli

Much happier eating meat (BBQ pork and a strip of beef steak)

You're still sleeping 10.5 to 12 hours straight at night (Hallelujah!) and thanks to the Daylight Savings change, you generally wake up at 7:00am instead of 6:15am now. Woohoo!

You are loving your new bathtub...

You grew four new teeth this month, all at the top! Three of them started coming out in the same week, which made it a pretty tough week for you and now you've got a total of 6 teeth. They're awfully cute, but it makes you look so grown up. No more gummy smiles...

I was calling you Archibald for awhile because you have a tendency to arch your back all the time and because, well, you were a bit bald at the top of your head, but no longer! Your hair really grew in this month - it's thicker and starting to come forward more. I had to give you another haircut. I think I can continue calling you Archie though.

Another big change was that you're moving around a lot more. Your gross motor skills are slightly behind, but there was definitely a lot of improvement this month. You used to hate hate hate tummy time but now you play happily on your tummy. I don't know what changed but you don't immediately roll over onto your back when I put you on your tummy anymore. On your belly you can push yourself backwards and go around in circles. I call it Belly Swiffering because you're doing a good job polishing the floor. No forward movement yet, but hey at least you're moving! You also rolled from back to belly for the first time on March 23rd, which you're now doing like a pro.

One of the cutest things you do is that you explore everything by pointing and touching with your index finger, kind of like E.T. Oftentimes out the corner of my eye, I can see a little pudgy finger sticking out and just carefully touching everything in sight.

"What's that above your lip, Grandpa?"

Sometimes when you're amazed or really excited by something, you clench your fists and your whole body shakes. It's really funny. I haven't quite been able to capture it on video, but here's one attempt anyway.

In many ways, you're still such a baby but you're nothing like the newborn we had in our condo. Now you're big and strong, with a delightful laugh and such a sweet and lovely personality. Also, you're irrisistably squishy and kissable though that hasn't changed from Day 1.