Dear Bo, You're 10 months old...

Here's what you're up to:

• You wear size 3 diapers and wear 9 month clothes.
• We haven't weighed or measured you since your 9 month appointment so I'm not sure about those.

• You take four 6 ounce bottles a day.  You had the rest of my frozen breastmilk this month (dairy/soy free and "leaded"), and you did wonderful on it.  So. Thankful. For. This.
• You have ants in your pants when you take a bottle!  You will not sit still.  You are moving all around and just everywhere.  You definitely don't just relax and take a bottle lazily anymore. 

• This was your schedule this month: you generally wake up around 7:30am, take a bottle, have oatmeal cereal and a fresh banana, go down for a nap around 9:30 or 10am, sleep for 2-3 hours, have another bottle and a green veggie and fruit, go down again around 3pm for a couple of hours, have another bottle, eat dinner at 6pm or 6:30 (a meat, orange veggie, and applesauce), have a bath between 7:45-8:15, have another bottle, then go down.  I love your schedule!
• You're a great eater!  We introduced protein and oatmeal cereal this month, and you've done great.  You don't really like the meats in baby food, but you like when we grind up chicken and turkey for you.  We usually get a rotisserie chicken from Wal-Mart and grind up some of it for you, or grill chicken breasts and grind it for you, or get turkey from Rudy's and grind it for you.  We mix it with a baked sweet potato or some butternut squash that we put up from Mimi's garden.  You eat it right up.  You still love puffs, but you've recently taken a liking to plain Cheerios and Veggie Pirate's Booty so you are on your last jar of puffs!
• You decided to switch back to being easy to put down for naps and at bedtime (thank you!).  Our routine is the same:  you have your lovey and your stuffed fish, and I rock and sing One Little Boy Named David, Jesus Loves Me, and Jesus Loves the Little Children.  You're usually asleep (or well on your way) by the time I finish singing. At bedtime, Daddy reads a bedtime book while I feed you before I rock and sing.

• You are a GREAT sleeper--praise the Lord!  When we're home (all bets are off when we travel), we generally don't have to get up with you.  I can only think of 2 times in the last month.  So. Thankful. For. This.
• You love your baths.  You are even getting better with water getting on your face.  
• You are on the move!  You started crawling the second week of September and were quite slow at first (3 "steps" then fall on your belly), but in a week you were really going!  You love to crawl on your Fisher Price rings.

• I would say a major impetus for your crawling was Scout.  You love to chase her and try to grab her tail.  You're very proud of yourself when you get it.  Occasionally she'll lick your face and you always laugh when she does that. 
• You are into everything!  You usually cry because your feelings are hurt if we say "no" sternly or squeeze your hand.  We finally child proofed the house because you started to have a fixation with light sockets.
• You are pulling up.  You don't know how to gracefully get back on the ground from a standing position so you just fall backward on your bum full force.  You don't cry though.

• Your favorite toys are your Fisher Price rings, your Leap Frog music table, your Leap Frog fridge farm, and your Fisher Price Laugh and Learn House.  Your favorite household item "toys" are: plastic bags from the dry cleaners, dish towels, diapers, and generally anything you can get in your mouth.

• You are "talking" more and more, but you don't know what you're saying yet--just a lot of jumbled sounds.  You mimic us (blowing bubbles with our lips, clicking our tongue, sticking our tongue out), but you don't mimic sounds really (ba-ba, ma-ma, da-da).  Occasionally you'll say da-da by accident, but you don't associate the sound with Jonathan or mimic us saying it.  If I say "where's Daddy?", you do look for Jonathan and smile when you find him.  You do the same thing with "where's Scout"?
• It's a whole new ball game now that you're on the move, but it gets more fun and more fun, the more you interact with us.  I don't want to wish time away, but I can't wait until you can say "momma" and hug me back.  When you reach for me, it melts my heart, and I know those will, too.      

Love you so much, Pooka!

Just look how you've grown: