Getting Big(ger)

Max is 10 months old now, as of February 13th. TEN. Whole. Months. I cannot even fathom this. We are now less than 2 months away from a first birthday. I had another parenting first where I suddenly realized that my baby boy is soon going to be a little boy. And then a big boy. And then a young man. And there is NOTHING I CAN DO to stop it. This seems to be one of life's strangest ironies. As much as you want your children to grow into healthy, happy, caring adults and you want them to experience all that this world has to offer, you also wish that you could slow that process down and hold on to THIS moment-this one, the one where he is laughing and smiling and looking up at me with those adoring eyes-for just a little bit longer.

As has been true for the last 9 months, Max has continued his blistering pace of learning and growing. Just this last week he learned how to clap! And we clap all the time about everything , now. He claps when I say 'Yay!' I am hoping that clapping will soon replace his more-common form of expressing excitement, which is to slap with both hands whatever happens to be in front of him-whether that is the table or your face. He also spent about 2 weeks almost exclusively making a ppptthhhbbbb! noise with his lips. It was ppptthhhbbb! all the way to school and pppttthhhbbbb! while we played. Over. And Over. And Over. And Repeat. And now? Now he won't make that noise at all...I guess he pppttthhhhbbb!ed himself out.

As I've mentioned before, Max loves books. He loves to open them and look at the pictures, and turn the pages by himself. But the problem with books, when you can't walk, is that they are hard to transport. Max discovered the solution. He opens the book and puts one hand on either side of the pages. Then, he crawls using just his legs. He can propel himself forward, sliding on the hard surface of the board book! He learned this trick all on his own.

We took our first family trip to the park last weekend. We decided to test out the swing, first, and Clint and I were surprised to find that Max was a little uncertain about swinging. While I want him to love the swing and I know one day he will, I was a little relieved that there is at least ONE activity involving fast movements and high places our little daredevil has some trepidation about. Up until now, he's been more likely to try and throw himself off the couch (or your lap, or the bed...). After the swing, we spread out a blanket under a tree and explored the grass, ball moss, sticks, leaves, dandelions, rocks....

And Max is now exclusively eating finger foods. He is so independant and wants to feed himself. He still loves most everything that we put in front of him, but you can absolutely spoil the child with grapes. He loves grapes. And I love that he is on cloud 9 eating something that is healthy for him. He also eats:
squash, green beans, sweet potato, white potato, peas, carrots, cauliflower, broccoli, bananas, pears, applesauce, mango, peaches, wheat bread, tofu, kamut puffs (cereal), rice, black beans, pinto beans....and much more that I can't remember right now. He also loves his sippy cup and is Finally drinking water regularly with meals.

Having four teeth makes eating solids a bit easier. I was hoping that after the teething that we went through with the first four, we'd get a decent break. But no. After about 2 weeks, Max started teething again. And just yesterday his first lateral incisor came in (his second tooth on the top left). The one on the right is still working it's way through.


Here, you can see Max's firs 4 teeth (click the picture to blow it up).


Playing with Papa. Max is actually in Clint's messenger bag, on his back.


I wear my sunglasses at night...


Swing uncertainty.

Spanish ball moss


And I was there, too.