Ten Months and Counting...

Dear Sammy,

What an interesting day your ten month birthday turned out to be! Sorry for the delay!

Well Bug, ten months. We enter the world of double digits. You are growing so much every day that I forget sometimes that you are still a baby. You are cruising along the furniture now, and it seems like when you get to the end of the table you'll just take off running. Your new found mobility has made life a little more interesting, and a lot more cluttered. We had to move many things to the two tables that are too high for you to reach, so now they look a mess! Also, anything you can get your hands on you throw onto the floor. Se we have messes high and low, but empty spaces in between. You've started to realize that we've moved things out of your reach, and you hate it, you smart little thing!

You've had your first taste of cold weather. We had a few days below freezing, but you didn't seem to mind. Then all of a sudden it was in the seventies for a week and a half! We're going to Pittsburgh for Christmas and I'm keeping my fingers crossed for snow! Maybe even enough for you to play in. Hopefully while we're there you'll get to meet a new cousin! It'll be interesting to see how you react to mama holding another baby. Interesting and terrifying, all at the same time! I'm sure we'll have a great time celebrating the holidays with all of your relatives, and there will be even more Christmas trees for you to obsess over. Luckily, ours is up on a table that you can't reach, but I don't think the one at your grandma's house is. Mmmm! Tasty tasty pine needles!

You've finally started to make sense of some of the sounds coming out of your mouth. You look at me every once and again and say 'mum.' Just so you know, when I run out of the room, it's not because I'm upset, it's because I have to get a kleenex to sop up all the tears. Every time we get in the elevator, you start shouting 'HA!' like it's the funniest place on the planet. You've also become quite adept at imitations. Yesterday when I was pacing around, wondering aloud, 'what the effing eff?' you looked up at me and went 'Effffffffffffffff.' Good thing you have no idea what that means.


I think one of the most significant developments this month has been your sense of humor. You're starting to understand when something is silly. A few weeks ago, when I got you out of your bath I put your hooded towel on my head instead of yours, and you cracked up! Then you actually reached for the towel, because you remembered that it's supposed to go on your head. That just blew me away. I spent the next few days putting inappropriate objects on my head to see if you'd notice. Bowls, pots, toys, dish towels, food, you name it. Not one thing slipped past you. You love when we make funny faces or sing silly songs to you. You love to be tickled. I can't stop making videos of you and your daddy playing, mostly because I want somehow to capture the sound of your laughter. That sound was the only thing that got me through some mucky times lately.

I can't adequately say how I love you. You will always be my first baby love, and I promise that these next few months will be special. I'm going to cherish every moment we have together, alone. We'll never have that again, and I'm sure I'll miss it, but I plan to drink it in for the next eight months.

I have to go get some kleenex now.

I love you Sammy,

Mama