Ten Months

We have a confident stander on our hands! At ten months, he pulls himself up on everything and towards the end of the month is starting to cruise a little bit along the coffee table or back and forth from table to couch. He got a bit too adventurous one day pulling himself up on the high chair and fell and got a huge fat lip! When it happened, it bled quite a bit and I worried he might need a stitch in his lip - seemed his tooth had cut a big chunk out of his lip. Was really swollen that day and a big red mark on it the day after. 
  
Daddy had gone away for a weekend and got back late after Gavin was asleep. When he woke up in the morning and saw that Daddy was back, he gave him a huge hug! So sweet! He does the cutest things, like climbing into his baby bathtub on the floor, sometimes just to sit there! He loves watching the trains from the futon in his room and will sit right on the windowsill to watch them go by and waves when it disappears. We try to go swimming every so often and he started kicking on his back and blew some bubbles! He is a good helper and likes putting clothes in and out of the laundry basket and loves playing with the swiffer! He is getting into a lot more now, opening and closing drawers (sometimes on his fingers!) so I really need to watch him since we haven't baby proofed that much. He gets into the kitchen drawers all the time and likes to play with utensils, and sometimes pulls all Daddy's socks out of his drawer. 

Another big trip for the little traveler! We went to Costa Rica for 10 days and spent time on the beach and in the rainforest. He was pretty good on the long flight, and it was nice having extra hands - Nana, Papa, Uncle Rob - to help. We took him down to the water the first day and he was pretty apprehensive - didn't quite like the loud waves and didn't want to be put down in the sand. By the next day, he was cautiously exploring the sand and was soon all over the place, playing in the sand, splashing in his little tub on the beach, making mud with the sand, and his favourite - crawling right into the waves lapping on the beach! It was SO hot on the beach so we had to keep him in the shade and he spent most of the days in his bathing suit or diaper. He is having two fairly consistent naps during the day, but the timing depends on when he wakes up. On the trip (maybe the time change or with it being lighter in the morning), he was up super early, sometimes 5:00am. Tried to also get him in bed early, and thought he might sleep more soundly after so much fresh air and activity and in a king bed, but seemed to wake just as frequently as normal. We made him some soup (broth, tomatoes, beans, rice, carrots) so he could have some familiar food but he didn't seem to want to eat too much. Usually eats more at breakfast and lunch than at dinner. Still loves fruit, though bananas are hit and miss, and we took a big supply of Love Child Organics fruit and veggie purees so we could make sure he got some greens and we had something to take on the go for restaurants, on the plane, etc. Towards the end of the trip while in the volcano area, he must've been starting a growth spurt because he was eating SO much! One breakfast it was a full pancake with some pear puree "sauce", tons of fruit and rice and beans! 

He is a bit too interested in our phones now, so it's hard to get photos of him when he lunges for the phone every time! He now knows how to press the home button and sometimes even "talks" to Siri, which is hilarious. We've given him my old Blackberry loaded with Raffi songs so sometimes that is an acceptable substitute, but he's smart enough to know it's not the real thing. He claps and waves all the time now and is starting to clap in his high chair to sign "more". He talks up a storm in all different voices and often says "s" or "z" sounds. Sometimes Daddy even calls him "zee zee" since he says that so often! He sometimes says "dadada" but not too often and will say "mama" but not necessarily in the right context. Close enough though!