Letter to Christian at 10 Months

Dear Baby,

I hesitate to write this month, because ten months is so close to ONE YEAR, and I can not wrap my head around the fact that you have already become a toddler.

That’s right, you have begun to toddle. You’ve taken your first step!

Granted, it was more of a feeble old man shuffle than a confident step but it was definitely unassisted.

As with all your moves forward, your walking has happened so gradually that it’s hard to say what’s by accident and what’s intentional. So many of your motions are reflexive – you can’t seem to help but to imitate every body around you. Yesterday while Nathen was (re-) tuning your lap harp in the other room, you suddenly sang out a note on key with the string he was plucking.

And the other day in the tub, I was showing you how to hold your breath and blow bubbles in the water. You were spacing out, not even really watching, when your head lurched forward and ducked your face under water, and you were sputtering out bubbles. When you lifted your astonished face, I could swear that you had not had the faintest idea that your body had been about to do that to you.

Most of the time you can be found cruising the edges of furniture and the walls around the apartment with increasingly surprising speed. And those corners where you used to resemble a trembling man who’s decided not to jump and is cautiously inching his way back to safety on a window ledge? Now you can negotiate those corners with utter nonchalance; swinging your arms and legs around without even looking, perhaps keeping up your chatter with your imaginary friend all the while.

And speaking of chatter, you are saying Dada! and Ba! for Daddy and Bella. No Mama yet, but I keep comfort in the fact that it’s because you rarely have to ask for me – you’re already in my arms most of the time.

I am having so much fun with you Baby.

Love,

Mama

P.S. This is a quiet little video that I think shows how much you absorb the essence of a new object. You discovered this bit of wood and it just turns and turns in your hand. I want to put together a whole basket of beautiful bits of polished driftwood, shells, pinecones,  and stones for you to explore.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ou7PSlOrZE]

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