10 months old

This past week, my favorite kid in all the world turned 10 months old. He has now been outside of my body considerably longer than he was inside it (especially since he made his entrance 3 weeks ahead of schedule!). This month, more than any before it, my child has changed and transitioned. He is leaving infancy and going headlong into toddlerhood. I watch with a mixture of delight and a tiny taste of sorrow. I've had a few moments of wondering, "I wonder how many more times we will get to do this?" and as has frequently been the case this year, the fleeting nature of time is impressed upon me. And yet it is SO FUN to see his personality emerge, and to watch as he discovers his world. His smiles and giggles light up my day, and time spent with him, while not as frequent or as long as I would often like, is so awesome.
Ahem. Sorry. I really like my son.
New things he is doing this month:
The biggest thing is walking. He doesn't walk independently yet, but he wants to walk holding hands ALL THE TIME and everywhere. He's pretty fast, too! He likes to walk around the house and chase the dog (he plays a game where he shrieks at her, she comes, he laughs, then she leaves and he follows...crazily, she comes more reliably for his shrieking than when we call her! I told Josh we should just start shrieking at her when we want her, but he's not convinced...). He also LOVES to walk outside. Outside is his favorite place in the whole world! He likes to test out different surfaces (grass, concrete, bark, etc.) and look at the neighbor kids and dogs. He has figured out that if he walks us over to the door and then stops and lets go of one of our hands, we will usually open the door. We then go through and he stops and lets go of our hand again to let us shut the door. It's a little scary how smart he is...
Along with walking comes a fascinating side effect-we get to see what he is interested in! It's kind of fun to see what things catch his attention and what he comes back to. He loves balls (which he mostly sees at my work since we don't have any at home, but maybe we should get one...), banging on things, licking things (ick! I try not to let him lick anything TOO gross, but he sometimes is too quick for me-why does he even want to lick the dog food bag???), blinds, strings, and "stuff I'm not supposed to have."
He has definitely become more verbal and communicative this month. Not very many words, though I swear I heard him say "Daddy" as clear as can be yesterday, but he definitely can get his point across! Sometimes we don't get it fast enough, which leads to frustration/tantrums on his part. He is also signing, which is awesome. Sometimes I think he doesn't sign because he knows we know what he wants.
He goes in the church nursery now and charms all the workers who say he is so sweet!
He had his first hair cut this month. It's a little crooked, but cutting his hair was like an intricate choreographed dance with scissors near my baby's head/eyes/ears etc so considering that, I think I did well!! He looks so much older now...
He loves nursing still, though he eats all kinds of solids! If anything, I think he's nursing more (my guess is it's because he is more active and thus burning more calories) than he did before. Which is fine with me-this is one of those things that I know is for such a short time, and though there are some challenges with it (mostly the fact that he is still nursing anywhere from 4-9 times at night) I treasure these moments I have with him snuggled close.
I think those are the main new things. I have so enjoyed the last 10 months, and look forward to many more getting to know the sweetest kid on earth! ;-)