Friday, August 29, 2008



Easton,
My sweet boy, you are 10 months old already. Sometimes I look at you and I am surprised at how big you are and how fast you are growing up. Yesterday, you decided to celebrate your 10-month birthday by standing up all by yourself. You were sitting in the floor playing and decided you'd much rather stand. You grabbed two handfuls of the couch and hauled yourself right on up and stood there grinning at me. It was so cute to watch you do that by yourself for the first time. You love to have mama or daddy help you walk through the house.



You’ve also decided that crawling is not so bad either. You used to not be that interested in crawling. You much preferred rolling where you needed to go. Now you seem to think that the crawling is OK too. On Tuesday (Papa Easton's birthday), you crawled across the living room floor just like you'd been doing it for months. Maybe you were just waiting for there to be a good enough reason for you to do it. Your ball rolled across the floor and you crawled to get it. You love playing ball. We found a small Elmo/Cookie Monster ball at Food Lion one day while grocery shopping and I bought it for you. You seem to like that ball the best out of all the balls you have to play with. I think it's because it's just the perfect size for your little hands.

You feed yourself most of the time. Sometimes when I give you something to eat in a bowl in the high chair, you lean forward and peer over the edge of the bowl. Once you've checked everything out, you dive into it, grabbing a handful and cramming as much as you can into your hungry little mouth. You love watching me cut a banana into pieces and let the pieces fall onto the tray of your high chair. You seem to think mama's quite the magician and I'm quite content to go on letting you think that.

Daddy has been giving you a bath in the evenings. We've discovered that you love to have us pour water from a cup into your bath. You reach your chubby little hand (or sometimes just one little finger) out to touch the stream of water and just stare at it in fascination. I love to watch you try to figure things out.

We took you to the Shenandoah County Fair this week. We went with Ms. Katy and you had a good time. Your favorite part was the balloon you got from the 4-H kids. You were thrilled with that balloon and of course, mama had to take a picture of you with your first balloon. (On an old, one-time use camera that hasn’t been developed yet. Picture later.) I thought you’d really enjoy seeing the animals in the livestock exhibit but it was way past your bedtime so you weren’t really that into it. The goats and sheep were really checking you out though, sticking their heads through the fence to get a whiff of you. You just let them sniff you and weren’t even scared. You’re a brave boy!

We also spent some time at the daycare where mama used to work. We visited the infant room and made friends with 7 other babies. You met Mrs. Sharon and Mrs. Esther, the ladies mama used to work with. Everybody loved you and you loved everybody right back. One little boy reached over and was patting your face and you just crinkled up your nose, smiled and blinked your eyes a bit…almost like you were saying “Hey, what'cha doin’, silly boy?” It was so cute! I wasn’t sure how you’d react to that many new faces at once and all that noise but you were your usual easy-going self and seemed to enjoy checking everything out. I shouldn’t have worried about it. You are probably the most laid-back baby I’ve ever known.

You do let your wishes be known though. And loudly. When we feed you, you insist on having your own spoon. You don’t actually USE the spoon much yet, but by golly, you’ve got one to hold in case you decide you DO want to use it.

Mama’s awful singing still soothes you, which is great because you’ve decided that the only place you can sleep is your crib. You used to take a nap in the car but now you stay awake as long as humanly possible, even if it means a whole day without naps. We are almost always at home during nap time, so it’s usually not an issue. But sometimes I do have to resort to singing to you when you have fought off taking a nap all day and are cranky. Your favorite song is “All the Pretty Horses”. You like “Twinkle, Twinkle” and “You Are My Sunshine” too but the horse song is your favorite.

I love you, my little sweetie boy. Thanks for being your sunny, funny, sweet little self. I can’t remember what my life was like without you.
Love,
Mama.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a cuten lil guy! He's growing so fast. I can't wait to see you and I know you and your cousins will have a blast!

Leslie

Jen said...

Oh Ames...you know how much I LOVE those posts you do to E. Every month when I see them, I get excited! That pic at the end is my favorite one ever! He just looks like he belongs on a Pampers Ad or something!! I can't WAIT to hang out with you in 3 weeks!
Love (all 3 of) you!!