Tenth Month

This month has been all about the hands and the feet. Your little hands hold so much. Your little but growing hands have learned to pat and wipe, slap and squeeze, pinch and carry. You have found your fingers and discovered that they can work together or be used separately. Your feet have learned to go, to walk, to take you where you want to go, most times, anyway. And in doing so you have both taken yourselves even further along the road that makes you independent and capable. Your little hands and moving feet have shown me the joy that is discovery.This month we will start with you, Mason. You were the first to figure out that fingers can point, especially the pointer finger. For a long time you kept that finger at attention, both hands, pointing and touching, going after any small and interesting speck, any button shaped object, any print that had round or circular bits in it. Those fingers have had you cross-eyed quite a few times as you watched them approach your own nose. You love your fingers, you love your hands. You really always have. Your latest development is to carry one thing in each hand, at all times, everywhere you go. This includes while you are crawling, standing, attempting to walk or drinking your bottle. This has also proven to be a somewhat dangerous endeavor as you no longer have hands available to catch you while you are falling. Some bumps have resulted, but I am confident you will figure out a way to carry things with you soon, I might even give you a man bag to stash things in so you can take it all with you because sometimes you are trying to take more than two things…I am laughing thinking of the time I watched you with a cube in each hand crawling, knocking the third cube along as you went. I laughed at that, always the multi-tasker, just like your mama. Now to sew you that little man bag.

Owen, this was your month to move. Well, actually, walk. I do not write it with exclamation points because it was such a gradual and casual development on your part, it just seems like you have always been doing it. It started with a little tentative step from toy to toy, reaching, letting go, then there you were. Then standing up without support came next. I would turn and you would be standing in the middle of the room without any help, holding a ball or a box, pleased as punch. Then the first step without help, you would look at me like, ‘okay?’ and choose to take a wobbly step, then carefully lower yourself to crawl position. Now, you go after toys, wheel your car around, take steps from table to couch and you really, really want to climb. Because it is not enough to walk at 10 months, oh no, you are out to conquer the vertical world and all its challenges and enticing levels. Is it thrilling to watch you discover this mobility? Oh yes. But it is not how I thought it would be, it was not a sudden, Bang! look he is walking. It was one of the gentler introductions in the parenting experience, a catch you out of the corner of my eye…until you started running.

Mason, you played a bit of catch up this month in the moving category. You had some rough weeks of teething during which time sitting and screaming was your favorite activity. But then you looked up and realized Owen was off, and you tried to follow suit. Tried, I say, because it is a little tougher on you, the upright mobility. You want to walk, but those dancing feet of yours are not always cooperative and you get a bit ahead, behind and all tangled up at times, landing in some akward and seemingly painful positions. We have had a few blooded foreheads and bit tongues of late, Mama had to witness the blood spilled and watch as a fascinated Mason kept swallowing with the most perplexed look on his face. I girded myself and told myself it is something I will likely have to get used to, you two being boys, but it still hurts me to see you get hurt.And now, my big boys, you are eating like people, not babies. Sandwiches, fruit, rice made Indo style by Opa, veggies and soups and meatless meatballs and chickenless nuggets, you seem to like it all. Unless you are tired, then the food gets rejected from mouth or smashed by impatient hands. Cheerios continue to delight, we have introduced the honey nut version which might well be baby crack, the way you take to them. I do hope your love of food stays this way, it makes it easier on this Mama…though it keeps me creatively trying out new dishes. We try to drink water together, but so far no sippy cup passes muster and your little silver cups from Holland are fun for you, but as play items, not drinking vessels. Owen, you stick your fingers in the cup or blow raspberries in the water. Mason, you want to drink but so eagerly go after the elusive water that you invariably end up choking. Ah, well, soon enough you will graduate from bottles, for now, it is one of the only times we get to cuddle you.All of these changes, all of this growth…so delightful and yet unexpected. There is no road map to follow in this experience. We are so intimately aware of you and your needs and desires, we have the pleasure of spending our days together, watching as you grow. And outgrow. No longer content to be in your room, no longer totally content with the array of toys we have, ready to get out and explore. There will be challenges ahead, I see that, as your new mobility allows you new freedoms. And new dangers, but we will do it, get through it, and embrace it. What a whirlwind month. Next up, long distance car travel. I may not want to document that experience, but we will hope for the best.

I love you, my boys, so very, very much. Mama.