I blinked my eyes and Eliot turned 10 months. He is wonderful, and as cliche as it may be, I can’t remember life without him! I don’t know many babies with as sweet a temperament. This boy is content 98% of the time. He sits and plays by himself, which is totally new to me because Milo never did (and still doesn’t) like to be by himself. He smiles and giggles easily, and man oh man, what a snuggler. I love nuzzling into his chubby neck and hearing him squeal with delight. He’s got both bottom teeth, and his two top incisors broke through this week, bringing with them lots and lots of congestion. I bet he’s going to be so thrilled to have more chompers, though, because this kid can eat. Seriously, he eats whatever we are having (rice, noodles, meat, veggies, chips, seafood, cheese, etc.) and about as much as me. Not kidding. For lunch today he had 3 chicken nuggets, half a corn on the cob, a hand full of grapes and a cookie. Despite his bottomless stomach, he’s still hovering around 50% for both height and weight.
He began really truly crawling the day before his doctors appointment two weeks ago. Now he cruises all over the place. This last week, he really started pulling up to standing…on everything. I love to see him making such great developmental progress. And he seems to know that he’s got to practice his standing to get ready to walk. He pulls right up, lets go and tries to balance for a couple seconds, then sits down. Over and over and over.
Of course, that means that instead of just Milo being into everything in the whole house, now I’ve got double mess making potential. Somehow it’s really cute and endearing when Eliot takes things out. I love seeing what toys and books catch his eye.
The other night I was making dinner and Dave called out for me to come see what Eliot was up to. He had pulled himself to standing at the toilet and had wrapped his arm into the bowl to keep stable (luckily Milo is good at flushing!) Then with the other hand, he was slowly unrolling the toilet paper into a little pile! Such a classic toddler mess…being made by my baby. Hilarious.
I gave both boys little haircuts on Saturday, and Eliot’s ended up a cute kiwi cut. I rarely go to the trouble of styling it, but a little lotion on Sunday morning made a pretty adorable mohawk. I might have gotten a little emotional when I realized it was his 10 month day. Eliot has always seemed more like a little baby to me than Milo did. I think it’s because when I see them side-by-side, Eliot is the baby. I didn’t have a measuring stick for Milo. I love that even though our life is much busier than it has been in the past, I still feel like I have some real quality experiences with Eliot. He is adaptable, calm, curious and wonderful.
I’m a happy mama.
