Ten months!

My baby Bowen,

Happy ten months, little monkey! We're moving fast, and onto the double digits. You're growing and changing so fast. Every so often the realization that you soon won't be a baby crosses my mind, but I quickly push it away - I'm not ready for you not to be a baby any longer.

Your ninth month was full of changes, mobility, along with a few bumps and bruises. Your goal this month seemed to be to stand as much as you possibly could. You began with the easy stuff: pulling yourself to standing against the low bed, then against the coffee table, then against the wall. Eventually you moved onto pulling yourself up against the couch, various walls, kitchen counters, and even the bathtub! All you want to do is pull yourself up to standing and then balance yourself as much as possible. While last month you did your pre-bed gymnastics by crawling over mommy and daddy and to the very edge of the bed, this month you prefer using us as stabilizers in your quest to stand. And fall. And then stand again.

While you were first mastering your latest obsession, it wasn't very fun for me. You had quite a few giant bumps, and while you quickly recovered, I was really concerned about the massive blue protrusions from your forehead. Even with reassurance that you'd be perfectly fine from your doctor, I worried. Eventually, just as you learned to pull yourself up you learned to ease yourself down, and that was a happy day for us all! These days the bruises are coming way less often and your mobility seems much more stable.

At your ninth month checkup, you showed us how you continue to grow and thrive. You continue to be incredibly tall - in the 95th percentile! Your weight still hovers in the middle percentiles; you weighed in at 20lbs even at 9.5 months! Every day you look like you're growing and changing!

While you slept these last few weeks I've been busying myself with painting your new room and getting it ready for you to move into. For now, though, you continue to happily sleep between us.

You've had a wonderful summer, little baby, and enjoying it with you has been fantastic. Your favourite activities this month were: playing with your brother and having full-fledged conversations with him, banging toys together for maximum noisiness, screaming as loud as you can to hear what it sounds like, having bubble baths, splashing around in the pool, and enjoying the yard. You seem to be quite the jokester, too, putting your soother in your mouth the wrong way and then bringing it over to show me and laugh hysterically! You've spent quite a bit of time hanging out with your peers, and seem incredibly keen on sharing all your food with them. You've also seen a bit of your grandparents after missing them for several months. You didn't seem too sure at first, but you're certainly warming up as we spend more time with them. You'll have lots of family time next month, in fact, with your aunt and other grandma coming to visit. As summer winds down, we're getting ready to start our fall activities. Everything will be so different than when we left it before summer; with your mobility there's so much more to do and see!

Another month has passed, baby Bowen, and you're still the best thing ever. I can't get over how much joy you bring to our lives and I couldn't ever imagine life without you and everything you bring to it.

I love you forever,

-Your mom