Diez meses! Ten months! That sounds so big!

Johnny continues to grow cuter as time passes. We just got back from a big trip to Indiana, and he handled the car ride amazingly well. When he was three months, that was a different story. He screamed and was generally inconsolable.

This time around, he fussed a bit, but managed to sleep a little. I hear all the time how “all” babies love the car and will instantly pass out and sleep for an entire road trip. Whatever!

This is only starting to be true for Johnny. I’m glad!

Now that he’s bigger, I was able to contort my body so that I could sit in the back seat and nurse with both of us strapped in by our seat belts. I probably wasn’t in the safest position myself, but I was still buckled in. And, it kept my baby quiet and helped him get to sleep. I don’t think I would have been able to do that when he was littler.

Words

He says “mama” especially when I’m not close to him and he wants me. He occasionally says “hi” but I don’t think he’s using it as a greeting. But, I said, “Say ‘hi,’ Johnny!” and he did right away. Cute!

He babbles “bub bub bub” a lot. Oh, and he said “Bo” a few times, which is my dad’s nickname. My dad loved that, of course.

Movement

He’ll wave at himself in the mirror if he feels so inclined. He’ll also wave at others if they’re waving and he happens to be in the mood. Still working on this one.

He continues to crawl, and fast.

He loves walking along furniture or walking along holding on to someone’s hands. He has the movement down and generally uses the support for his balance.

He took his first unassisted steps on Friday! Walked to me from his daddy, about four steps. He immediately turned behind him to make sure his Grandpa Steve saw that. Big smiles all around! He took a few more steps back to Dad, and he decided he had enough. No more solo steps since.

He managed to climb all of the steps at his grandparents’ house. Without help (but with someone following close behind). Without stumbling. He just seemed to know how to do it: one step at a time. He crawled up them all. I took a photo, but I kinda felt bad about encouraging that. Definitely don’t want him making a habit of climbing on things!

The real trick would have been him climbing down the steps. He couldn’t do that, of course.

He loves playing with a plastic ball. He’s pretty good about catching and rolling it. He just hits it a few times and it tends to roll toward someone. Not sure how he does it.

Food

My son will eat anything. He even ate (and seemed to enjoy) Brussels sprouts! He eats a variety of soft veggies, fruits, grains, and a hodgepodge of whatever happens to be on my plate.

Today, I was eating a ham sandwich. I had an extra slice of ham on my plate. He grabbed the ham, shook it wildly, and then tried to eat it.

He’s getting better about feeding himself, but most of it seems to end up on his lap or the floor.

He’s nursing maybe 6-8 times in a 24-hour period. No signs of slowing down any time soon.

Still no teeth.

Diapers

We have had a breakthrough! And this is gunna be gross, just to let you know.

It seems that I started him on cloth diapers at the exact most disgusting phase of his life. From ages 6 to nearly 10 months, Johnny’s stools were a sticky sludge. Not too well formed, but definitely solid. Really hard to scrape off the diaper. I gagged. A lot. I thought about giving up with the cloth.

Even with a powerful diaper sprayer, it was a challenge to get all that muck off.

The stools from birth - 5 months weren’t any trouble at all. But that four-month period — absolutely disgusting.

Now, we must finally be giving him enough solid foods to produce real solid stools. The kind that beautifully can shake loose from the diaper and plop into the toilet without leaving a sludge behind. I never thought I’d be happy about something like that, but I am!