10 Months

10 months old!

10 whole months! William is extremely busy nowadays to say the least. He crawls very quickly, he's bound to be climbing the stairs if you aren't watching, opening cabinets and drawers is a breeze (and leaving a big mess behind), funny noises galore (the owl noise is popular now "oooo oooo..."), standing by himself, and then walking with help, and so on. He has a lot of different expressions from raising his eyebrows to furrowing his brow when he's confused. And he definitely shows his emotions (he spots a bottle before drinking it and it becomes waterworks time). He's waving bye bye sometimes, he has a 6th tooth coming in, clapping is still lots of fun and I swear he's grown several more inches since he is wearing 12-18 month clothing quite comfortably -- Nevermind he is able to reach things I never thought possible... such as kitchen gadgets hanging off the edge of the counter.


Soaring high

He loves bathtime and splashing in the tub.

William is not a picky eater and begs for food nearly as bad as Maggie!



Clap! It's dad's birthday!

His quiet time aka bottle time

William shakes his head "no" - but he doesn't associate the shaking of his head with no. Well, initially he didn't and now I think he may. It all started with me making him laugh and it clearly made an impression, since it stuck. I shook my head "no" at Maggie a few days ago and he looked at me and shook his head at me and burst out laughing. It is pretty funny. I'm trying to nod my head "yes" more often in hopes he'll be more of a "yes" baby than a "no" baby!

Ahhhhhh! Banging toys together is fun!

Pump up the volume

One of his many expressions

It's not always smiles :) Most of the time it is though!

What else is going on in William's world?

• Loves to feed himself bits of food... from string cheese to chicken to scrambled eggs. He still loves pureed food too. We haven't found one food he doesn't like. He even wanted a piece of feta from my salad the other day. I didn't think that would be a winner, but then he asked for more.
• Moving those bottles down too... only a couple more months and they'll be gone for good! I may be just as sad as William when that happens. Bottles are easy! 
• Walking with assistance as you may have seen in one of my last posts. He loves walking with the cart and he enjoys pushing other toys across the floor like the cart.
• Babyproofing gone wild! Gates and latches everywhere.
• Mama and Dada are the only "words" I can make out. Sometimes I think he understands me. If I ask him to come to me then he usually comes back. 
• Two naps a day still, but the pm nap looks looks like it's going from 2p to 3p. The afternoon nap is usually his longest most of the time around 1 1/2-2 hours long.
• Wants to be chased. He gets a kick out of it when he turns his head like he's going to crawl off and you pretend to go after him. He also likes to play peek a boo.  

So much is happening as you can see! He's getting so big and so much more in tune with the world. The next month will be fun with Christmas coming up. I'm sure he will enjoy all the bright lights and music that come with the season (that's another thing - he loves music and rocks whenever a good tune comes on). We are looking forward to December and the end of 2012. What a great year it's been so far. Only getting better.

Happy 10 months, William!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope you are enjoying this post with a nice big slice of pumpkin pie. I know I'm writing this post with a nice big slice of pumpkin pie sitting next to me. Thanksgiving Day we celebrated here in Orlando this year. William's first Thanksgiving! We did nothing all day - joyous. Relaxed at home in our pajamas and fixed a couple dishes for Thanksgiving dinner to bring to Matt's parents' later that evening. William took his first steps with the support of his cart, which was very fun to see! He pulled himself up and pushed the cart along all by himself then we tried it a couple more times. Here's video of those attempts. Watch those little legs move!

Thanksgiving Day parade

The day was going great - until afternoon nap time. William is very good at going down twice a day and I wasn't worried a bit that he wouldn't go down in the afternoon then pop up by 4p so we could make our way over for Thanksgiving dinner. Nope. William fought the nap. Finally fell asleep an hour later and then we woke him up early to leave the house. Not a pretty sight. Pictures probably describe the situation best. Here we are... Not looking so thankful!

Not a happy camper

Crying...

Uncle Andrew trying to reason with William

More crying

William just wasn't happy last night. He did enjoy some food at the table though. He liked the stuffing and the turkey. How do you explain to a 9 month old this is the best day of the year so no tears! Oh well - many more Thanksgivings ahead of him!

Thanksgiving Day

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Virginia Trip

Once again William is collecting his frequent flyer miles fast and furious. His fourth roundtrip flight was to Washington, DC earlier this month. We enjoyed a weekend with dad and then William and I stuck around for a few days more. It was a great trip with nothing much planned - just relaxing and enjoying family and friends -- perfect!

While Dad was around we went to Cox Farms - I have great memories here picking out pumpkins when I was little on school field trips and petting all the different farm animals. It was a gorgeous fall day and I loved bundling up William!

Welcome to Cox Farms, William!

I love his little barn coat!

Dad and Mama even got a night out while my mom and Aunt Celine watched Mr. William. Wine tasting in Clifton with the Collins.

Cole joined the party too!

Another great part of the week was meeting a couple new friends for William! I mentioned in Month 3 post that my high school friends Erica and Lauren were expecting babies this fall. Well, the boys have made their arrivals! Cole Thomas Collins and Coleman John Woodley! William missed out on the duo's meet and greet we had at the Woodley's house, but he did get lunch with Cole Collins later in the week. We also got to celebrate Cole Collin's Baptism that weekend at the Collins' house. Cole is "totally Catholic" now - Erica will appreciate that one! :)

Coleman Woodley and Cole Collins

Cole's Baptism day!

Other fun activities were walking Burke Lake in the mornings, cold days in our fleece pjs with a nice fire going, playing with the fall leaves... Heaven.

Burke Lake walk

Watching Mac outside

Something new

 

Start em young - little laxer

 

And I can't forget flying back home as a solo parent! Until now flights were a breeze because William didn't move. Now that he's very mobile and very motivated to investigate everything around him, I got a little nervous thinking I couldn't contain him and someone sitting next to us would not be happy. My prayers were answered though! Our row was empty, the flight attendants let me on the plane before everyone else (even before other families for some reason!) and take off was on time. Couldn't be better! What a nice trip. We are looking forward to many more trips back to Virginia and D.C.

Ahh... one nice empty row! Bye Bye VA!

Babyproofing & More Standing

Babyproofing... that was something I was hoping we could maybe avoid doing in this house, since we will be moving soon. Not soon enough though! Cabinets and drawers are now a source of entertainment for William. He was in the kitchen today going non-stop. Looks like Matt will be installing some latches this weekend! Gates are also in order because William is a huge fan of crawling up the stairs... and I saw him eyeing the stairs going down today.

As William was having fun opening kitchen drawers pulling out different odds and ends, he also was standing alone for a good amount of time. I don't think he even realized it! 

 

 

The Stance

As William is better able to balance himself he has developed a cute little "stance." It's his resting position and from here he usually goes full speed into a crawl. Sometimes he balances both knees too. The one knee down and one foot up is the usual though. He looks like a little football player taking a knee. Maybe one day soon he'll go from the stance to standing up!

Look Ma! No hands!

William has been caught standing by himself several times. He lowers himself gently to the ground once he notices he's standing. He's walking along objects he can hold onto - the edge of the tub he goes from one end to the other or the ottoman in our family room. When will he walk? He hasn't pushed the limits though of stepping without support. Crawling seems like a great mode of transportation at the moment.

The standing or supported walking happens so quickly it's hard to get a video or picture of him, but I caught this one over the past weekend when we were at the beach. For some reason the way he has his hands I hear "La Cucaracha" in the background... ha! I'll try to get a video of him walking along the tub or ottoman later!

Happy Halloween!

William's first Halloween was so much fun!

We celebrated lots of Halloween festivities over the past week. From visiting the pumpkin patch (yes, for the third time!) with friends to the Halloween party in our neighborhood to the actual day of trick or treating. Not so much trick or treating, but sporting our costume around town.

On Halloween we stopped by Rollins to visit my old co-workers and their dressed up kids. Then we went over to the Crofoot's neighborhood so all the kiddies could get together and we wrapped up the evening in Baldwin Park visiting family. Our lion did a pretty great job dressed up! He was happy all night in his costume.

Pumpkin patch with friends

Pumpkin carving with dad

Heading over to the Baldwin Park Halloween party

 

Post-Halloween party - very tired trick or treaters

Halloween!

William, Brooks, Henley and fallen pumpkin Hunt

(left to right: Yoda, Batman, Cat, Lion, Puppy, Cupcake,
Pumpkin, Minnie, Fireman, Georgina, Fairy Princess!)

Final stop - trick or treating at Grandma and Grandpa Orosz's