Welcome to the Double Digits!

Dear Elliot,
I'm a bit late with this post (shocking!) but happy belated 10 months! I can't believe you're in the home stretch to a year old, to toddlerhood. It's nuts.

You have changed so much in the last couple weeks. It's been an absolute joy to watch your unique personality coming out more and more. You're silly, spunky, sweet and a total people-lover. You love putting on a show when we have friends over or if we're out in public. Mealtime is your favorite time to entertain everyone, usually with goofy noises like this:

You've been more and more interested in "playing" with other kids/babies lately too. We've been going to the new play area at Southdale (for Minnesota friends, it's super nice! You should definitely try it out!) and watching you interact with the other children there is one of my favorite things about being your mom so far. You are especially fond of the older, 2-3 year old girls (after the older ladies already!) and will follow them around like a cute little puppy. You get this adorable shy/flirty/excited smile when they give you attention and it literally makes me laugh out loud.

You love to play and explore. You crawl around and pull yourself up on everything. Aside from the mall play area, you have become quite attached to a large cardboard box that is now a permanent fixture in our living room. We call it your "throne" because you spend so much time just sitting on top of it. And you also really enjoy walking with your walker from Grandma Cook. You have gotten so fast!

You are also way into food these days. You are still nursing about 5-6 times a day, but also eating breakfast, lunch and dinner with us. I've yet to find anything you don't like eating. You still only have one tooth (!) but you are incredibly effective with it and are eating pretty much exclusively table food now. Some of your favorites include cheese, shredded chicken, peas, clementines/mandarin oranges, pasta, kiwi, scrambled eggs and black beans. We have started ordering you your own kids' meal at restaurants because you eat so much!

I also have to say you are quite brilliant. I'm sure every mom thinks their kid is the smartest kid in the world and I am no exception. You catch onto things really quickly and I can just see your mind at work when you experience new things. You've been mimicing things we do a lot more, too. The other day we started working on "so big" and it was so amazing to me how you picked it up right away:

Sleep? Meh, that's not going so well. You're not the worst sleeper in the world, but definitely not the best either! There are many nights I look over at the monitor to see this:

A cute little baby butt that should be sleeping

Finally, I am very happy to report that you are still my super snuggly mama's boy. When you're tired you love to cuddle with me and those cuddle sessions are some of the greatest moments of my life. 

I love you baby boy, more than I'll ever be able to put into words.

XOXO,
Mom