10 Months Old

Clap if you're 10 months old...!

Joergen (whose name Liam just started pronouncing correctly!) has been growing and changing by leaps and bounds over the past month.  Clapping, waving, high-fiving, and mimicking (or at least trying to mimic) other motions are all part of his new repertoire. It's been a lot of fun!  All of his new learnings are tiring, though, and he lets you know quickly when he's had enough-- usually like this:

Thumb in mouth, grabbing on to nearest piece of fabric... message received!

Joergen has been pretty insistent about eating and drinking like a big boy.  It started whenever I would drink a glass of water while holding him, and he would grab at it and fuss until I gave him a sip.  And then he would pretty much commandeer the glass for himself.  So good-bye bottles at Miss Doreen's house, and hello sippy cups!  He doesn't even want the kind with the valve in it-- just a straight-up cup with a spout.  Miss Doreen was a little sad to see the bottles go, but it sure is nice to not have to wash them anymore.  At dinner time, he likes to have a little sippy of water to go with his meal:

As for eating, I think he's getting over the baby food phase.  With more and more frequency, even though we know he's hungry, he'll push away the baby food and will only be placated by whatever he can feed himself.  He eats Happy Baby puffs like they're his job!  He's also had little chunks of cheese, some veggies, and I'm sure a few things that Liam has snuck him when we weren't looking.

Joergen loves toys that he can bang together or shake to make noise, so Liam's little drum and instrument set has been a huge hit.  He's also a big fan of this big tub of plastic connector beads that Miss Anita got him for Christmas.  He'll dump out the whole thing, gnaw on a few, and then just see how far he can throw the rest.  While I was baking cookies the other day, Joergen got out both the drum set and the beads-- party in the kitchen! 

Studying the velcro strap on the drum:

To save both water and time, we've been letting the boys take baths together-- which has been working great as long as Liam promises not to pee in the tub!  They pretty much play follow the leader the whole time, banging on the side of the tub, splashing in the water, clapping... definitely a case of monkey-see, monkey-do.

In just the last week or so, Joergen has learned some new moves, too.  He is crawling on all fours, maneuvering pretty quickly from lying down to sitting up to crawling, and has even pulled himself up to standing (which is happening too quickly and not yet frequently enough for me to catch on film).  He's also just starting to cruise a little.  This video is a bit dark, but you can get the idea:

He's doing a little "talking" too!  Now, if we could just get rid of his cold (and mine...), we'd be in great shape :)