10 months? Already?

Our little man is 10 months old already. I can hardly believe how quickly time is flying.  This last month has been a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see what the next months hold. Our little Mr. Personality has a lot going on:

• He is an expert high-fiver. Uncle Andy taught him to high five and he loves it.
• He is a pretty big guy. He also has a ginormous melon head (but don’t tell him, he might get a complex)
• He still has his crazy hair that sticks up all over. It is the most beautiful strawberry blond / red color.  If I had a dollar for every time a stranger looked at him and said in a syrupy voice “I love your hair” we’d have a significant college fund for him.
• He is still rocking 6 teeth but is working on 2 more. The bottom center two are quite close together, but he has a great Michael Strahan gap between the top center two.
• He knows how to clap and loves the reaction it gets him. When he hears other people clap (even on TV) he gets a huge grin on his face and claps along.
• Related to the clapping, he knows the sign for “more.” Sort of.  He doesn’t have the fine motor skills to hit just his fingers together, but if he’s fussy and clapping softly, he’s asking for food.  So, he kinda thinks its “food” but it gets the point across.
• He “talks” all the time - calls out to us, responds verbally when we say talk to him and points and shouts at different things in stores while we’re shopping. His favorite place to talk? Church, especially during the quiet parts. Naturally.
• He makes noises that sound like “I did” and “I do” and although we know he doesn’t know what he’s saying, it’s usually an appropriate response.  It cracks us up.
• “Patrick, did you pull all the toys off the shelf?” “I did”
• “Did you just say Mama?” “I did”
• “Do you want the rest of your bottle?””I do"
• He is still rocking a stupid milk allergy. Unfortunately, that means Mama is also milk free right now. Never have I craved a warm chocolate chip cookie and glass of ice cold skim milk so much. We’re still hopeful that he can outgrow it.
• He is still not a big fan of table food. We’re trying to give him more solids that he can feed himself, but he’s just not very interested.  When he does get something in his mouth, no matter how tiny, he gags. Our doctor has encouraged us to try to give him meat, but he doesn’t care for it yet. We’ll keep trying.
• He loves books, and loves pretending to read. This makes Mommy very happy!
• He is getting better about biting – for a while there I thought it was going to be an issue, but now when he clamps his mouth on you, you’re more likely to get raspberries than bite marks.
• LOVES his afternoon walks. On days when the weather is nice, Patrick gets loaded into his stroller and the three of us take the dogs for a long walk. He really enjoys watching and getting ‘kisses’ from the doggies.
• Has a little bit of stranger danger, but not too terrible. He is usually extremely friendly and social, but sometimes just wants to be back with Mommy or Daddy, particularly when he isn’t feeling well.

We tried to get professional photos done on Sunday, but he was fighting a double ear infection and was very clingy. We couldn’t get a single good picture, so we rescheduled his appointment for Friday. Hopefully they’ll turn out!