month 10 3/4: the rise of the ham

oh snapper,

what amazing things have you come up with in the last almost-two-months? well…

• speaking - you’re clearly talking now, and have some favorite words. “up” is one, which you use when you want to, uh, get up. either from the crib, or out of the high chair, or out of the car seat or stroller. “up up up!” and then there’s your new favorite food, “peas,” which sometimes sounds more like “peace.”. plus you sometime say “cat”, “uh-oh”, and just wait until mommy comes back and finds that i’ve taught you to say “poop”!


• eating - speaking of food, now that you’ve moved to solid food, eating has become much more complicated. there’s a whole litany of items we go through and try and make for you to ensure that you a. get a healthy meal and b. get enough to grow big big big! of course, to keep us on our toes, you favorite foods keep changing from day to day and week to week. first you loved yams and yogurt. and then yams were out. and avocados were out but now they’re a favorite. yet all of these were fine until you discovered BREAD! which is by far the new favorite. until cheerios came along. in the meantime, does anyone need, oh, a LOT of frozen yam cubes?


• feeding - while it’s fun to watch you feed yourself, it certainly makes things much more messy. previously feeding you with a spoon was relatively containable, just scooping the food detritus that didn’t make it into your mouth. now you’re smearing food all over your face with your hands, and then over your arms. and nose. and ears. and eyebrows. it’s certainly fun to watch you pick up food and shove it in your mouth. what’s less fun is to watch you take the food in your mouth back out just so you can feed it to yourself. and what’s not really fun at all is when you take out the food from your mouth and drop it on the floor.


• crawling and standing - you’ve been crawling for real for a while now, none of this commando crawling with just your arms. and while you’re zipping around the house, now it’s more just a means to get to something you can pull yourself up on and stand up. no steps yet, although you’re doing the furniture shuffle, and even stand by your self for seconds at a time. again, you’re so close to walking. and we are so close to being doomed.


• hamminess - finally, it’s clear that you’re going to be the center of attention wherever you go, and you won’t have it any other way. whenever we go out you’re charming everyone who sees you, waving and smiling until everyone’s paying attention to you. mommy said that when you guys were out at buffalo waiting in the sale line, she turned around and you had all the other people smiling at you and playing the “tilt your head sideways” game. goodness.