10 months

Dear Mallory,

You’re ten months old today. The older you get, the more your personality emerges... and the more I think boy, are we in trouble. There is never a dull moment with you, and no rest for the weary!

You are turning into a true drama queen. When we take away something you shouldn’t be playing with – which happens ALL THE TIME – you are likely to put your head down on the floor and just sob, like we are the meanest people EVER. It's as if the world is ending every single time, so I'm looking forward to the day when you learn to pick your battles! And speaking of things you shouldn't be playing with, I am still baffled by how attached you get to some of them. Lately you have been all over the paint chip we are considering for the dining room. Not all the paint chips lying around the house; just that one in particular. What is it about Audubon Russet that makes your heart sing? You carry it around with you in your mouth as you crawl...

Your latest tricks include your ‘spaghetti arms’ – when we pick you up and you’d just as rather not be picked up – you throw your arms up in the air, stick straight, hoping that without that little armpit ledge to hold you by, you’ll slip right out of our grasp. Not necessarily a smart move - have you considered that the alternative is falling? You are also babbling more coherent syllables now, with your favourite saying being ‘da dap’. Translation, please. We’d like to know what that means. Most significantly, for the past couple of weeks you have really enjoyed standing on your own for long periods of time. It entertains you in and of itself, but it really makes your day if someone notices you and comments on it – you’re a true performer. I know this month's shot makes it look like you topple easily, but really you are just easing yourself down after a few moments of standing there, grinning. (I call this shot "Imaginary Surfboard".) You truly do look like walking can’t be far off, though we’ve tried to egg you on and you don’t seem interested in our coaching.

More than ever, you are into everything, leaving a trail of chaos behind you. You eat cat food and Play Doh, you shred toilet paper and trail it through every room in the house, you dump the recycling bin on the kitchen floor and rummage through the garbage cans. Last week I found you eating a piece of garlic bread you’d fished out of the trash after dinner. I’d like to think we feed you enough, but you have me wondering. We have finally resorted to moving the cat food to the basement and installing locks on the cupboard doors, babyproofing measures I suppose we should have taken from the start, but because we never needed to do those things with Liam… it took us a long time to figure that out. Next on the agenda may be packing away the art pottery and family photos in the living room – knocking these off their shelves is your latest favourite game. On the bright side, your interest in toilet water has waned somewhat this month, giving me hope that this need for non-stop vigilance will be over before we lose our minds.

Then again… if we don’t figure out the high chair issue soon, we might lose our minds anyway. We switched you from the original high chair to Gramma and Grampa’s after the original proved to be a royal pain to clean, and too big for your small stature. The problem is that the new high chair didn’t come with a safety belt, and you know it. You climb up out of your seat at least 20 times during each meal and perch precariously on the tray, and it is a constant battle to get you safely back on your bum. I am SO sick of fighting you on this, but it does not look like you will ever tire of your little game.

The silver lining this month is that just as suddenly as it appeared, your eczema is virtually gone. So at least I can feel like I'm winning one of my battles!

This month, you weigh 20 pounds 5 ounces (fully clothed) and I'm not even going to bother checking your length - because I know it's something that will just get you all riled up, and really, who needs more of that?

As much as I gripe about the need to hover over you and the non-stop cleaning up after you, there isn't a thing about you that I would change. You are spunky and mischevious, but it's just curiosity and a desire to keep up with the rest of the family that makes you that way, and who can fault you for that? You always have a twinkle in your eye and a belly laugh ready to let rip. I can have wallflower tendencies, myself, and I admire your audacity and reckless abandon. Let's just learn to channel them for good rather than evil now, hmmmm?

Love,
Mom