10 months - Mama's boy

I love him. No matter how many times he wakes up at night, no matter how hard it is to put on his diaper, no matter how many naps he misses, no matter how much food he throws on the floor, no matter how sleep deprived I can be.

I love him.

10 months - Augie walks!

This video has been a long time coming: Augie took his first tentative steps nearly two weeks ago, and within a few days he was gaining confidence and going longer distances. Sadly, we didn't get those first little walks on video, but yesterday I finally managed to get footage of Augie walking. He's come so far - he's now regularly walking around the house, arms outstretched or raised, occasionally bumping into things. He loves his bipedal mobility - though when he wants to get somewhere fast, he still gets on hands and feet so he can spider crawl.

(Email subscribers click here to view the video).

10 months - Things on things

I told you the other day that Augie has started to understand the use of his shape-sorting toy. Learning about that day has led him to a new realization: you can put things on top of other things! He loves to take objects - like pegs, toy eggs, even his shoe - and put them on top of other objects. As soon as he's placed something on top of something else, he pulls his arms back in a big sort of "ta-da" movement, and then he starts laughing and flapping his arms. It is ridiculously cute.

Unfortunately, he's naked in the only pictures and video I have of him doing this, so I can't post them here. I do, however, have pictures of some things I've found around the apartment.

The old "peg in the egg carton" trick:

 

The block in the dustbuster:

 Peg in the potty (kind of unintentionally funny):

 The boy in action, putting his shoe on the shape sorter:

Not related at all, but too cute not to share: this kneeling chair was sitting in front of our computer in the living room until Augie climbed in and started using it as a walker to get around the kitchen:

10 months - A visit with Kat

Augie and I traveled down to Wilmington, Delaware today, where we met up with Auntie Kat. Wilmington is about halfway between Princeton and Easton, Maryland, where Kat lives. We found a place to sit in a little park, and Augie climbed and crawled around while Kat and I chatted.

Kat also got some snuggles in:

10 months - Pumpkin in the pumpkin patch

Today was one of the most beautiful, autumnal days we've had. (Trivia: if autumnal is the adjective for autumn and vernal is the adjective for spring, what are the adjectives for summer and winter?) I took Augie out to a local pumpkin patch to enjoy the season.

On a side note, Augie took a two-day break from walking the last couple days, but then this morning went back at it with pizzazz and aplomb! He's been walking all over the house all day, and did several walks at the pumpkin patch, too.

He started the morning working on his zombie walk. It's almost Halloween, after all:

He then moved on to thumping the pumpkins:

And laughing with Mama:

Then he got buried in corn:

This is my favorite shot from today. He's becoming such a boy, isn't he? He's not my little baby anymore!

10 months - The little sleeping bumkin

The good news first: Augie had his best night of sleep in seven months last night! He put himself to sleep in his crib for the second night in a row, and then slept uninterrupted from 7:45pm - 3:30am! He had one more feed at 5am, and then was up for the day at 7am. Of course, I woke up at 2am wondering if he was okay, and it took me some time to settle back into sleep.

The less-than-good news: he only took one nap today, for less than 45 minutes, from 10am to 10:45am - which means that he went to bed overtired tonight and will likely sleep poorly as a result (he's already awoken once and needed to be soothed back to sleep).

I got a job working a couple hours a week as a soccer coach for a program called Soccer Shots. We had a charity fundraising event this morning for which I volunteered to help, and as James is out of town, I had to drag Augie with me. Everyone loved his butt-in-the-air crawl, so I slapped a sticker on it, and this is how he fell asleep when we got home:

10 months - Cooler kids

While Baba is away (he's at a conference in Nanaimo, a city on Vancouver Island in British Columbia), Augie and I went out to play. We met up with Michelle and Esther at the library, then we wandered to the ecology department's beer hour, where the kids got into the goods.

Hopefully tomorrow I can keep him out of trouble.

10 months - My little shape sorter

I mentioned the other day that Augie has finally got the idea of his shape sorter. Here are some pictures that show his progress.

Getting the idea:

 Closer...

  Closer...

Bingo!

10 months - Autumn

We've been trying to get video of Augie walking, but as soon as the camera comes out, he stops walking. So today you get pictures, and tomorrow we'll try again.

10 months - Oh, what a day!

Wow. Wow wow wow. It's been quite a day for Augie.

Last Friday, Augie took his first steps. They were clumsy, falling-over-himself first steps, just as they should be. But every day since, he's been working on standing, stepping, and balance. The most he had done was about 4-5 shaky steps. But today, Augie all of a sudden stepped out with the most calm, masterful steps! It was just after music class, and Augie had been climbing on the teacher (ahem, he likes climbing on people). I knelt down about four feet away and asked him to come to me. He took his hands off her shoulders, turned to me, and calmed walked the four feet between us, step by step. He didn't waver or totter, and he didn't even dive into me when he reached me - he was just standing there, waiting for me to sweep him up in my arms, which is exactly what I did. Augie can walk! It was a beautiful and proud moment for both of us. He's done it several times at home this evening, too, showing off for Baba.

The other majorly exciting thing he did was put himself to sleep for a nap (he can put himself to sleep for nighttime, but naps are something else). Normally I nurse him to sleep and then put him in the crib, but today he was still awake after I nursed him, so I put him in the crib and walked out of the bedroom. He played and rolled around for nearly 30 minutes, before I realized that it was silent in the bedroom and he was asleep. Yippee!

Yet another exciting thing Augie did today was figure out his shape-sorting toy. We've shown him how to use it several dozen times, but all he has wanted to do is bang the blocks together, or eat them. Baba was playing with him this evening and showed him how to put a shape into the right hole, and Augie started trying to do it. He'd put the round yellow peg on top of the round yellow hole (not getting the fit exactly right), then clasp his hands together against his tummy, like, "I'm so proud of this phenomenal stack of toys I have made!" and then he'd reach out and do it again. He can't quite wiggle the blocks into the sorter, but he's so close - and more importantly, he seems to get the point of the toy.

And then at dinner, he fed himself with his spoon. As in, more than none of the food on his spoon made it into his mouth. It also made it onto his forehead, cheeks, eye folds, and into the hair at the back of his head...

Unfortunately, none of today's pictures have anything to do with all of that. Today's pictures are the last from our road trip - pictures taken at the University of Virginia, Mama's alma mater. It's such a beautiful place, and we hope to make it back there - one way or another - some day. Mr. (Thomas) Jefferson's "academical village" - the heart of the University of Virginia grounds - has been considered America's greatest architectural achievement. The Lawn area, the heart of the academical village, features student rooms, faculty homes, serpentine gardens, and the Rotunda, and was imagined as a place where students and faculty lived, worked, played, attended classes, and collided minds together.

Augie atop the steps of the Rotunda:

Inside the Rotunda, looking out over the lawn (and pondering a future residence in Room 7?): 

A look down the walkway in front of the lawn rooms and pavilions (and Augie practicing walking), standing in front of Room 7, home of the Jefferson Society Room 7 Resident:

10 months - Wedding in North Carolina

We just returned from our road trip. James remained impressed by how large the United States is (evidenced by the number of hours spent in the car driving to get only a couple map inches away), while Augie went a little stir crazy stuck in his car seat for so long.

If you don't know (because I probably didn't tell you), we went to Henderson, North Carolina (a small town in the middle of nowhere) to attend the wedding of friends from Santa Barbara. James was good friends with the groom while doing his PhD. Here are some photos from the wedding - none of the ceremony, as we were occupied with keeping Augie occupied. While doing so, I fed Augie his first ladybug! One flew onto my hand, and I held it up to show Augie; he reached out with his little pincer grasp, picked it off my hand, and put it in his mouth! He coughed once, then smiled - with a ladybug on the tip of his tongue.

The groom, Micah, is in the middle. Frank, right, was one of our closest friends in SB (along with his wife Katie, who is due in November):

Not sure what's going on here:

Or here:

10 months - The Hall

We're in Charlottesville, Virginia now, the town where I finished my undergraduate studies at the University of Virginia. We arrived around lunch to visit with my former professor George Mentore and his family, then wandered around the Grounds of the University.

While at UVa, I was a member of the Jefferson Literary and Debating Society (whose membership also includes Edgar Allan Poe and Woodrow Wilson). On Friday nights we'd enjoy whiskey sours and engage in debate, pontification, and idiocy. We took Augie to the Hall (where meetings are held) and let him sit in the president's chair.

10 months - Us, and an exciting development

Sorry I haven't posted, we've been traveling for a few days and haven't had much opportunity to sit quietly and post. However, I wanted to share a couple quick pictures and tell you some news: Augie started walking! He took his first solo steps on Friday. They aren't the most graceful steps, but he's regularly taking a step or two (or more), usually to move between a chair and my outstretched hands. He comes crashing into me (or James) with a big hug at the end of his solo walks - it's fantastic.

10 months - Augie at 10 months

Augie made 10 months a few days ago. We don't do anything to celebrate these monthly milestones, but I do like to pause to reflect on what Augie has learned and enjoyed and begun doing in the past month.

I have to say that the last few weeks has been far and away my favorite phase with Augie. He's blossoming into a little boy, a little boy filled with joy and excitement. He's deeply enjoying his mobility (such as it is), and he's started cuddling (read: tackling) with us more and more. We've entered a phase in which I just have fun with him; yes, it's a lot of work, but suddenly the feeling of work has diminished (at least a little bit), while the feeling of play has grown. He will regularly crawl into my lap, put his hands on my face, and lean in to kiss me; when I'm sitting on the ground, he'll walk around me like a satellite - my own little moon! More and more, he's expressing his pleasure at being with us, with makes me feel like I won the lottery - at least the baby lottery.

At 10 months, Augie:

Weighs more than 22 lbs. He's still spiderman crawling and pulling to standing, but the big growth this month is that he's starting to stand unassisted, stand up from a squat, cruise with one hand, and even take a single step! He loves to turn the pages when we read (and he finally sits quietly in my lap as I read to him) and even plays with books on his own. His favorite foods right now are meat and cheese, but he also enjoys whole plums and nectarines. While sitting on his bum, he will sometimes rotate 360 degrees. He loves knobs and handles, and he's been practicing opening and closing doors and drawers.

He doesn't seem so interested in developing language right now - he's working on his motor skills and on blowing bubbles, but I have no doubt he'll have plenty to say when he starts talking.

 

10 months - Dinnertime hilarity

Augie had a fantastic time goofing around with Baba at dinner tonight, and we had a great time laughing with him. (Email subscribers click here to view the video).