10 Months

As of August 12, Rowan is 10 months old. I can hardly believe how fast this year is flying by! We're having lots of fun with our little buddy this summer. He's becoming more of his own little person each day, copying us and showing us in big and small ways that he's listening to every word we're saying.

He follows simple instructions, such as "Can you give that to mama?" or "Can you find your puppy?" If I recite the first few sentences from his favorite books (I know them by heart!) he'll even find the book and bring it to me.

I've also become sure that he's saying mama this past month. It's really hard to figure out when they're just making new noises and when they actually mean something. My dad was convinced (OK is convinced) Rowan started saying grandpa at 8 months. My dad's certainty stems from the fact that Rowan really did say something that sounded like grandpa during dinner one night right after my dad said, "Can you say grandpa?" Great grandma Lindell, my brother Scott, my dad and my mom all witnessed it. Ever since then, my dad thinks that any sounds that include gah or pah are, in fact, Rowan's attempts to say grandpa...

Anyway, I really do think he says mama now. Today he actually looked at me with a smirk and said maaamaaa. I got super excited, and he started giggling immediately. He looked at me like, "Yeah, I knew you'd love if I said that." Kyle said he's holding out for Rowan to say daddy (he says dada, but I guess Kyle won't be sure it means anything until it's a solid daddy).

Rowan is still cruising away, and getting more daring all the time, but still no real walking. I'm not complaining! He's a fast crawler, but that's nothing compared to running, so we'll be happy if he takes his sweet time. He has no trouble getting to where he's going, so he's as happy as can be.

Rowan's favorite foods right now are fruits (especially blueberries or ripe peaches or plums that he can share with mama) and meats (little shreds of chicken or steak). We've been trying to give him some yogurt fruit smoothies, but he's still a little leery of them. They say it takes several introductions when introducing new foods, so we'll see... He likes o-cereal and crackers, but it's been rather slow going with the solids overall. We offer, he eats some, then it's food all over the floor... At least he's still getting lots of breastmilk, which provides all the nutrients a baby needs for the first year (with solid foods being more of a learning experience).

We'll start ECFE classes again in early September. This time, Rowan will be one of the oldest, rather than one of the youngest in the class. It will be fun to look at the younger babies and think that Rowan was in their shoes just a few months ago!

In terms of copying, Rowan fake coughs, fake yawns and fake sneezes when we do the real thing (so funny!). (Please note: any bad habits Rowan picks up are always the result of him copying other people -- not the two of us. We, of course, have no bad habits to speak of. ;-)

Rowan is truly a gift and we're thankful for him each and every day!

Here's our sweet little 10-month-old.

Here he is doing his very best "so big" for the camera.

And here he is waving. (He loves to wave at people walking by our house, but sometimes he forgets to do it until they've already gone past...oh well!)

Here's a very serious clapping session (oh, the concentration).

And, my favorite, peekaboo. Sooooooo fun!