10 Months Old

Last week, Marlin turned 10 months old!  And since then he has gotten busier and busier:

He's getting around quick and pulling everything new out of anywhere he can find. He knows how to crawl under things, keeping his head ducked. 

He's hardly been sleeping, barely interested in naps, tough to put down at night, waking during the night and still raring to go at 6 am.  Lately there's been a few times when we napped together (like in bed after an early wake-up, or on the couch in the afternoon), and as SOON as he wakes, he rolls over and starts crawling and reaching for things.  He barely looks like he is fully awake and he's already looking to learn about something new. 

He has had quite a resurgence in his desire to nurse often.

He has teeth numbers 5 and 6 coming in, which might have something to do with his wanting to nurse and not sleep.  It must hurt and sometimes it seems to cause him pain, bringing his fist to his mouth, pulling his ear.  

Putting a diaper on him has become a fight! 

He is showing a lot more understanding of things.  If I tell him to get the blue ball, he crawls right to it and has started figuring out give and take - we can sort of toss it back and forth.   He doesn't quite throw it, but he'll swat at it until it rolls to me. 

He puts things into other things and takes them out again. 

He claps often, initially during meals, which led me to believe that he's figured out the one sign I use most often - "more."  But he also claps at other times and has yet to do any other signs, so time will tell if my attempts at sign language will pay off!

He has figured out how to walk along the furniture and it's become second nature for him to plop down from or pull up to standing.  He's pretty good at balancing with only one hand on something.  {...walking soon?!}

And, as evidenced in the last post, he is a good eater.  I can no longer eat something myself without him wanting some!  I know the feeling well from my past babysitting experiences, but I never expected that he'd reach this point already! 

He's a handful these days, but still a trooper, going with the flow, laid-back and pretty easy to please.  And I love watching him learn about the world.  You can almost see the gears turning inside that little brain.