Timothy's Tenth Month

Well, we finally finished getting through that wonder week! Sometimes he still protests being stuck in the living room while I'm cooking, but most of the time he's content to play with his Duplos or his giraffe-ball-toy-table by himself. Occasionally, he'll even be standing at the gate, and we can say, "Timothy, where is your ball? Go find a ball!" and he'll go off to find one of the balls and play. So glad to have him back to his normal self! Just in time for the next leap to start soon.

Four generations!

Early this month we took a trip to VA so Timothy could finally meet his great-Grandma Irene! It is technically a short enough drive that we could have just made a day trip, but Timothy doesn't like spending a lot of time in the car, so we decided to make it an overnight so we could spread out the driving more. We stopped in Edenton for a picnic lunch on the way up, and visited the last square-post lighthouse in the country!

Comfy pillow at our AirBnB.

Cool, refreshing swim (outdoors on October 3!) Timothy loved it.

Naps are still shorter than I'd like, but sleeping through the night is still going well most of the time, so that's been really nice. It's great to actually go to bed and not be mentally planning what time I'll have to get up in the middle of the night. 

Napping in the car on the way home from VA.

He's finally started signing "more"! I am so excited about this! Like I had hoped, it's cutting back on the whining, except of course when the additional food he requested doesn't arrive as quickly as he wanted. His version of the sign is adorable, too, rather than the fingers pinched together and touching the fingertips together, he clasps his hands completely together into a pleading sort of position. He sometimes needs to be prompted - "Can you say 'more' please?" or "How do you say 'more'?" to remind him but he's doing it consistently at every meal with very little prompting. He is still eating a LOT, I continue to be amazed at how much food he can eat! One day, he stuffed himself so full, his fat little belly was a sight to see. He's often still asking for more when we've run out of food and we have to scramble to find something else to top him off!

We cleared out one of our kitchen cabinets so Timothy could have his own cabinet in the kitchen, with a few toys and some safe kitchen items that I don't use often so he'll have somewhere to play in the kitchen. We have safety locks on the cabinet with the cleaners, but with the other cabinets, we're trying to teach him that he can only play with his cabinet, and redirect him when he tries to enter one of the off-limits cabinets. Training is exhausting! Who wants to say "Timothy, that cabinet is not for you, where's your cabinet?" or some variation of that 20 times while attempting to cook breakfast?

Timothy's cabinet contains toys.

Once he got stuck inside! He learned his lesson I think.

Our other training issue this month has been with Timothy's newfound interest in experimenting with gravity... using his food. It's strange, since he eats so much, that he manages to eat so much while also throwing so much on the floor. Our dilemma is whether or not to give it back. On the one hand, if we give the food back, there is no negative consequence when he throws yummy food that he eventually intends to eat on the floor. On the other hand, he's getting a little picky about what he does eat, so oftentimes the food that he throws on the floor is the less desirable food that he doesn't particularly care to eat anyway, so if we leave it on the floor when he throws it, he's learning that throwing food on the floor is a good method to avoid eating food he doesn't want to eat. There doesn't seem to be a straightforward answer to this situation!

Picnic! The poor pear slice landed in the grass seconds later.

Tooth number 7 made its appearance, so now he has all four top incisors, and we're waiting for the bottom left lateral incisor, which will make 8. There has been a lot of slobber lately, so we're thinking it'll be poking through soon. He also likes blowing raspberries lately, so that combined with the extra drool makes for quite a mess sometimes. Another mouth skill he's been doing too is popping his lips. That one isn't messy, and is so cute!

Playing with his cousin Edison!

New game: playing catch! He likes putting things up on the coffee table, but when he puts his ball up on the table, it usually rolls right off the other side. One day, I was on the other side of the coffee table and caught the ball, rolled it back, and we invented Timothy's version of catch! He will only do it on the coffee table so far, we've tried to play on the floor and he doesn't go for it. 

We've taken him to a few parks with the bucket baby swings, and he is absolutely obsessed with swinging. He gets quite upset when we stop and take him out. My mom got one to add to our childhood swingset in the backyard and we all had a great time watching Timothy enjoy it... it's just so funny and sad when he wails at the end. We can't swing forever, buddy!

He knows where Daddy's 'nose' is now!

In other learning, he's just starting to understand signing "milk." We're trying to teach him to clap, but he prefers to clap our hands for us by holding the back of a finger or two of each hand and smacking our hands together. This is probably because we've been trying to help him clap his hands. He's also trying to learn how to assemble his Duplos after he takes apart whatever we built for him. He likes cleaning up and putting his Duplos in the bin, but even more fun is dumping them out. He starting to work on walking a little, and will take several steps holding our hands for help!

He likes crawling around and pushing things that slide or roll across the floor. Experimenting with putting items on top of things like chairs, the sofa and the coffee table is really fun him. He likes examining things he isn't supposed to have, like phones, remotes and plants. And if he's on a sofa, he wants to try to climb over the back... so help me when he actually can climb well enough to get over the back! We have a curious, adventurous little explorer!

We did a few fun trips/outing this month, including spending a chilly weekend in the mountains! Timothy and I had fun while Daddy worked most of Saturday.

Playing with Duplos in our mountain hotel room.

The view from the top of our hotel!

Cold walk with Daddy on Sunday!

We went to Hillridge farms to get a pumpkin and had lots of fall-themed fun:

And we dressed up for Halloween and had a fun time at Aunt, Uncle and Cousin's house!

We were Faramir, Eowyn and a baby hobbit!

My guys! They look good in capes...

Timothy borrowed his cousin's walker and was actually walking with it!

Edison the Ewok and Timothy the Hobbit!

Silly boys eating dinner

Cute cousins

Timothy is a sweet, cheerful little guy most of the time! It's fun taking him out since his favorite activity when we're out and about is smiling at strangers. Two different ladies we "met" last week have told me that his smile made their day. One of them asked me, "how do you stand all that cuteness?" He's definitely adorable, and while he's a lot of hard work, he's definitely a wonderful blessing. I'm so thankful for our precious son!