10 month little man!

10 months ago we welcomed our sweet baby boy into our lives. He is continuing to grow,develop, and thrive each day!

Mathew was of course the hit of Christmas. He brightened every one's spirits! Lots of pics to come soon.

I just love looking at his beautiful blue eyes. His hair continues to get more and more curly-mostly in the back. It's adorable! He still has the two bottom teeth but no teeth on top as of yet. He gained 1 pound this month, is cruising around constantly, stands on his own for about 5-10 seconds, and has even taken a few steps in a row before plopping down on his bottom. I definitely have a feeling he'll be walking before his first birthday! Mathew is still a great sleeper and eater. We are so blessed with a pretty easy baby. He sleeps anywhere from 12-14 hours through the night. He's not quite as fond of napping. He puts up a struggle occasionally and is already trying to convert from two naps to one. Most days he's been taking one 2 hour nap and that's it. He is eating trying almost anything we eat, within reason, and still eating baby food. He really likes to feed himself finger foods now. Out all all his incredible toys, the two things he still adores the most are his plastic rings from his stackable ring thing ( clueless on the technical name?!?!), and the foam strips from his foam alphabet puzzle play mat. He likes to have one in each hand and just crawl all over with them or stand up, drop one, bend down to pick it up, repeat, repeat, repeat. He's very interested in books. He loves to be read to and even recently has begun taking books out of his toy basket and turning through the pages on his own. He has a couple texture books that he likes to rub his hands on to feel the different textures. I tried to capture a pic of it today, but this was as close as I got. I loved the way the rays of sunshine were casting shadows on the floor as he explored his Farm Animals book. He loves to play independently and is such a happy boy. He has definitely become a crier when we're around other people though. He cries if we try to hand him off to someone or if someone tries to pick him up. He'll go to people on his own sometimes, but isn't a big fan of strangers right now. I'm sure part of it is a normal phase for this stage and part of it has to do with him being home with us and only us all of the time. The pros and cons with everything of course.

Each stage he experiences I think is the best yet and then I'm amazed that I love the next stage even better. I think it's just so joyous watching him learn, love, and grow that it just keeps getting better and better. Ten months ago our lives became much richer, that's for sure!