Joseph Stephen - 10 Months Old

Dear Joseph,

Wow! You are such a busy boy right now! I am not exaggerating when I say that you are into everything. You have learned how to open cabinets, so when I am making dinner you can often be found going from cabinet to cabinet opening and closing the doors and taking items out. You also LOVE the dishwasher. If the dishwasher is open, you are climbing in or taking dishes out of the machine. It has gotten to the point that I cannot do the dishes unless you are in your high chair or your dad is holding you! You are also quite skilled at removing practically every toy from the toy box. The toys at the bottom of the toy box present a challenge though. The other day, you reached so far into the toy box that you fell in!

Your vocabulary has continued to develop, as you have added Dada and Papa to the list of words you know. In addition, you have had your two top teeth break through this month. Even though your two bottom teeth seemed to give you a lot of problems, the two top teeth broke through very easily. We did not even realize that you were teething until one day the first tooth top tooth broke through!

We cannot believe how much you eat! It seems as if you are a bottomless pit. You are not a picky eater at all, and will eat anything that we put on your plate. You will even eat food that your brothers will not touch. It does not matter if it is a fruit, vegetable, meat, or grain, you will eat it and you typically request seconds and even thirds! Despite the fact that you eat all of the time, you have only gained one pound this month. Currently, you weigh 22 pounds and are wearing 12 month clothes.

I believe that you are not gaining a lot of weight because you are so active. You are cruising along the furniture and are so close to walking. On occasion, you can even stand on your own for a couple of seconds. It will not be long before we have a walker in the house! You have changed the way you crawl yet again. Instead of crawling on your hands and knees, you can often be found bear crawling with your hands and feet on the floor and you bottom up in the air. I am amazed by your strength because it cannot be easy to crawl like a bear!

You absolutely love your brothers and they adore you! All three boys are encouraging you as you learn to walk and are trying to get you to walk by holding your hands and helping you walk across the room. William has even started to help you. He will drive his little Thomas the Train tricycle next to you, prompt you to grab the back of the bike and start driving. As he drives, you walk along behind holding on to the back of the seat. It is quite entertaining to watch; you and William seem to love the game, as you both giggle the whole time!

I cannot believe how quickly the last 10 months has flown by Joseph. I can remember the day you were born and the events that led up to your delivery like it was yesterday. On April 16th, it will be one year since I collapsed at work and had to be placed on bed rest until you were born. As I reflect on the last year, I am reminded of how blessed we are that we have such a healthy, beautiful, happy baby boy. We love you so much Joseph!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

It is getting increasingly difficult to keep your month sticker in place as you get older.
As soon as I place the sticker on your shirt, you begin trying to peel it off!

We are working on learning to wave at people!