My Double Digit Man

A Cute Story:
When Ryan turned 10, his mom referred to him as her "double digit man". Ryan told me that she kept saying it and he didn't understand. He then started crying and saying "but I don't want to be a double digit man..". The End.

Well... Jude is my double digit man today. He's 10 months old!


As I say over and over again, he's growing and maturing so quickly. With the realization that we're not going to Disney sinking in, I'm now faced with what to do for Jude's first birthday. This is a huge realization for me. Not so much the Disney part... but the party part. I have all these ideas, some big and some small. I've considered a close party for just the three of us, a huge she-bang for extended family and friends and everything in between. But really, why and I'm talking about this?? I should be talking about how amazing he is at 10 months old. Because really, he is.

You always hear people warning you about different stages of childhood. You don't want to hurry this or speed up that... well, I think it's safe to say that the picking himself up and getting more and more (and more... and more...) mobile is one of those things. He is into everything. The pantry, the basket of TV wires, the surround sound box, the dog bowls, laundry room, trash cans, etc. He crawls under things and then can't crawl out. He wants to see, touch and experience everything. Everything goes in his mouth - it's like he can't fully experience it without tasting it first.




I wouldn't trade any of it though. It's so much fun. He's so curious. He plays on his knees, goes from sitting to crawling to standing and back again as if he's known how to do it forever.

Jude and I have been taking weekly trips to the library, talking about colors, reading and just really setting a good education foundation. (or so I think...)

He's eating more, getting more interested in food and is getting solid. Dinner is now his "eh" meal. he eats a solid breakfast and scarfs down lunch. He loves peas and carrots. I could probably feed him nothing but steamed peas and carrots and he would be entirely happy.

He loves Buddy. They cuddle and it melts my heart.

He laughs. Everything we do is hilarious. Ryan and I are comedians and the world around us is our stage. Jude watches and laughs at just about everything.

He's got to be (hands down) one of the happiest babies. Sometimes when he cries, I (still) have no idea what to do... I hold him and comfort him and get worried because, if he's crying, there's usually something wrong.

We've had to move his crib down so that he can't crawl out... although he sleeps with us a lot too. I love waking up with the three (four including Buddy) of us in bed cuddling. At this point in my life, I can't imagine having another child. My love for Jude is so whole that right now, there's just no space. I look forward to each day of giving Jude 100% of me to help him mature.


Our days together are getting more and more rewarding. All of these months of 'boring' infant are starting to pay off as he's becoming more and more of a person.

For his '10 month birthday' we got out in the warm(ish) weather on Friday. We ended up meeting another mother I met on a Delaware chat board at a local park. We were planning on going to the Hullabaloo play center, but decided to take advantage of the warmth. The little boy was 2 days younger than Jude and about a whole head taller. Jude was very interested in him and tried to poke and prod at him. The other little boy wanted very little to do with it. They sat on the ground and crawled and explored the outside world. I put Jude in a swing, on one of those little animal things that bounce back and forth on a spring and crawled on some climbing stuff.

Later, his 2nd cousin came over to play and Jude had fun (again) trying to poke and explore him. We took him to New Castle and had a fire pit. All in all, it was a great 10 month birthday.