Your Royall Blogness: 10 Month Letter

Dear Beanie Baby,

We had a low key month with visitors from both grandparents! Papa and Gaga came for their annual March Madness visit. Happy and Nana came this last week. They were coming to babysit you while your daddy and I went to Coachella Music Festival. When it came down to it, we were not ready to spend 2 nights, or even 1 night, away from you. We have become pretty attached these days.

Although low key, we have kept ourselves plenty busy. We went to El Matador beach to celebrate 1 year since I took my maternity photos at the same beach. We tried to recreate the photos with you in the pictures. I can't believe it has been a year since those photos were taken! We had a picnic with our birth class friends. We have been doing a Meditation Mom's Group once a week. We planted our garden and got the backyard ready for summer. We have been hanging in the backyard a lot!

There is no question...you are an official hands and knees crawler, getting faster all the time. There is no point in laying out a blanket or trying to fence you in...you are an explorer and you like to go where you'd like. Your little knees and feet are always dirty and sometimes you have bruises on your little knees from the wood floors. :( I try to keep your knees covered and you will sometimes wear the baby knee pads your from your GG Suzanne. You can pull up on anything and you are perfecting your balance. You can cruise quickly around furniture and love to pull up on our legs. You are not standing on your own yet.

You are only sometimes interested in your toys. You'd much rather roam the house on all fours looking for cords or iPads to mess with. You got a new set of wooden blocks that you love. We will build towers and you will crawl as fast as you can to knock them over. You love to play "crash" where we throw you into the pillows on the bed and yell "CRASH!" over and over. Books have finally become part of your daily routine. You are still chewing on the pages and ripping the flaps out, but you have also learned how to turn the pages and seem somewhat interested in looking at the pictures.

You love to clap your hands and wave hello to people. You are very proud of your wave. You will often wave with both hands (you do the hand opening and closing wave). Sometimes you will wave backwards (at yourself!) which is so cute. When asked "How big is Breckin?" you raise your hands above your head as we say "so big!". Your hands barely reach above your head!! You have started to point! You will point to the sky whenever you hear a helicopter or airplane. You can point to people's noses and you are working on identifying your own nose. Daddy can make you laugh by tickling you with his long hair. You will give kisses sometimes.

You are an eater! You absolutely love it. We have transitioned to a breakfast, lunch (usually), and dinner with snacks in between. Your favorite: eggs

You have also been eating: avocado, broccoli, peas, green beans, honeydew melon, cantaloupe, oats, cheese, banana, mandarins, wheat bread, beans, fish, apple, pear, ground turkey

You feed yourself most of the time (unless it is something extremely messy). you are getting more coordinated but you make a big mess! Leon loves to lay under your highchair and eat what you drop.

You can drink out of a sippy cup with a straw and I'll sometimes give you a little water.

You have had a couple of growth spurts this month. You are starting to actually feel heavy to hold. Your hands and feet look like kid feet and your thighs are getting chunky! Your hair is thickening and the "wings" on the side are longer. Your eyes continue to slowly change but they remain a blue/green color with a brown speck in the right eye. You gained another tooth this month putting you at 8 teeth. This, along with your growth spurts, have really put a damper on the whole sleep thing. One week, you did not take one nap...all week. You have been inconsistent with night sleep as well. Daddy has been in charge fro 12-3 and mommy takes over after that. Daddy still puts you to sleep the best. He likes to dance you down with records. The go to records lately that make you pass out are: Willie and the Po' Boys and The Best of Traffic

You are babbling more and more. You have started to say Mamamama the most. You have even used it correctly and on purpose a few times. You love to babble and practice in the car. You still love to eat paper and put stuff you find on the floor in your mouth. Especially rocks and kumquat seeds outside. You are sneaky. You and Leon are still the best of buds. He lets you play with his toy kong and you squeeze his cheeks, ears and lips. You love dogs period. You will smile and laugh at every dog we come into contact with in public. You can use sign language for milk and will do it often. It looks alot like your wave though, which can be confusing. You LOVE to babble with your finger strumming your lips. Your Papa did this with you while he was here and you do it all the time now. You also like to do rasberries with your tongue.