Life is a Bowl of Marsicos

Wow...I am really late. It has been a busy, hard month!

I have recently been reading blogs of several people with babies who have developmental/genetic abnormalities. It makes me feel a little guilty about my blog. However, I realized that this blog is a diary and scrapbook of sorts. Not a place to brag, but a place to document the changes in our little man. Everyday I that I fight with Carter on the changing table or am frustrated by him whining when he doesn't get what he wants, I feel thankful that he has the physical and emotional development to do these things. I am blessed with a wonderful child.

On that note, here are some of his 10 month accomplishments:

- He is almost exclusively feeding himself. This, of course, occurred a few days after Matt bought a whole slew of baby food! He loves pretty much anything you give him, but his favorite food is bananas! He likes to stuff as much banana in his mouth at one time and looks like he is playing "chubby bunny." It is amazing how much he eats and how distended his belly gets after a meal!
- Other favorite foods: black beans, avocado (he now loves it!), noodles, bread
- I really thought that he would walk early, but he is quite content to crawl. In reality, this is much easier on us because there is less falling! He has all of the tools to be able to stand on his own and walk, but he can get around faster just crawling. He will stand on his own quite well, but the problem being that to stand means that you have to hold still which is not a priority to Carter!
- He knows how to crawl down stairs. On a few occasions I turned him around and showed him how to get down the stair in our bonus room. A couple of weekends ago when my parents were here he just crawled over, turned around, and made it down perfectly. I'm not sure if they have been working on this at daycare or if it just clicked all of the sudden.
- It amazes me how aware of his surroundings he is. He has always been like this, but he is more and more in tune with the world around him. When we are in public he has to study everything and especially everyone. He love to stare and study people. Good thing this is socially acceptable when you are 10 months old.
- Carter has an ability to figure out cause and effect. I don't know how to explain this, but if you watch him play you can see this.
- He loves the dogs more and more. He and Maggie are good buds. Riley still keeps his distance, but is getting a lot less scared. They are an integral part of every meal time! I think they are really enjoying Carter feeding himself (and them)! Maggie and Riley are a wonderful clean up crew, too!
- We have had some good success at eating out. He enjoys trying new foods and watching all of the people at restaurants. Now he actually takes longer to eat then Matt and I and it keeps him very occupied.
- Because he is getting dirtier from feeding himself, Carter now has a bath every night. He loves this time and has some many fun bath toys to play with. He likes to eat the bubbles and feel the water hitting him from the faucet. When he is ready, he climbs right out! The bath seems so tall, but he pulls himself up and flings his leg right over!
- He has been more snuggly at night after he gets his bottle. He prefers to snuggle with his Daddy which makes me jealous : ), but is super cute!
- He babbles a lot, but his newest game is copying you when you laugh. Really funny!