Happy Month 10, Helen

Dear Helen,

This month, you turned 10 months old. Frankly, the occasion was overshadowed by your brother turning three, even though you did some pretty spectacular things. For starters, you move. I have to admit, I really did enjoy those first 9 plus months of your life where I could set you in front of a toy and know that you would still be in that same position when I returned. I didn't have to worry about you putting things that didn't belong in your mouth there, because I could easily clear the small radius of the floor you had access to. But, I suppose all good things come to an end, and so too did sitting in one place unless someone moved you.

You have become expert at finding anything and everything clearly not intended for your consumption. You love to crawl to the magazine rack, pull up on it, and then pull at magazines until you get one, at which point you will drop to the floor and start tearing it. If I didn't have your brother the spy around, you could probably do a lot more damage. You can get wherever you want to go, but you are not a terribly inspired person. Unless, that is, Connor seems to be coveting some toy and then you are all about trying to get into his business and take it. This is only fair, as every toy I bring out of storage for you your brother instantly falls in love with, which means you have to wait your turn to use it. Even your exer-saucer, which he is clearly too big for is occupied by him a fair amount of time. (This, by the way, is a very good thing because it means he is contained in one space - a rarity, I assure you.) I used to see used baby toys and wonder how on earth they got broken. I now know. It's not the baby who breaks them, it's the toddler sibling! You're getting much better at holding onto things, and at times, you put up a pretty good fight.

You love to stand and beat on things and it really takes you no time at all to go from sitting to standing so long as there is something to pull up on. You are trying to figure out how to stand without an assist from a piece of furniture, but you haven't figured it out just yet.

You and Connor have developed your own games, and this tickles me to no end. When one of you tires of dinner, you can usually get the other one's attention and you start making each other laugh, toss things, and generally create chaos. I couldn't be happier that the two of you will be spending all your days together next year. I'm very hopeful that it will go a long way toward the two of you learning how to share space. I am equally hopeful that you don't use the time to plot against me and your dad while we are toiling away at our respective offices.

You generally enjoy whatever table foods you can get your hands on. We have to take it slowly occasionally because your system is still prone to not processing new things too well. But, you will eventually get used to all these new foods and that will most definitely be a good thing. For a while, your very favorite food was peaches, and this was a very good thing because we went to our CSA farm twice to pick a fairly large quantity of peaches, plus we get peaches in our box each week. Your dad has been known to eat four in one day - and you have been known to eat an entire peach by yourself. This somehow seems remarkable to me.

You remain a very happy baby, smiling often. These days, when I come home from work, you not only wave hello to me, but you look at your au pair and wave and say "bye bye". Sometimes, when she comes upstairs in the morning and I'm getting ready to leave you look at her and wave "bye bye", but so far it hasn't worked. You do, however, get along with her quite well when I'm not present, or when we're all together on my "at-home" days.

Love,
Mommy