10 months old

Dearest Gabriel Howard,

10 months ago, you graced this world with your sweet little head of black hair, your constant grunting, and beautiful full lips. You’ve grown in to a little boy who is affectionate, musical, and strong. Your hair has lightened, your eyelashes are long and full, and you have 6 teeth already! You love your sleep (usually 11 hours each night), to sit on your dogs, and to push your face against the window.  You weigh 20 pounds and can walk while holding on to someone for support with just one hand.  My, how you have grown!  I want to remember as much as I possibly can about who you are at each stage, and so I have compiled a list of likes/dislikes.

Some of your Favorite Things:

Music- You seem to really be in to electronic dance club music right now.  You have even started dancing—Night At the Roxbury style! 

Food- Anything you can feed yourself, especially Cheerios, pears, and quesadillas.  You’ve never been as excited as the day you got to have some of mama’s fish tacos! Grilled white fish was a hit!

Animal- You wake up saying “kitty cat” and usually say the word at least 20 times per day. Although, most names for animals are synonymous with “cat” in your humble opinion.

Toy: A little plastic ball. You love to toss it across the room, and crawl as fast as you can to go and get it.  You have a great arm, and can always muster up enough focus to play a game of catch.

Activity: Bath time!  You lay on your belly and stretch your legs back, and kick back and forth like a frog.  You lunge for the bath, even if it’s not time for cleaning.  You like to point at the bubbles and stick your hands under the running water coming from the faucet.  You especially love getting to play around the house naked after bath time!

Comfort Belonging: You love your “Night Time Bear” that sings lullabies to you as you fall asleep.  Sometimes in the morning, you wake up and push the button…talking to it until someone comes to get you.  Its belly glows, so when it’s dark you like to smoosh it up to your face.

The Things you Dislike Most-

-Getting dressed

-eating broccoli or salmon

-When people don’t pay attend to you (being alone, having to play alone, ect). 

And what’s my favorite thing about you Gabe? Well, I love how excited you get when we go in to my bedroom in the morning to wake up your daddy for the day.  You climb on his shoulders, touch his nose, and kiss his cheek.  You squeal with joy and wind up laughing every time.  There are little words to fully explain how much I adore your love for your daddy!

I also love what a great little adventure buddy you are.  You’ve traveled just over 16,000 miles in your short lifetime thus far.  A few of our adventures have been swimming in the Atlantic ocean, camping in Leavenworth, going to a Reds game in Cincinnati, and road tripping to Canada. You are full of personality, love social atmospheres, and always add a little excitement to our days.  I can’t wait to see where life will take us next.

I love you sweet boy, and I love the memories we’ve made so far.  Christmas will surely be extra special with you by our side this year.  Here’s to the next few months of many more firsts and new found favorites!

With All My Love,

Your Mama