Well, our little guy has hit the double digits! This seems to be a time of tremendous development for him. You can almost see the neurons connecting! He is doing so many new and exciting things.

Such as:

• Pulling himself up on things (some of his favorites: mom, dad and the ottoman in the family room).
• Fake laughing
• Playing chase (one of us holds him - usually dad- and the other chases or gets chased....Hayden loves it and laughs and laughs while we run around like lunatics!).
• Walking...with help of course...he likes to hold our hands and teeter along.
• Bottom-scooting: a way of being mobile while sitting- most effective for covering a lot of ground quickly.
• Being a copy-cat: He likes to mimic what we do- clicking our tongues, vibrating your lips and making noise, and laughing.
• Grinding his teeth...I guess now that he has two levels, it is fun to rub them together. It really is a horrible sound! Probably sounds and feels cool to him. A new trick!

He has just started using a walk-behind toy to perfect his walking skills. He will be in training for a while! He is still pretty unsteady.

Hayden has also started to say a few words. He says "mama", "dada", "nana", "oh", and "no". He says these things, but mostly just randomly, not totally purposefully...yet. Sometimes he does say mama and I know he is referring to me, but most of the time he is just babbling away for fun.

As far as eating goes at the ripe old age of 10 months, anything is fair game! Well, to a point of course. He is eating things off of our plate. Small (pea-sized) bites of many foods - garden burgers, avocado, banana, corn, peas, green beans, carrots, broccoli, brussel sprouts (not a favorite), olives, pork, chicken, beef, turkey, mandarine oranges, and the all-time favorite, string cheese! Then he also eats all of the other baby foods in the jars: squash, sweet potatoes, oatmeal, pears, applesauce, peaches, spinach, and many others. He is still pretty gaggy, so we try to keep things small and not too textured.

With walking just around the corner, and words starting to sneak out, life at the Mallory household is really starting to get interesting! -- mam