The 10-month-old cassanova

Reed turned 10 months old this past Wednesday. It’s hard to believe he’s only two months away from turning one year old! I was going through some of his old stuff as I was reorganizing his memory box and I saw the outfit that he wore home from the hospital. It was SO tiny! I remember when we went home with him, he was swimming in that outfit and now he looks massive next to it. At his last doctor’s appointment, he was 20 pounds and almost 30 inches tall. His third tooth (a top tooth) broke through on Friday! He’s eating graham crackers and pasta with butter and Parmesan! How did he suddenly become so grown up?!?!? Time moved so slowly those first few difficult months and now that we’re having so much fun they’re flying by. I guess it’s just like the saying.

On Saturday, we went to Burlington to do a little shopping and get lunch at my favorite Asian restaurant. Reed was in a very good mood all morning, but he really took it to a whole other level at the restaurant. He became Mr. Flirt. It started with our waitress. He put on his biggest smile and started babbling and reaching for her. Then he started smiling at every woman in the restaurant — and this wasn’t any ordinary smile, it was obvious that he was flirting. He would crane his neck to watch the waitress’ every move and then would get so excited when she came anywhere near our table. It was hilarious! He even took her hand when she came over (it actually looked like he was going to kiss it and I’m telling you, if she’d gotten closer, she’d probably have been the recipient of one of his sloppy open-mouth kisses). The flirting paid off for him, since she gave him free animal crackers. He then proceeded to flirt with a salesgirl at the Body Shop after lunch. What a little player!

I take very little credit for his personality. I used to be a big believer in nurture over nature, but Reed’s personality is definitely something he was born with. Obviously, we could have screwed him up by not giving him a safe and loving environment, but he was definitely meant to be a sweet, happy, easy-going, social and flirty little guy. He seems to have gotten the best pieces of Adam’s and my personalities. Lucky him. Lucky us!

Poor little guy is still dealing with recurrent ear infections. I feel like he’s constantly on antibiotics — the last course was extended to 15 days since his ears were still looking pink after 10. This week, we’ve started putting him in the shower with one of us every night in the hopes that the steam will help his ears drain better. I don’t know if it’s working, but what we have discovered is that he LOVES the shower. In spite of his illnesses, he’s usually in a really good mood. He has his moments of whining, crying and sulking, but much less than I’d expect from someone who has gotten three teeth and two ear infections over the past three weeks. I was thinking today about how much his moods impact my own. When he’s happy and having a day like he was on Saturday, I’m happy. When he’s feeling crappy — like he was this morning when his gums were hurting — I feel terrible (helpless, frustrated, worried).

Here’s a short movie of my happy guy that Adam took while we were getting him ready for bed. Reed was in one of those happy/lovey moods where he dives on us and tries to french kiss us, but I got the upper hand and started kissing his belly. Here is his reaction:

Adam and I are the luckiest people in the world — or at least I feel that way when I hear Reed laugh.