Landon is 10 months! (Actually, closer to 10 1/2 months by now.)

He’s been pulling himself up a lot lately! He generally pulls himself up by grabbing onto my legs, but he used the chair this time. One of his less endearing habits is if I don’t pick him up he’ll throw a temper tantrum on the floor. More than a few of his tears have been spilled on the kitchen floor when I’m working on food prep and he’s angry he’s not in my arms.

Landon really likes us. He was cracking up at the rooster noise I made with the book and a bit later I walked in the room and he and Brian were just hanging out on the couch. Yes, he’s wearing chicken socks.

Oh my gosh this video. I have watched this probably 100 times, especially while I was at the International Builders’ Show in Las Vegas for nearly a week. (Check out my observations from there!) One of my favorite parts of this video is that simply laughing and squealing isn’t enough to express his pleasure; he also needs to kick the floor out of glee.

The only lingering difficulty from Landon’s prematurity (I think) is he’s a bit slow on eating development. Fortunately Amy is still coming around once a month or so to work with us on new techniques. We think she’s pretty great. Landon doesn’t totally get the concept of chewing yet; we had to swipe steamed carrot chunks out of his mouth because he wasn’t chewing them. Amy recommended rice rusks, which are dissolvable like puffs, but big enough he can eat and feed them to himself. The first few times he tried to stick the whole rice rusk in his mouth, which was too much, but now he’s getting the hang of it more and even chewed it a bit last night instead of just letting it dissolve! He also just recently started holding his own bottle sometimes. Last night he showed me how he can do it one-handed.

Landon also graduated from his bath seat and just sits on a bath pad in the tub. He puts everything in his mouth (like green rubber ducks) and the other night he noticed the drain plug at the bottom of the tub and leaned forward, mouth open to try to taste that too. He was puzzled when he got a mouthful of water instead of the drain plug! He loves baths so much he shrieks and cries every time I take him out. I’ve also gotten to take him to the indoor pool at the YMCA several times and he’s always enjoyed splashing the water, happy squealing (it echoes in the natatorium…) and smiling at other people in the pool. I’m excited to take him to the outdoor pool this year and take him swimming in his Grandpa Jim’s lake!

With the advent of community band season, which practices on Thursday evenings when Brian works, we also used a non-family babysitter for the first time. Small world moment: her mom used to babysit my brother and me. She did a wonderful job with him and even got him a Curious George puppet book! He loves that the monkey can give him a hug and kiss his nose.

He also had his first Valentine’s Day, which he celebrated with a party at his sitter’s house with the other kids! They exchanged Valentines, had treats and he even got a balloon.