Little William: Ten Months Old!

Our snuggle bug is getting bigger and bigger by the second! 

Today I'm looking back on how life has been for him while he was a nine-month old. 

Little William has been making big strides in the past month. And I mean literal strides! There's been a whole lot of new things Little William has been up to but I cannot contain my excitement about this dude and his tubby, tottery steps! Absolutely Adorable! 

On the day he turned 10 months old, Little William took four steps towards Will! He's gotten fairly confident at standing unassisted and doing the one step before falling over, but we were all surprised when he suddenly made it four whole steps! 

Now to move on with things in a bit more of a chronological manner... 

In William's tenth month of external growth he got to experience his first Christmas! 

It went as well as one would imagine gift unwrapping would be for a nine-month old. He mostly just wanted to stick the presents in his mouth. 😄

We even had three days of gift opening so you might think that he would have caught on by the third time, but nope, he still needed some guidance. 

On December 28th he started clapping. For a while, out of excitement, he would *almost* clap his hands, but it seemed as though there was a magnetic field of sorts that would not allow his hands to come together all the way just yet and they would bounce back when they were millimeters apart. 

Now we get to enjoy the satisfying, chubby handed, smack-smack of his enthusiastic character. 

Little William loves the animals in his life. 

Bobo (neighbourhood cat), Scout (Oma and Opa's dog), and Shelby (Uncle Peter's dog). He gets delighted to see them when he comes upon them in their respective homes and promptly tries to get fistfuls of their fur so he can try to eat them. 😆

What a guy... 

Along with his love for animals, William very clearly said dog for the first time on New Years Eve. He was attempting to visit with Shelby while she was in her crate at my parents house and he said "dog!" with a heavy pronunciation on the d and more of a 'ug' than an 'og' but it was dog nonetheless. 

On the first day of this new year he stood unassisted for 15 seconds which was a new record for himself. 

Little William got upgraded to a new-to-him car seat. It's Delilah's previous rear-facing car seat as we decided to buy her a new car seat to last year for the next few years. 

We've been doing a lot of research into the world of car seats and with William being such a big guy we didn't want to spend a whole bunch of money on him now only to find ourselves needing to get him yet another new car seat because of his size. 

He looked so tiny in the new seat the first time - such a weird phenomenon for us to see! 

This guy is a total tank and bruiser. As much of a cuddle bug as he can be, William also likes to partake in a good wrestling match, pull all the books off the shelf and down on top of himself, barrel roll over the side and into the bathtub, jump on the bed, and move furniture around. 

He keeps us on our toes! 

That all being said, he also does have a very good sense of what is right and wrong. So if you make eye contact with him while he's doing something disobedient he is quick to crawl off in the opposite direction of you, often giggling as he pads away. 

Oh his blue eyes get me every time! 

💙💙

We've turned a corner of sorts and Little William is only waking 2-3 times per night now! Which is MUCH more manageable (heehee I can't even believe I'm saying this) than waking 4-6 times a night.

He's on a pretty strict nap schedule which I only adjust if he gets up at 6:30 with me on daycare days. 

Otherwise he's typically down from 10:00am-11:30am and then from 2:30pm-4:00pm. 

I am so grateful for better sleep! 

One evening while we were praying after dinner I noticed that Little William had folded his hands perfectly atop his highchair tray. Then the next morning at breakfast I watched for it again, and he did it then too! His fingers weren't so exactly interlocked that time, but he still had the right idea. 

He usually refuses if I direct him to do it, and it takes until we're a few seconds into a prayer for him to join in, and even then, sometimes he won't at all, but either way we love how observant he is and seeing him catch on to things like this. 

Delilah, being the oldest, found her voice and was 'talking' at a much younger age than William is now. I think Little William has been quite content for the most part to watch and listen to her when they are together. But in the last month I have noticed that he's started to babble more and more. 

Especially if he is playing on his own I'll hear him going, "Ba-da-ba-da" to himself. 

'Ooops, I was too distracted by Delilah being silly that I toppled over...'

'Well, hey, it's kinda comfty here so I think I'll just lay here a minute...'

'Just give me a minute, Dee. I'm resting'

Little William has also started to notice when Will and I are giving Delilah attention instead of him and he'll wiggle his way onto our laps for some lovin' too. 

He is always trying to copy what his sister is doing, even if he's sometimes too small to keep up. 

I spot him on his tip toes a lot. Trying so hard to reach all the things Delilah can reach and do all the things she can do. 

Oh, William, you make us happy!