January Days...

AJ just turned 10 months old on Feb 2nd! In the past month, he's really come a long way and has been exploring the house and all of his new abilities. He has become really good at crawling all around the house, and he's getting FAST! Look out! I don't have to discourage him from too many places anymore as we've been childproofing more and more lately. The last 2 places that I have to watch him closely are the stairs and the fireplace. Luckily, those areas are not so exciting to AJ yet, so I don't have to constantly say "no" to him.




One of AJ's Christmas presents was a pop-up hut and tunnel, and he likes to crawl in and out of it. I like that it folds up into a flat bag about one foot square! (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) We roll balls into it and AJ chases them inside, or he goes in to find some of his favorite stuffed animal friends. I crawled in to show him how to do it the first time and I almost got stuck! The tunnels are not made for "mommy's hips", hahaha!

This month, AJ also learned how to pull up to a stand. He can do it just about anywhere now, the couch, the kitchen cabinets, my pants...but this is a picture of the first time we came in to his room in the morning and found him standing in his crib. It's one of those moments where you realize he is really not a little baby anymore. Those moments are proud, wistful, and exciting, all at the same time. Another thing he's learning to do (on purpose as opposed to just randomly) is fold his hands.
Every night when we say prayers, we say, "fold your hands..." but never force him to, we just fold ours and figured someday he'd want to do it too. He still chooses to abstain during the bedtime routine, but is more interested in folding them after clapping a few times. If we ever get around to recording it, we'll post how we go: Clap, Clap, Fold! It's precious!

We celebrated Andy's birthday this month as well. AJ helped his daddy open his presents and he and his cousin Kyra liked playing with the wrapping paper.
I love when we get the cousins together, and this time Karly was being pretty affectionate with AJ and wanted to cuddle with him.
AJ wasn't so sure about that, but they were so cute together, we had to snap this funny shot! Kyra liked seeing him too, and while I was doing diaper duty, she came in and said, "Hi, AJ!" which is a big deal since that's something she's never said before! So cute! AJ also showed us how he can ride his rocking Whinny the Pooh he got from his Grandma Cheri.
He was a natural and enjoys rocking and also biting Whinny's nose (just like he tries to bite mine!)

All the months' activity apparently wore him out and he slept all the way home in his PJ's. We almost never see him sleeping because he takes all of his naps in his crib, as well as sleeping there at night. He's usually tired when we lay him down, and he's UP when we come to get him, so to see him sleeping so peacefully (before we woke him up by taking him out of the carseat and removing his coat) is a treat. :)