10 months old

He's in the DOUBLE DIGITS!!!!

This birthday really started Mike and me thinking about

how unbelievably close Carter is to a whole year old.

Size-wise he's still a little peanut (except for his head!),

but he is acting incredibly grown up lately. 

He feeds himself and rarely agrees to be spoon-fed.

He eats all kinds of big boy foods and has to try

just about everything we are eating.

 He crawls so fast we can barely keep up with him.

He can stand independently for ten or fifteen seconds.

He furniture walks all the time and sometimes even takes 

a step or two between pieces of furniture.

Carter can do a whole lot of stuff on his own now, 

without any help from us.

But he still smiles at us like we are his whole world.

When he wakes up, he still wants to cuddle a bit

before he's ready to get down and play.

He still likes to nurse 6-8 times a day.

And though he's willing to play by himself, 

he'd always rather play with Mommy or Daddy.

So as we struggle with the fact that he is growing up fast,

we are thankful for the sweet moments we still have left

with our baby when he's still acting like a baby. 

It's funny how those moments that seemed like they would last forever, 

when Carter wouldn't let us put him down for anything 

(when all he wanted was to be held and all we wanted was 

a moment to ourselves), are now the moments we treasure 

because we know they will soon be gone.

  

 Several times a day, Carter climbs into my lap,

reaches up and gives me a real hug!

We hold each other tight and I sway

back and forth and say "Hug, hug, hug."
Carter buries his head against me and giggles

and I thank God for this gift more precious than

anything I could have ever imagined.

We love you, Carter Maxwell.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy.  

Sorry for the sappy post.

It's been an emotional week...