Alessandro is a huge cuddler with Mommy -- she is just eating it up! At 10-months, Alessandro is very good at cruising and standing up by himself for awhile, but less than a minute. He can cruise along furniture easily and has even attempted a number of times to walk forward between things. However, each attempt just ends up falling forward on his face. Once, he got one step and a sort of trip before catching himself on the table in front of him. I'll bet by 11-months, he'll be walking!He is able to crawl up steps, like he did in this play-tube at the San Francisco airport. He went from standing next to the tube to pulling himself inside and crawling to the other side. he plays often with his sisters and other kids, giggling infectiously with games of chase and pee-a-boo. He loves to pounce on and grab people, particularly attracted to faces (noses and eyes). On our trip to Raleigh, NC, we visited with cousins including the kids' second-cousins Ella and Rudy. Rudy is about 9-months older than Alessandro and the two of them were hilarious the way the wrestled and giggled with each other. They were certainly talking each other's language: the language of "boy!"
Although he still uses his pacifier for comfort, he is finally getting better about sleeping in the night. He can start to comfort himself at night and now I'm up only once with him per night, usually around 2:30pm. He has also started drinking from a sippy cup (yea!), but not enough that he would take his milk-meal/snack from it. We use it for water during meal times. It's a good start.
Favorite toys: balls, the sea captain from his bath boat, and he is really starting to enjoy opening kitchen cabinets and pulling everything out. I am very soon going to get those baby-proofer door latches, despite Paul's concerns they will damage/change the cabinets too much. I have also had to tell Paul that we need to get a legitimate door handle for the kitchen pantry as Alessandro opens the unlatched door and will throw all the food on the floor as well. he has two very-tall teeth on his lowers and I've been waiting for those uppers for some time. No sign of them yet, although I blame general crankiness on their anticipated arrival.
This month, Alessandro attended his 5th wedding, my friend Natasha's in Raleigh, NC. Here's another picture with a bride and him. We've put his sportscoat to good use!
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