Arthur, Month Ten

Arthur is ten months old! and celebrating with his first tooth. Or his first teeth, as overnight he went from having none at all to having six in various stages of emersion.

Otherwise Arthur spent most of this month working on standing and walking unsupported - he's very close now, but his balance is still not quite there.

This month I took a four-day vacation to visit my sister in Reno and then rented a cabin in Lake Tahoe with my friends Lilli, Melissa, and Sara. Dev spent that time drilling Arthur in walking with a cart. He also didn't put him in pants.

(Beatrice walked with the same cart here, at 14 months. In typical second child style, Arthur hits all his milestones before Beatrice did.)

Arthur's favorite new place to go is Kuki's Playshop, an indoor playground about a mile from our house, and of course he still loves the baby gym.

He's also been working on communication, both with speech (he added "mama" to his repertoire) and gestures. In fact, Arthur is fond of making emphatic gestures, underscoring his babbles by pointing, clapping, throwing his hands up in the air, or slamming them down on the table. The first time he said "mama" he pointed right at me, said "mama!" and then threw his hands up above his head laughing in victory.

He's very resourceful, motivated, and, as his resume says, a self-starter: completely on his own he taught himself to use a cup*, to put on socks, and to draw with chalk or crayons. He also independently invented the game of baseball using a wooden spoon and a tennis ball he found.

As I say every month, Arthur and Beatrice are spending more and more time playing together, but it continues to be true - they have a lot of private jokes and games and while Beatrice loves bossing him around and telling him quite clearly which of her "belongings" are "not for babies," she also readily shares toys and treats with him.

(Beatrice is in her ballet clothes.)

She continues to enjoy playing "mother": today at lunch Arthur let out a short little sneeze and she exclaimed, "Don't worry, Arthur, I'm getting you the thermometer!" and then rushed off to the bathroom to find it.

* "How," you might ask, "did he teach himself to use a cup?" By taking a small plastic cup, dipping it into the dogs' water dish, and then drinking from of it, of course.