Zachary turns 10 months old!

My baby turned 10 months old and I think we can officially consider him mobile!! No, he hasn't mastered crawling on all 4's, but he certainly has perfected the combat crawl. He doesn't use his legs hardly at all, and just pulls himself around w/ his arms. He's been practicing this for a few weeks now, just to get a toy here or there. But this weekend he made his first big journey and hasn't looked back. It's common to place him in the middle of the living room w/ his toys, (equidistant from as many obstacles/hazards as possible) and I'll be trying to get some things done around the house. (Emily's getting good at tattling, so she's a good helper to watch for trouble.) Anyway, so he's in his spot on the floor, and I'm in the kitchen and I hear a noise. It took me about 30 seconds to realize that the sound of cds falling to the floor was actually cds falling to the floor!! Zach had made it to the cd rack, (and I swear he gained speed the closer he got), and proceeded to swipe off all the cds he could reach... which was quite a lot!

Later, I put him back in his spot, (I still have to get some stuff done!), when he decides he wants me, and he can combat crawl to me. Hmm, so we try the activity saucer to keep him in place... Nope. He wants nothing more to do w/ it.

Also the last week, he's been quite a tap dancer when you hold him standing up. Holding his hands, his feet would just tap like crazy and he'd get all excited thinking he was about to go somewhere. And... this weekend he graduated from tapping his feet to actually moving 1 foot in front of the other. Very shaky, but definitely w/ determination. He's not content to sit in one spot anymore. He doesn't pull himself up on the couch yet, (still a little too high), but he'll pull himself up on our legs and reach for our hands to help him up. Then he plops back down. Then he pulls back up. Then he plops back down. You can just see the wheels spinning as he perfects this new trick.

Here's a picture of daddy helping him. It's sort of like turning on a switch... hold him up and his feet start moving. There is no just-standing-there-so-momma-can-take-a-photo...

He was only stationary w/ daddy holding him in place... (and Zach didn't like that so much.)
I don't really feel ready for all this! I thought I could use Emily as a guide and Zach would just follow suit... but this hasn't been the case. Emily didn't scoot until 11 months old, and showed no interest in pulling herself up, or "walking" w/ help until she was at least 15 months old, and didn't walk really on her own until 18 months. I thought I had so much more time, (you know, to get caught up on the rest of my life; get the house organized, everything cleaned, and ready for a baby to climb all over and chew on!)

For a bit of a retrospective (I don't want Emily to say that momma didn't write about Emily when she was a baby...) Emily and Zachary at 10 months old...

Besides Zach's new tricks this weekend, Emily finally got some fresh air outside! We checked out momma's crocuses...

And she took a spin on her motorbike. (Last year, daddy had to add wood blocks to the pedals so she could reach them. This year... surprise surprise!! she can reach the pedals all on her own!)