Walker turned double digits this past week. Yes, he’s the big 10 months. What a big boy. And this big boy has started a new way of sleeping. He goes to bed and decides he’s not quite ready to nod off. He sits up and plays until he can’t keep his little eyes open. And then he just falls forward and sleeps on his face. The first time he did it was at day care. Lisa went in to check on him during nap time and she found the little guy asleep on his feet. He had little ridges in his forehead from the seams of his shoes. This picture of him doubled over is from today’s nap, and it’s a shame we didn’t take video. The snoring really makes the whole thing even funnier.

Walker does seem much happier now that he’s able to lie down, sit up, roll over, and scoot around and then do it all over again. He’s all smiles and claps at everything. He’s trying to get the most out of each day and is starting his adventures at 5:30 each morning. While I don’t go in to get him until 6:30, I am not really sleeping since the little munchkin is quite a little talker and spends the hour telling his animals all about his dreams.

His sleeping has improved although we haven’t settled into a real pattern yet. We did have a few nice days of waking only at 1:15 and then sleeping through to 6:30 but now, as I mentioned, he’s decided mornings should be started a wee bit earlier.

Bath time has gotten more interesting. Walker continues to adore the water and has a fantastic time playing with a dozen bath toys. Just like on land, he is constantly in motion — kicking, looking around, banging things on the sides and putting things in or out of the water. His tub is a small plastic tub that sits in our full size porcelain one. Yesterday, he surprised me by starting to climb out of his little tub to get to his big floating boat. That kid is really testing his abilities — and my reflexes.

This weekend was fantastic and Walker enjoyed a BBQ in Marin at Adrienne and Jim’s house (he was so good and happy!), a trip to the zoo, and a bit of jaunt on the beach. The sand was so much fun to touch and the rocks made such wonderful noise when banged together. We got a few photos of the elusive top and bottom teeth. You’ll have to look carefully to see them.

And a friend loaned us a high chair with a tray. Walker has been very interested in feeding himself. (He’s still on strike against the bottle — even the one that looks and feels a lot like a boob.) He loves his puffs and I thought we’d continue the self-feeding with a few pieces of Rotini pasta and cut up watermelon. He enjoyed the pasta because it stuck to his hand and was more difficult to throw (he did manage to get some in his mouth) and the watermelon was much more fun to crush with his palm than to eat (none made it to his mouth). I’m sure he’ll get the hang of eating non-mushy foods but I’m not sure I’ll survive the mess.

And I end with one thing Walker does that makes my skin crawl — he’s so enthralled with his new teeth that he’s decided grinding the top and bottom teeth together makes a really neat noise. Like nails on a chalkboard. It’s making me cringe just thinking about it.

(Walker reads the paper on a Sunday despite the wild hair / There’s a top tooth, do you see it?)