Tonight, Tyler sat next to me on the living room chair and quietly said, "Mommy, I think you are very beautiful."

Can you run out?

The other day, Tyler and I were looking at old videos of him playing with a koosh ball. In the video he was making some cute and funny noises. Tyler thought the video was hilarious and laughed so hard! He kept asking me to play it over and over. After a few more viewings, Tyler didn't laugh as hard as before, and after a couple more times, he sort of just let out a loud, "Ha!" Then he looked at me and said, "Mommy, I'm running out of laughing."

Dear Mason,

Today you are 10 months old! We’ve had a busy month, and I can’t believe it’s already October. It’s still warm during the day, but the nights are definitely cooler. This month, we’ve taken you many different places and you’ve experienced many new things. You enjoy cheering Tyler on while we watch him play soccer. You especially love sitting in the grass, grabbing handfuls of it and try to sneak some in your mouth before Mommy can brush all the grass out of your hand. We all went apple-picking last weekend, and you enjoyed the warm weather and smell of apples. We picked so many that we have enough to make you lots of fresh applesauce, as well as apple crisp for everyone else! We also went to a farm this past weekend, where you played in an inflatable trampoline and went on a tractor hayride to pick a pumpkin. We met your cousins Hannah, Olivia, and Sabrina and your Tita Chark and Uncle David there. You and Tyler had so much fun with them!

You are still a chubby, bouncy boy, and not really affected much by the cooler weather, but Mommy loves dressing you up in fall clothes now.

You are very strong and are crawling everywhere and pulling yourself up on anything you can grab onto. Last night, I watched as you crawled under a train table, turned around while still partially underneath, and pulled yourself up to standing using mostly your arms! You have a very strong grip and very strong legs, too! You can slowly move one foot in front of the other if you’re holding on to something (or someone), but you mostly cruise by slowly sidestepping along furniture.

While you are still a happy-go-lucky little baby, you are virtually inconsolable until you get what you want. You have some of your mommy’s stubbornness, too (but Mommy will call it determination J). We’ve noticed how intelligent you are, you can understand the words “clap,” “more,” “bye-bye,” “uh-oh,” and “all done.” We ask you to clap, without showing you what it is, and you clap with a big smile on your face! You give high- and low-fives, wet kisses, and can wave “bye-bye” by opening and closing your hand or moving your whole arm up and down. You can pick up bite-size pieces of food and can also use a snack cup. It’s so funny to hear you crunch down on crackers or cereal with your 8 front teeth!

You love riding on Mommy’s or Daddy’s shoulders, you always smile and giggle each time one of us carries you like that. You also love playing with Tyler and will follow him around the house, trying to play with whatever he’s playing with. He’s very good with you, and luckily he has more than enough to share! Tyler always makes sure to give you some of his toys to play with while he’s playing with them. I love watching the two of you play together and interact. It seems like only a little while ago when Tyler was asking me when you would be able to play with him, and now you are!

Fall is in full swing! We’ll be carving pumpkins soon and getting your and Tyler’s Halloween costumes ready! We are so looking forward to watching you grow and learn. We love you so much!

Love, always,
Mommy