Smeltz Little Ones: Double Digits: Ten Months!

I think I say this every month, but I truly don't believe it's been ten months since we were in the hospital meeting our babies. This month we've been working on independent movement skills!

On October 13th, shortly after turning nine months old, Hayden walked behind his hippo push toy for the first time.

On October 15th, in the evening, Claire suddenly crawled for the first time. I don't think she knew she could crawl and neither did I! Then for the next couple of days, she went back to laying on her tummy and pulling herself across the carpet by grasping the fibers with her hands and pulling her whole body along the floor. My crawling "assistance" seemed to go unnoticed. She's been crawling up a storm ever since. She also crawls at a super baby speed and is much quicker than her brother.

I noticed the babies playing together for the first time, laughing and chasing each other around the living room floor on October 28th. This is adorable to watch. They will look back and check on their twin and then laugh and crawl off speedily in the other direction like they might be playing tag.

Then, (as if they weren't learning fast enough already) Hayden stood up without holding onto anything at all on November 2nd. He stood there for a few seconds (10 seconds perhaps as a guess) and then slowly sat himself down onto the floor. He's getting more adventurous now and will practice standing up all by himself every few days.

On November 3rd, Hayden climbed the stairs for the first time! He had been crawling over to the bottom of the stairs for a few days and patting the second step with his hands. Then he figured out he could put his knee up on the first step and away he went. We've noticed that he will climb the entire flight, but mostly just prefers to go up a couple of steps and then sit down.

A few days later, on November 7th, Claire decided that she was also ready to climb the stairs for the first time! She didn't just do a couple of steps but went all the way from the basement onto the main floor for supper time. She is very adventurous and will climb stairs anytime she's given half the chance, and as with the crawling speed, she also attacks the stairs with the same level of energy. Needless to say the baby gates are now up throughout our house.

This month we celebrated Daddy's birthday by staying at home as a family and having yummy indian food for supper. The babies liked the butter chicken and most of the other dishes. They didn't really sign along to happy birthday but I'm sure they would have if they could. We then ate cake that I made, and the babies loved that too. (Thanks to Grandpa the babies are accustomed to eating cake!)

We also celebrated the babies' first Halloween this month! My favorite holiday for certain. We went to the TTMAC Halloween party the weekend before and the babies had the chance to play with some of their friends in the "Pumpkin Patch". Then on Halloween night, we stopped in at a friend's place to visit and later handed out candy at our own house. Claire was the most precious unicorn ever, while Hayden was the cutest dragon in the world. The babies played with glow bracelets we were giving away(along with the candy treats) in their costumes while kids came to the door. We had a great time and are already looking forward to next year!