Two Months Left

Two short months; that's all that is left between now and Nick's first birthday! When Joey was this age, I'm sure that I felt the year was flying by. But for some reason, Nick's first year seems to be going by at the speed of light.
As quickly as Nick develops his motor skills (at least in comparison to Joey), he doesn't seem to be on track to be walking on his own by the time Aunt Angie comes (in nine days!). But that is okay with me. I don't think he is all that far away from walking, but just as with crawling, even though he may have the ability, he doesn't have the motivation. Lately, he doesn't seem to want to walk for very long holding on my hands, he would rather be back down on the ground crawling, or walking along the furniture.
His favorite activities, as of late, seem to be getting into everything he KNOWS he is not supposed to. Since the gate barricading the stairs is not fixed onto anything, Nick has figured out, and nearly perfected, pushing the gate out of the way so that he can climb the stairs. The other place he likes to "hang out" is behind the recliners, where there are lots of electrical cords to play with. I was on the phone with my mom the other day, and in the last minute or so of talking, Nick had crawled behind Daddy's recliner (and then forcibly removed) about SIX times. It's no wonder I can't get anything done and accomplished during the day, I don't get a minutes rest around here between grabbing Nick off the stairs and dragging him out from behind the chairs; not to mention keeping him out of the desk drawers and kitchen cupboards, and of course the never ending extracting bits of debris from his mouth.

Here are some pictures of the ten month old! He's so cute. I love this age; he is so much fun to play with, and he is a ham for the camera. The other day, we were playing with the stacker toy, and Nick had one side in his mouth. So I leaned in and put my mouth on the other side. The sweetheart then kept sharing a 'bite' with me. Of course, he hit my teeth more often than not, not waiting for me to open my mouth wide enough. But it was a sweet gesture, him sharing with me.
He's so eager for his picture to be taken!
Here is Bubba at ten months. He is so adorably chubby! I forget how much bigger he was than Baby Nick, until I actually see their pictures next to each other. Can you say "Chubba Bubba"? I love it. Joey definitely had more hair, and more curls, at this point than Baby Nick does. Bubba has the course, thick hair that his Daddy has, and Baby Nick has my fine, thin hair. But Baby Nick has a lot of body in his hair, and it does curl when wet, and Mommy has no body or curl in her hair.

My favorite part about having visitors, is that those coming, are going to be able to hold/cuddle/love on my boys. They need that so much. Not that Daddy and I don't love on them at every possible moment of the day, but they need more than just Mommy and Daddy. Joey was fortunate to have that extra loving for the first two years of his life; Baby Nick only got two weeks. My heart hurts with the loss. Only nine days left to wait.