On Saturday Philip will turn 10 months old. (Tuesday he turns 43 weeks old.) Two months until birthday #1 — and we're 5% of the way to being empty-nesters.

Things have been fairly quiet since we got back from Florida. A couple overnight trips to the Portland area, and that’s about it for travel. On Easter Sunday Phil was in the pageant at church in the role of “the baby that Jesus blesses.” Unfortunately, the batteries in the camera went dead just before his big moment. Oh well, there are some less dramatic moments captured for posterity at the right. Phil also enjoyed a several-days' visit from Grammy and Poppa Marshall who came up just prior to Easter.

Phil is “cruising” now (standing up and walking with the aid of furniture, walls, playpens, cribs, etc.), and he can stagger behind his little Fisher Price walker, too. He’s also clapping (in response to applause on TV, as well as for the fun clapping) and waving hello and goodbye. Phil enjoys his Sesame Street and Between the Lions programs on PBS, as well as his VeggieTales Singalong video. He can recognize Elmo by sight, and even waved to a picture of him at the grocery store the other day. Philip is becoming more verbal; “mama” and “dada” sound about right, although he’ll throw in a few extra syllables just for kicks. Every once in a while his babbling will almost make sense — it may sound like a string of letters or numbers, but it’s just interesting sounds to him. He’s doing better with sleeping, usually covering 4 to 6 hours at a stretch, occasionally doing more, more often doing less. Still only the 5 main teeth, but a couple have broken the gumline and are slowly growing in.

Previous photos:
Newborn Phil
Phil at about 5 weeks
Phil at about 8 weeks
Phil at about 10 weeks
Phil at about 14 weeks
Phil at about 17 weeks
Phil at about 22 weeks
Phil at about 27 weeks
Phil at about 33 weeks
Phil at about 36 weeks