My baby boy is 10 months old now and his personality is bursting onto the scene. This kid is in a hurry to become a toddler! He’s beginning to show himself as strong-willed, persistent, determined, and bold. He wants to climb up stairs and climb back down them face first, dive out of his high chair, get into everything, and has even shown some scary problem-solving and climbing skills by scaling an empty diaper box to attempt to crawl into his push wagon. Miles was never much of a climber – the type of kid who would get up onto furniture just for the thrill of it – but something tells me Julius will be!

I’ll be honest, it makes me nervous sometimes when I see these flashes of Julius as a toddler. The early signs of temper tantrums give me the shivers. I remember the one- to two-year old phase of Miles’s life as being pretty difficult – that time period when he was very mobile, gaining independence, stubborn, and still pre-verbal was not easy for me. But I am a more experienced parent now and with any luck Julius will start talking earlier?

This boy REALLY likes to eat. The whole feeding the baby real foods thing has somehow snuck up on me this time around. He doesn’t like to be spoon fed, and though he nurses plenty, he eats like a linebacker on top of that! He will specifically “ask” for solid food by popping his lips at me if I don’t give him enough to munch on for meals and even snacks. When he’s done he throws his food on the floor or feeds it to the dog.

For the first time – ever?? – I can include a positive sleep update. We’re still working out his nighttime sleep, but it is way, way better than before and it’s a lot better even than Miles was sleeping at 10 months, so I’m optimistic that he can improve as he gets older and eats more during the day and so on. He finally has a short bedtime routine where I bring him upstairs, sit down with him in my arms, and sing him a short lullaby. He leans his head back with a beatific little half smile for this that I LOVE so much. For naps, I am able to put him down in the crib and he usually will go to sleep quickly. Yay!

The boys are getting along a liiiiittle better lately. There is still plenty of sibling rivalry. Julius wants Miles’s toys and wants to get in on every Mommy cuddle, and Miles pushes him over or squeezes him or smushes him. Julius also totally hams it up and will WAIL dramatically if Miles even feints toward him. Very annoying on both sides. But sometimes, every once in a while, they play together.

Julius loves to dance – he likes happy upbeat music, but hell, he’ll even dance to the ticking sound of the kitchen timer. He is cruising all over the furniture now and can stand on his own if he doesn’t realize he’s doing it, but he has not attempted to take any steps on his own just yet. He does push a wagon around like a boss. He also LOVES to play ball. And the really neat thing is that you can actually play a little game of catch with him! He deliberately throws the ball to you while giving you a bad-ass stare down like CATCH THIS, SUCKA. And if you roll it back to him he can scoop it right up. Julius also likes to play cars and rummage through the cabinets.

I was talking (online) with some friends about nicknames recently and it reminded me how much we debated and at times agonized over Julius’s name and what his nickname might be. He could be JP or Jules, but I’m not overly fond of either of those and had considered maybe Jude if he seemed to need a nickname. But so far everyone calls him Julius and it suits him. It’s a musical, happy name for our sweet little guy. (I’m leaving out the fact that Mike sometimes called him The J Man because it makes me stabby.)