Let the holidays begin!

Our little town hosts an annual Candle Light Walk to usher in the holiday season. The shops around the square stay open late and get all dolled up for Christmas, Santa and Mrs. Claus arrive via fire truck to light the tree in the town square, there's free hot chocolate and cookies for the kiddos and in general it's just very sweet and a lot of fun.

I forgot, however, that Santa and Mrs. Claus also sit for photos with all interested little ones! Needless to say, with this being Tatum's first holiday season we figured we'd better give it a try.

If nothing else, Tatum's pictures with Santa have some definite comedic value! Classic "first picture with Santa" moment. :)

With CeCe and Gramps shortly after the Santa trauma (see, he recovered!):

And being read "The Night Before Christmas" in the reading corner at the local cafe by the cutest little girl...she really wanted to read Tatum a story, and he sat through the entire thing!

Attack of the Tatum

Slobbery open-mouth kisses are equal only to wrestling, smacking mom in the face with a spatula and laughing maniacally, and chasing the dogs around the house.

 Our little man is developing QUITE a personality. He’s pretty much on fire around the clock. When he’s not sleeping, he’s go go going—climbing, crawling, standing and even taking a few steps from the couch to mom or dad! I wouldn’t call it officially walking just yet, more of a lunge with some momentum behind it. But goodness, does he ever get a kick out of playing and rough-housing! This one is an active, goofy, loveable, messy, fantastic BOY.

He wrestles with his monkey all the time now. He takes monkey down with flying leaps and rolls around on the ground with him—I’ve tried to get pictures of the wrestling match in action, but so far I’ve succeeded only in capturing the top of Tatum’s head or monkey’s tail. He just moves too quickly for our camera! Tatum’s dad was a fantastic wrestler in high school and college, so I’m thinking some genetics are at work here.

But don’t worry, Tate is also *very* helpful in the kitchen. One of his favorite ways to help mom is to empty out the Tupperware drawer and use the containers to slide around the kitchen, one piece of Tupperware in each hand as though they were ice skates and the tile floor were a skating rink.

Actually, sliding is probably Tatum’s all-time favorite activity. Sarah and I laugh about it, because no matter what toy or household object he finds, his first priority is to try it out on the tile floor of our kitchen and hallway and see how it slides. Here he is, sliding along on the remote control (yes, the remote control remains perhaps his favorite thing to play with—OUR remote control, mind you, not the toy version his dad got him hoping to distract him from ours! No, the Sesame Street version just can’t compete with the real deal…).

What else can I say? We’re just loving life and loving Tatum. (Actually, I do have more to say about that on my other blog…).

Tatum at 10 Months

…Or, a study in argyle.

I recently realized that I should dress Tatum in cute little sweaters and argyle vests while I still can. After all, some day in the not-too-distant future I’ll be hearing about how he’d rather wear the same Spiderman t-shirt for the fourth day in a row.  So please excuse the preppy overload in this post...if Tatum is anything like his dad, I'm sure it won't last for long. :)

Tatum, Tatum, Tatum. What can I say? That you’re even more of a joy at 10 months than you were at 9? That our lives with you get better and better with each passing day?

You have so much to say now. Not that I understand every syllable, but I generally get the gist of things from your tone. My favorite is when you raise your pointer finger high and then utter something with great importance—a fine pontificator you are, my son.

You do a lot of pointing now. You also wave good-bye and hello (sometimes! Sometimes you wave just to wave. And that’s fine, too!).

You love books. Of course you love them primarily as objects to throw around and to use as stacking blocks, but hey—we’ll get there with the good stuff that exists INSIDE the books one of these days.

You’re on the go. You love to climb, climb, climb—particularly on top of mama or daddy (“Hop on Pop” is such a fun game!).

You pull up to stand every chance you get, and you’ve balanced on your own for as long as 10 seconds at a time.

 

While you’re a very active little guy, you’re also becoming more snuggly. You’ll play hard, but then you’ll climb up in my lap and rest your head on my shoulder for a snug. I can’t tell you how this melts my heart. Daddy's, too. You’re such a sweetheart of a little boy. I hope I can still sneak some Tatum hugs when you’re 16, because now that I have them I can’t imagine going without!

Gaining on that monkey with each and every photo!

Fall Visit with Chooch

Tatum's Chooch was in town over Halloween weekend. We had such a good visit!

Lots of cuddles...

...and some football watching! 

I love the strategically placed "End Zone" on this outfit, which once belonged to Tatum's cousin Parker. Nothing cuter than watching that little End Zone wiggle across the floor as Tate crawls from one room to another.