For adults, any birthday that marks a decade or that occurs in increment of 10s are always special – turning 30, 40, 50, 60… usually represents a “turning over,” along with some meaningful celebrations.

Whether your baby is 10 days old, 10 months or 10 years, there’s a special feeling that accompanies this well-rounded number. I have often wondered why we have 10 fingers as humans? Any way…

You may say, the number 10 is a progress “marker” in transitions.

Our twins are 10 months today, and it got me thinking of this symbolic meaning and milestone that we have reached in a small way.

The number 10 is some sort of a milestone. 10 is foundational. When counting from 1-10, 10 is the point of completion which simultaneously leads to a transition from single digit to double-digit. 
The number 10 brings about a sense of a pause, or breathing room before one starts the next sequence of numbers.

It is an end, and it also leads to a new beginning. This reminds me of the “10 plagues.” The tenth plague ended a phase of power contest between Egypt and Israel, and started the Exodus.

 
At 10 months, our babies are no longer newborns, but not yet toddlers. It’s a sweet interim place. This is our pause before we hit the next milestone at 12 months, when they turn 1.
It’s amazing to look back at when they were a month old, and now seeing them at 10 months!
A notable thing that marks this progress is that now they are “pulling up to stand”, holding furniture to cruise around, as they practice taking literal “baby steps.” 
They are no longer the helpless, sleepy, motionless newborns that we were enamored by not so long ago. They are now trying to stand on their feet, and “find their way,” so to speak. This is so mind blowing to think of, in just the space of 10 months.

Babies’ first 10 months for me represents a condensed, microcosm of the bigger picture of life, and the many changes and upgrades that we consciously or unconsciously navigate. 

With babies, it is easier to see their physical and cognitive development. With Adults, we have to make a conscious effort to notice and track with our own growth and development on a spiritual, mental, emotional, physical and professional level.

If so much change can happen within the space of 10 months in babies’ development, I wonder if we have this same diligence as adults to notice how much we are changing? 

I know for sure that the person that I was in the beginning of 2020 is very different from the person that I am now in 2022. In just two years, I have experienced some intense acceleration in my personal transition. This makes me curious about the version of me I may be greeting at end of this decade of my life?

Asking these types of reflective questions helps me not to go through life on autopilot. Slowing down to witness all the tiny and big milestones in my babies’ first year of life has definitely inspired me to continue to mark my own development and transitions, because it’s so easy to miss them sometimes. 

So, today I am pausing to celebrate how much my babies have grown in just 10 months, and also to remind myself that I am growing and changing too!