10 months

Today my little tiny Bug is ten months old. She is currently (or was when I wrote this) sleeping peacefully beside me, completely unaware of this incredible fact. So much has happened developmentally over the past month it’s hard to remember! Thus, a list of ten interesting points.

Sleeping in.

What 10 months looks like here:

1) Army crawl for about a week, then real, on all fours, motoring everywhere! This includes all over mamas, patient dogs, cats, and anything that looks like it might possibly contain water. Often she moves so much that getting a decent picture is impossible, so I have dozens of shots that are so cute, and so blurry.

Ready to walk!

2) Wanting so much to walk, hence the hunched-over mamas with a death grip (hers not ours) on each hand, all around the house and anywhere she can convince us looks like there is no broken glass outside of the house. She has let go a couple of times only to balance for about a second before seating herself with a thump on the ground.

3) 7 teeth, three more at the gum line.

4) Finally a little bit of a slow down on the weight gain. Yesterday I checked and she was at 21 lbs 14.5 ounces before eating. To be fair she’s still above the 90th percentile. My back is just relieved that all babies begin to slow their gain now.

5) Talking is a thing. He first word was kitty, and that’s pretty much it for now. She gets so excited about the cats and shrieks ‘ktteh!’ when she sees our big tuxedo boy, Petey.

6) Excitement to see people/places. When we drive up to my parent’s house she starts bouncing in her seat vigorously. She reaches for her grandma, her Opa, MamaLee, and me. She’s starting to reach for others as well but we’re the consistent four so far.

7) Sitting up. From a dead sleep this kid will roll into her belly, sit up, and go wherever she so desires. As a result we’re now sleeping on the mattress on the floor in the nursery. One face plant off the regular bed was more than enough to convince me that it was time. And the pack’n’play is a non-starter. I tried for about three days to get her to nap in it before deciding the stress of it was more than I was willing to deal with. We’re all much happier with the current sleeping arrangements.

8) Not going to sleep. When MamaLee went to visit her sister and our new niece Darwin started refusing to go to sleep before about 10 pm. I pulled out all the tricks I know and finally gave up. We still do bed time at 7:30 and spend about half an hour letting her wind down, but even going back to a swaddle and bounce does nothing but draw loud protests and flailing. I’m hopeful that this is simply a phase and that someday she’ll go to sleep at a point when I can have some downtime with my wife before bed that doesn’t result in a zombie state reminiscent of the 4th trimester.

Not (so) tired…

9) Food has become more varied, and increased in volume. Current favorites include egg, raspberries, beans, quinoa spaghetti, apricots, plums, and peanut butter. She has started to reject things when she doesn’t like them, which is funny and annoying because she gets this look and sticks her tongue out with the food on it and smears it everywhere. Yum.

Strawberry Carnage

10) Books are now sought after. Specific books. ‘I am a bunny’ is the current favorite at home, while ‘Brown bear, brown bear what do you see?’ is the clear winner at my parent’s house.

Overall, I think every month has been better than the last. There are things that are tough (like nap strikes, and teeth. oh the teeth), but the things that are amazing just keep getting better (like moving, and laughing, and peek-a-boo!). I’m looking forward to seeing what the next months hold.