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| Crawling! |
And yet again, another month has passed and our girl is TEN MONTHS OLD. We are quickly rounding the bend to one, which is really crazy. Is this all parents do? I feel like I have spent the past ten months wondering where all the time has gone, which is so cliche and so very parent-like.
Claire is now proudly sporting four teeth--two on top and two on bottom. She's also developed an especially cheesy grin that displays those beautiful teeth. This month has brought a sharp increase in mobility. She's now officially crawling, although she prefers to army crawl, and she looooves to look for things she isn't supposed to get into (the drawers of the TV stand, electrical outlets, any type of wire or cord, the cats' dishes). We seriously need to baby proof.
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| Evidence of said cheesy grin |
Here's the summary of life with our little/big ten-month-old:
SLEEP
She is really, truly sleeping through the night now, every night. This generally means 6:30-6:30. We may need to invest in some blackout curtains, as this is trending earlier with the sunrise, but, hey, twelve hours is pretty great. After months and months of feeling like I was never going to get a full night's sleep again, being able to put her to bed and know that she'll snooze peacefully until the next morning is a game-changer.
Her naps are also generally pretty good, and usually last about 90 minutes twice per day. We're fairly regimented about the nap schedule. I know some parents are pretty go-with-the-flow about it, but we have a much happier baby when she gets enough sleep. The downside is that it ties us to the house for large chunks of the day. This can be a pain sometimes, especially if we're out somewhere or are in the middle of something, but it gives everybody a chance for a little downtime.
EATING
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| Dad was eating Cheerios, so Claire had to have some, too. |
She now nurses four times per day, almost like clockwork. In the beginning, when I felt like she nursed literally all day long, I thought we would never reach this milestone, so it honestly feels pretty liberating to be here. She's also becoming less and less interested in nursing and would much rather look around the room, try to pet the cats, or put her finger up my nose (soooo fun). From what I've read, most babies go through this stage. I'm not sure if it'll pass or if she's just reaching the end of the breastfeeding relationship. Either way, we'll go with it. I don't plan on continuing to nurse much past a year, so we'll figure it out as we go along. Her doctor said we could begin mixing cow's milk into her bottles at the eleven-month mark (a little at a time), so I'm assuming that will ease the transition for everybody.
As far as solid foods, she now eats three meals a day. We still do a mix of purees and finger foods, and she's definitely getting more adept at picking things up with her thumb and pointer. A lot of food still ends up on the floor, but I imagine that will be part of our life for a while. ;) We're going to take advantage of her willingness to eat pretty much anything as long as it lasts. The biggest hit this week is Grammy's banana bread, which she managed to scarf down in record time.
MILESTONES
As I mentioned before, she's now crawling for real and just generally not at all interested in sitting in one place for anything length of time. She also sits up on her own and is attempting to pull up on furniture/laundry baskets/boxes but isn't quite there yet. She tends to have a cautious personality, so I think this will come quickly as she gains the confidence to go for it.
She's making a ton of sounds, but is still not doing any of the repetitive consonants that they like to see at this stage. We have an evaluation with Early On in a few weeks, so we'll see what they have to say (or maybe she'll start randomly babbling before then? let's hope). Nonetheless, she's very communicative and responsive. I can tell she understands what we're saying, and she'll give kisses, clap her hands, or throw her hands up in the air if we ask her to do so, even without us demonstrating first. We're not terribly worried or stressed about it at this point, but it'll be nice to get a professional opinion.
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| Sack of potatoes! She loves this game. |
LIKES:
Many of the same ones from last month. Books, animal noises, Grace and Theo.
DISLIKES:
Also many of the same from last month. Riding in the car. Removing something from her hands (eg the TV remote or our phones, both of which she is obsessed with).
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| A belated Mother's Day shot. We had the big camera out this day, so that's why she's wearing the same outfit in every photo. :) |
This is a really great stage. She is fun, happy, and easily entertained, without any of the mischievousness that I'm sure we'll start to see in the next six months or so. There is truly nothing better than watching her personality emerge and develop.
