I don't know how it is possible, but I love this little girl more and more every day. Sometimes it seems like I can't believe that she is already ten months old. But other times, I can't even remember life without her. I adore her. We both do.
Lydia is still in 6-9 month clothes, but I'm thinking that I should probably pull out the 12 month clothes and sift through them sometime soon. She wears size three diapers and can't wear any of her baby socks anymore because they are too small. (I probably tried to force these for far too long - I just love the little socks and didn't want to part with them.) I don't have a scale for her - I'm wishing that we had one just so I could weigh her on it - but she is very petite. Definitely small for her age. And so, so darling.
This last month has been spent crawling and climbing around our new house. It's been so fun to watch her explore her new home. I was worried about the transition, but it never even fazed her. The first week of her nine month we spent bouncing back and forth from grandparents house to grandparents house, and then we moved in on the 16th of February. She did really well with all of the transitions that we made and you can tell she loves her new house.
Some other things that we've been up to this month:
-She can climb stairs! Our stairs go up half-way then stop on a landing, then turn and go up the rest of the way. She LOVES to crawl up, and as soon as she gets to the landing she scoots her little self as fast as she can to climb the rest of the way. We finally installed a babygate at the bottom on the stairs because if she can see them, she wants to crawl up them.
--Food, food, food. If you remember from last month I was stressed about stage1/stage2/stage3 foods and the time that you were supposed to wait between introducing each new food. I took Lydia to her pediatrician for her 9 months appointment right after I wrote that post and his response to my question/plea was "Oh, no. You are way past that. At this point she can eat pretty much anything as long as it isn't a choking hazard (except peanut butter, milk, and honey). We want you to start feeding her what you are eating." What a relief! I took that message to heart and started letting her eat pretty much anything that I was eating. (In small pieces of course.)
--She loves oranges and clementines but she can't handle the little membranes around each slice. If I let her have little pieces of orange she ends up with a big wad of membrane in her mouth and I have to fish it out before she tries to swallow it and she chokes. So, I painstakingly peel off the membrane around each little slice and feed her just the inside of the slice. I just want to document this so that someday she will know how much I loved her. It's a lot.
--As far as other foods go, she is still an awesome eater. She likes to eat cheerios, cheese, pasta, potatoes, rice with sauce, cottage cheese, crackers, bread, and pretty much anything else that I am eating. She likes to suck on pickles, and loves to eat dill relish. (When I spoon some onto my hotdog, I will give her a little spoonful and she really loves it.) Thats my girl! She also ate a whole slice of tomato when we went out to lunch the other day. I'm grateful that she likes to many different types of food.
(These picture are of her loving her Grandpa Peaden's mashed potatoes.)
--Glory Hallelujah! She is sleeping through the night. I never thought this day would come, but she goes down at 8 and then sleeps until 6:30. The other night as I was crawling into bed I thought, "This is the most amazing feeling in the whole world - to know that I am going to be able to sleep all night and not have to wake up until 6:30." I've really needed the sleep, and I honestly don't know if I could have handled the lack of sleep for much longer. I think that being in this house has helped her sleep better. (And we had several nights of letting her cry at that 4 o'clock wakeup time before she realized that she could just sleep through the night.)
--I love our bedtime routine. We eat and let her get really messy. Then we carry her up the stairs to the bathroom. I usually set her by the tub so she is standing and holding on to the edge. When I turn on the water she squeals and squeals and tries to stretch her hand to touch the water. It makes my heart so happy, I absolutely love it. I will be sad when she doesn't do that anymore. We sit her in the tub and let her play for 15-20 minutes. She loves the water, and I fully intend on having her follow in her water-loving-mama's footsteps. After she is all squeaky clean, we pull her out and wrap her up in her little hooded towel. We take a few seconds to sing and dance while looking in the mirror. She looks at her crazy mom and dad and laughs and "bababa's" right along with our made-up songs. As soon as we set her on the ground, she starts crying (never fails) but once we wrestle her into her pajamas she calms down and plays with her daddy for a few minutes before it's time for bed. We turn off the lights and I wrap her super-soft purple blanket around her and nurse her until she has calmed down. I usually lay her in her crib before she is completely asleep, but sometimes I can't help but rock her (actually, usually I am standing as I nurse her because she wont fall asleep if I'm in a chair) until she is sleeping. I know that this precious time where I have to hold her as she is falling asleep will be gone in a flash so I try to soak up every peaceful moment.
--David loves her just as much (if not more) than I do. I just love to watch them together. Her little personality is coming out more and more - and you can see how much love she has for her daddy.
--She's transitioned from picking things up and putting them directly into her mouth to picking them up and really inspecting it (and then putting it into her mouth). It's just so interesting to see her learning so much about her environment You can tell that she is getting smarter and more exploratory and that she is figuring out how things work.
--She has learned that certain things belong certain places. In the bath, she tries to put her little toys into their little boats. If she pulls a shape off of her quiet book, she tries to put it back. (Not in the right spot of course, but she gets the idea.) You can tell that she gets that things have places that they go. Involved in this is that she has learned that she can put things places. When I fold laundry she will pick up a pair of socks and crawl over and set them on the step stool in the laundry room - or she will pick up an item of clothing and put it
back in the basket. It's so fun! Even more fun is that she has started to take things and hide them places. She was playing with my contact case when she crawled over and put it in David's shoe. Later that night I couldn't find my contact case! Then I remembered that she had been playing with it and I found it right where she had left it. This is funny and worrisome all at the same time. The lens cap to our camera has gone missing and I can only hope that we find it. I'm convinced that she took it and put it somewhere.
--I've mentioned that Lydia is getting so fun because she is getting more and more aware of things around her. She is also getting so good at responding to games. My favorite game is called "The getting you game." I get down on my hands and knees and start growling at her. Immediately she looks at me and starts crawling away. (Sometimes she will be standing next to a table and she will rock back and forth like she is
so nervous and will drop to her knees and start crawling away.) I'll say "I'm gonna get you!" and crawl after her. She is so funny because she will crawl as fast as she can, but then after a few seconds she will slow down and "let" me catch her. I love it. So then I grab her around her tummy and pull her back into my lap and twist my upper body while saying "Whaa-ha-ha, I got you!" She squeals and then wants to play again. I seriously love it. She will play the same game with David and it's so fun, but sometimes with him - she will turn around and start trying to get him. She will crawl right into him, right between his arms and hitting her head on his knees. It's so cute.
--Another game that is similar to "The getting you game", is the game that we like to play when we are standing up. If I am holding her, I say "Lets get Daddy!" and we slowly creep up on him while saying "Rar, rar, rar." He pretends to be really scared until we get to him when he says "Ahh, you got me" while I bounce her up and down against him. Then we switch and I carry Lydia away saying "Oh no, he's going to get us!" And he will creep up on us and tickle her when he gets to us. She will laugh and laugh, and there is nothing better in the world than hearing her sweet laugh. (We play the game the other way with David carrying her and chasing me. She loves to play the game with grandparents and aunts and uncles and pretty much anyone.)
--Lydia has started to put things on her head. Most of the time they don't stay there, but i'm constantly cleaning food out of her (sparse but definitely there) hair. I don't know if it's because she likes the idea of putting her toys/food on her head or if she just lifts her arms up and that is what happens. The other day I looked over to see that somehow she had gotten a cube of cheese stuck up on her head. Funny girl. I really have no idea how it happened, but it definitely made me laugh.
--Lydia likes to put her hand in front of her mouth so that the back of her hand is right over her lips. She then curls and uncurls her fingers to make a little indian sound. We aren't sure if she likes the way it feels on her hand or if she likes the noise that it makes but she does it all. the. time. It's so funny. Unfortunately, this girl is a little camera shy and won't let me capture it on video or even in a picture.
--She is starting to balance better and better. She can stand on her own for several seconds. (If you set her on her feet, or if she pulls herself up on something then lets go.) Her record I think is 30 seconds. I could hardly believe it!
--Did I mention that she is sleeping through the night? Because, hello, 8-6:30 is pretty much amazing!
--The thing that stands out the very most from the last month is how much she loves to carry things in her mouth. She doesn't just stick things in her mouth, she sticks them in to carry them around. Pens, spoons, toys, and pretty much anything else that can fit in her mouth. We just think that she is so smart because she wants to bring something with her as she crawls and it is hard to hold it in her hand so she just sticks it in her mouth in order to bring it along. Pretty much all of the pictures that I took this month have at least one in the series with her carrying something in her mouth.
--Along with the above item about her carrying things in her mouth is another of her favorite games. She started this when she was 9 months old (maybe even 8 months), but I forgot to write about it last month. (How could I forget???) One of our favorite games is when she has a pen/spoon in her mouth she will stick it out straight and let me grab it with my mouth. She then lets go, laughs, and then uses her mouth to grab the other end of it. It is SO funny. This is another thing that I will really miss when she stops doing it.
--At this point still no teeth. Also, no clapping and no word-sounds other than babababa and wawawa.
--Lydia still loves her mom. A lot. I love that she knows how much I love her and that she reciprocates so well. She loves to snuggle me and is much more confident in her exploring if I am in the same room. However, this creates a problem when I ever have to leave. David surprised me with a fun date night and had my little sister Melissa come up to watch Lydia and she cried the whole time. Melissa said that she kept crawling to the door that I had walked out of and would sit by it and cry. Poor girl! (Really, poor Lydia AND poor Melissa.) But I really do love that she loves me so much.
Other pictures:
We love you beautiful girl! Happy 10 months.
