Mia 10 Months Old

Mia, you are 10 months old today. My instinct is to quickly say "I can't believe it!", but the truth is, I can. While the first six months of your life flew by for me in the blink of an eye, these last four months have been a bit more leisurely, and we've had a chance to really notice all your growth and change.

You are a happy and curious girl, and also a busy one. This month you perfected the art of clapping and banging objects together. Your crawl is top notch and you even take on stairs now. Going up you have down pat; we're working on going down. You easily pull up to a stand and can cruise around a "tiny bit" as Zoe likes to say. And, on a few occasions you've managed to stand all on your own like an island in the middle of the living room or kitchen. It's only when you look around and realize that no one is holding you up that you plop down. You especially like to pull up to a stand on the lighter-weight, can't-be-secured-to-a-wall bar stool which freaks me out. But you seem to know your capability and there's been no drama yet. Could you please though stop putting your fingers in drawers to help you pull up? Those things like to slide shut.

You are also a talker. You love to babble, click your tongue, and make spit bubbles. You also like to smack your lips and make them vibrate. You say "mamamamama" and "dadadadada" and "bbbbbbbb" a lot but we're not ready to count them as first words. Close, but not quite yet.

This month we saw three new teeth reveal themselves. You've been a real teether and frozen grapes have provided your little gums lots of comfort. You have a lot more hair now and it's in a style very similar to your sisters. Your cradle cap is almost completely gone too. You have bright, eager, smiling eyes and the "moret" pug nose. And, you were an amazing champ at the doctors office for both your nine month well visit and your flu shot. You hardly cried when you got your shots, and I didn't cry when they did your measurements or when they did shots, which I seemed to do a lot at Zoe's early appointments. 

This has been a month with lots of new foods too. This month you enjoyed almost everything we introduced you to. Honeydew, canteloupe, eggplant (didn't love this as much at first), grapes, whole wheat pasta, green bell pepper, veggie burger, olive oil, corn, kiwi and mushrooms were each on your menu at some point (plus whatever you managed to pick up off the floor without me seeing you in time). You experiment with using a spoon and manage quite nicely when the food is a little pressed down in to it. You also practice drinking from a small shot glass which appears to be just the right size. Cup practice often appropriately proceeds bath time. In a typical day, you eat three meals, and breastfeed five times.

I'd have to say that you sleep well. You start focusing on sleep early and need a bit of comforting at night until we put you down around 7 pm. You flop in to bed eager to fall asleep. You wake up quite early usually, but will tolerate staying in your crib, usually, until close to six a.m. This is a work in progress. You take two naps a day: morning around 8:30/9 a.m. and again around 1 p.m.

We had fun celebrating Halloween and Zoe's birthday this month and preparing for Thanksgiving. You also had special visits from Grandma Barbara, Grandpa Ed, Grandma Bette, Grandpa Steven and Uncle Brad.

I'd say that's one heck of a month. Love you little gal.