10 Months Old Already!

This little girl's smile makes my world go 'round.  I swear she must be the happiest baby on the planet.  Here are a few of the latest things she's been up to...

Jabbering up a storm!  She is not our little quiet baby anymore... it's like she has discovered what her voice can really do!  She screams and squeals.  She has a funny laugh she does when she's really excited by sucking air in (hard to explain, but hilarious!), and she chuckles a lot in general.  Her favorite sound to make right now is "Doo doo doo" all the time.  She occasionally says dada, and I swear she is starting to 'get' that a book is a book.  Twice the other day, she said, "Boo-" (like 'book' without the k) when she grabbed one. She also has a sound that remarkably resembles, "Cooper."  We're still working on mama.

Cruising around while holding the furniture like she owns the place.  She pulls up onto everything, and can get up on just a wall or the patio glass, now, too.  The patio door is her favorite spot.  She loves to watch the birds and see her reflection!  She is really steady, and she's good at getting down slowly without falling over.  She'll take steps with the help of our fingers, now, too!!

Tearing around the house.  We always know she's coming because we can hear the 'smacks' of her hands through the kitchen.  She's getting much, much faster.  Scary.

Climbs stairs... eeeeek!  She has no idea how to get back down, and I would never let her be on the steps alone yet, but she can do it with no help.

Loves to bounce and dance to music.

Actually PLAYS with toys now, rather than just chewing on everything.  (Although she does still chew a lot).  Loves to bang things together and make as much noise as possible.

Loves to eat finger foods, and is starting to refuse purees.  So we're in limbo between getting her the nutrition she needs and the foods she is able to eat with STILL NO TEETH!

Is starting to get her cheeks back.  They went missing for a while around the time we introduced foods, and now they are making a comeback!  Maybe the name "Cheekers" will come back, too!

Is TOUGH!  She gets bumped and pushed around by her big brother, and she takes plenty of falls while starting to get more steady on her feet... but she doesn't take much to console, and sometimes she doesn't even cry!  She is one tough little cookie.

Recognizes several words, as evidenced by her reactions... she knows way more about what we're saying than we give her credit for!  When I ask her, "Should we read it?" when she's holding a book, she flaps her arms up and down and starts chuckling before crawling over to me with the book.  Melts my teacher-mom heart.

Claps and waves bye-bye.  It's a really cute wave, too.  It's not just her whole arm flapping up and down, but her little fingers curl open and shut.  Sweetest little wave I've ever seen :)   We're working on "So Big."

Is sleeping a little better.  Most nights she has one night waking and just needs her Nuk back.  She still wakes up between 5 and 5:30 to eat, but she has been doing a good job going back to sleep after some snuggle time so I can get partially ready for work.

She must have hit a growth spurt this month, because I realized the other morning while I was rocking her that she no longer fits between the arms of the chair like she once did.  We have been working on readjusting :)



The summer has been perfect in terms of having lots of time to watch Izzy learn and grow.  She changes by the day, and I feel so blessed to have had extra days with her.  She is less than two months from being a 1-year-old, and I feel like if I blink, I will miss something!  I love our morning snuggles, and I am working hard to relax and enjoy these quiet times with her while I have them.

We love you, Izzy! 

Checking out the "Beehive" at the MN Zoo.

Exploring the house lands Izzy in some tricky locations... She needed help to get out of this one :)