Adventures in Mommyhood: 10 (and a half-ish) months....best.ever.

Dear Mia,

You turned 10 months last week, I apologize again for my letter's tardiness, but you are quite the handful these days! I have to say, this month, while it didn't have the number of milestones as some of the other months, has been one of my favorites! <----- I started this part of the letter a week and a half ago.....BOY HAVE THINGS CHANGED!

So, mommy doesn't have a lot of extra time to dedicate to blogging, unfortunately, so looks like I'm going to double up a little on the letters because I can almost promise that I will not write another one until your 1 year.....and that's only 6-ish weeks away! CRAAAAA-ZY!

As you can see, month 10, while totally awesome, did not have as many of the milestones. Here are some notes I made for you:
* you hold your bottle on your own now (what a grown up!)
*you can drink through a straw (mostly MY straws, but lucky for you, I don't mind sharing ;-))
*you have spidy-hearing and ANY time you hear music, you start dancing. It is probably my most favorite thing (or WAS during month 10....now there are so many more favorites!)
*you stood up on your own on 8/16 (I should note that you didn't intend to, nor did you remain standing once you realize what was going on. Since then, you CAN stand on your own, but prefer to be 4 on the floor)
*you drink from a sippy cup (although, like most things I write on here, although you had mastered that completely, now it's hit or miss....not because you CAN'T but mainly because you don't prefer it to a bottle....)
*you waved Bye-Bye on 8/18 (that was also a one time thing, but I wrote it down anyway, however, now you....well, I wont ruin the surprise that month 11 has brought us ;-))

Now that I see all of this written out, you really did do quite a bit in month 10. I guess it just seems like immediately after turning 10 months, you busted out with all sorts of new tricks, so it kind of dwarfed your previous accomplishments. No need to feel bad though, until month 11 came along, I was month 10's hugest fan :)

Here are my notes from month 11 so far:
*tooth #3 came in (bottom left) 8/25
*you say "uh-oh!"
*you finally cried tears for the first time (it was only once, but I was almost relieved as I thought that happened way sooner....maybe you're not the drama queen I originally thought ;-))
*you say "duck" (you also will mimick us when we say "dog" and "yuck"....all of these sound like "duck"....)
*you try to repeat everything we say! You watch us so intently and then belt it out....AWESOME!
*now you FOR REAL wave Bye-Bye
*you say "bye-bye" (too cute!)
*you lean into us for kisses or hugs (also something I thought would come sooner, but whatever, glad it's hear now :))
*you give out kisses and make the kissing noise with your mouth....LOVE THIS!

I think you are really just starting to understand what's going on around you. You are constantly saying "Whoa!" and "Wow!" whenever you are reading a book or playing with your toys, it is the funniest thing to listen to. You are so much more interactive now, but you are also very good at playing alone. You have a longer attention span and that really makes keeping you occupied that much more fun and less stressful! You are acting like you could walk any minute, but I think you are still a little hesitant of making that first step. You learned how to crawl up the stairs, and I actually let you (while standing close behind to catch you in case you fall) because being that we have a huge stair case in the center of your house, rather than keep you away, I'd like to show you how to maneuver the steps safely! You can turn yourself around to get down off the couch or climb off the step in your playroom, but luckily you are not at all interested (YET) in getting yourself back down the stairs on your own.

You are still on pretty much the same schedule, except that now you wake up later.....THANK YOU! You normally get up between 7-8, and if you're staying with your Grammy, you sleep until 8:30 or so (this is something we really need to discuss....) You have a bottle when you get up (6 oz) then we eat breakfast. You like blueberry waffles, cheerios, pears or toast with grape jelly. The grape jelly also doubles as hair gel for the rest of the day normally. You are still taking about a 2 hour nap an hour after you wake up....for this, I thank you. then when you get up fromt that nap, you have another bottle (6 oz) then we head out somewhere.....ANYwhere ;-) A lot of the time we go and meet Grammy for lunch, you kind of dig her :) You pretty much eat whatever I'm eating for lunch. And by "eat", I mostly mean "throw on the floor". We are certain to be back home before 1 when you go down for nap #2. If we are home later than 1, I have missed my nap window and you proceed to scream incessantly for the rest of the day. On those days, I call you No-Fun Jones. After your nap you have another bottle (its normally around 2:30-3, 6 oz). You normally eat dinner around 5-5:30 and dinner varies quite a bit. You really like peas and carrots, and turkey hotdogs (or whatever leftovers we have in the fridge, you're not overly particular - Praise the Lord!), I will sometimes give you some shredded cheese and then fruit of some sort. I should probably bring up, that Luci is now far more fond of you than she ever has been, as you so kindly share most of your meals with her. After dinner, its bath time - still your favorite! Then we have one last bottle (8 oz) and play for a bit, and by 6:45-7, you're out like a light.

We just went to the doc yesterday because you and I got a cold, and you developed a cough from it that worried me due to our early encounter with RSV. The dr said that you were holding up well, you had a little fluid in your ear, but it was not an ear infection and you didn't have any inflamation in your sinuses (thank you God!). She didn't seem overly concerned about the cough either, but did recommend that we start you on breathing treatments once or twice a day, just in case. When they weighed you, you were still at 20 lbs. I'm not shocked due to how active you are now, that you hadn't put on any weight. I would imagine you may even lose some before your 1 year. You crawl faster than I can walk! It's crazy.....

Well, baby girl, that's about it for now. You manage to amaze me and make me smile every day. When I rock you at night (you still let me do that) you sit and face me and try to stick your fingers in my mouth (I assume to see if I have any teeth coming through ;-)) and we just giggle at each other. It's my favorite time of day.....your smile and the sound of your laugh are like medicine for bad days and bad moods. I love you more and more every day. Your Daddy thinks you're ok too ;-)

We love you Mia, and can't wait to see what the next month brings!

Love,
Mommy

ps. If you could stop picking up pieces of dirt, carpet and whatever else you find on the ground and putting it into your mouth, I would be forever in your debt....as would my gag reflex. Yuck! (now you know why you say that word, huh?)

Here are some picks of you from the last month and a half.....