Sweet Gwens,
Here we are at 10 months old. I’m not even going to say it. The last month has been a riot with you. This is one of my favourite ages. I love watching you explore, learn, develop your personality and be funny. I love seeing you do things that you find amusing and break out into uncontrollable giggles. I love watching you play on Big Sisters bed, flopping down on her pillow like you’re going to sleep and kicking your little feet. I love watching you dance with your Daddy. Wiggling your legs, clapping your hands, waving your arms in the air as he tosses you all around. I love seeing you stick your little tongue out the side of your mouth and look at me out of the corner of your eyes when you’re getting into mischief. I love watching you wave at all the vehicles that drive past on the road. I love watching you light up at the sight of your big sister, your daddy, your puppy, or your chickens. I love all of these itty, bitty, teensy weensy nuances that all together make you who you are.
Here’s how you’ve looked this month (ahem: cutest cute cute)
We’ve finally welcomed some warmer weather and have been spending as much time as possible outside. You love being outside at the park or just in our own yard. You have no problems with the grass and are happy to sit, crawl and play in it. You only eat it sometimes.
The two biggest pieces of news this month are that you took your first steps and you cut your third tooth. Let’s talk about the steps first. You have been cruises for ages and you are getting more and more steady all the time. I can usually set you down on your feet and you can stand unassisted for a good long time. In fact, more often than you losing your balance, you just get tired of standing in one spot and sit down to crawl away. On April 18th, when Auntie Caley and C were here, you took your very first unassisted steps. You took 3-4 steps a few different times that day but didn’t keep it up much after that. You’ve taken 1-2 here and there and once (only once) you took eight steps to me but you’re still pretty content to crawl. You also love to walk holding our hands and have gotten so steady that you can do pretty well with only holding one hand now. The only way I can get you to attempt steps by yourself is if you are holding two objects in your hand. I guess you feel like you’re holding onto something so think that you are steady. I can just imagine in no time at all you’ll be ripping around here like it’s your job.
As far as your teeth, come on with the teeth! It’s getting a bit ridiculous. I have felt like you were on the verge of cutting new teeth since the very first two came in – way back in February. I have been able to clearly see your top 4 teeth for a while and your gums have been so swollen and the whites of the teeth so close to breaking through that when you smile the right way, it looks like you have top teeth. Your right hand top tooth finally broke through on Monday (April 29) and I hope its pair is close behind. I am not a fan of this long drawn out teething process. I fear the long road ahead of us.
I’d like to think that these teeth are the culprit of our sleep issues lately. On one hand, you have been napping wonderfully and have gotten into a much more predictable, normal routine with your naps. You’re doing great and falling asleep quickly and on your own (as long as you have a paci in your mouth, one in each hand and your lovies close by) and have weaned away from nursing to go down for your afternoon nap – meaning that your nursing schedule is now more reminiscent of a 10 month old and less of a 1 month old. You now nurse about 5-6 times a day instead of 7-8. You typically wake up for the day around 6:30 (although we’ve just come out of a long stretch of 5:45-6am wake ups – no thank you) and have your first nap between 8:30-9, depending on wake up and whether or not it’s a preschool day. You nap anywhere from 1-2 hours. You then go down again between 1-1:30 and usually nap for another 1.5, sometimes 2 hours if I’m lucky. You are in bed by 7 pm most nights. And that’s where it goes down hill. I guess realistically, you still haven’t been doing that bad, as most nights it simply takes a few moments of rocking or soothing or a quick nurse to get you back down. But, gosh, baby, let’s just sleep through the night like we used to, okay?
You like to chatter, although now you’ve gone from being way louder and more verbal than your big sister was as an infant, to being quieter. You say “dada”, “mama” and something like “eaaaa-da” (which I am beginning more and more to think is your word for Eva). You also spend a lot of time saying “ah ah ah” very loudly, which is you saying Hi. Dada is the only word you typically will say on command. And you have definitely made the connection between that word and your Daddy. As soon as you see him it’s “Ah ah ah DA DA!” The Mama usually comes out when you are whining for milk and if I tell you to say Mama you smirk and say “Dada”. Never fails. You sign eat, more and milk. Sometimes you do all done but you prefer to just scream at us to get that point across. Now, we’re working on please and thank you.
At the beginning of the month, we had our second round of a stomach bug. You had it first and I unknowingly was blaming teething for the nasty diapers, food strike, long naps, poor nighttime sleep and extra nursing. Now I know that you had a bug since the rest of us got it the next week. Girl, you were put through the ringer this month!
Just before that happened, you went on a bit of strike with eating fruit and would scream if it even touched your tray. The only way I could get fruit into you was through pouches or by mixing soft fruits with your meals. For example, you were okay with pears mixed in beef stew and blueberries in shepherds pie. Delightful, isn’t it? Then when you were sick you went on a total solids strike and hardly touched anything. Again, I thought it was because of your teeth bothering you but now I realize your tum was just upset. Good news is that now you are back to eating like a grown man and devour anything and everything that is placed in front of you. And a LOT of it. You eat far more than your big sister, I can hardly keep up. It still surprises me every day when we sit down for meals and I look over and your tray is totally empty before I’ve barely had time to dish up everyone else’s dinner!
The next month is going to be jam packed full of fun summer adventures with you and I can’t wait!
Love you my sweet girl,
Mama
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