Guess Who Turned 10 Months Old?

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(to see the original idea for these monthly photos, click here.

And Month 9. Month 8. Month 7. Month 6. Month 5. Month 4. Month 3. Month 2.)

The pink bow-style headband in these photos is from a tutorial written by my friend Jaime of Sew She Sews, here. 

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So, somehow in the daily routines and rhythms of February, my sweet baby girl slipped from nine months old to ten months old while we weren't looking.

There we were, just doing what we always do--

~ breakfasts of cereal and nutella toast

~ baby food and pretzel snacks

~ preschool walks and trying not to be late for preschool pickups

~ me playing one of a dozen characters assigned by Noah, while he played the never-changing Bumblebee the Transformer

~  sometimes a good dinner on the table... sometimes just Taco Bell or mac and cheese

~ a thousand hugs, a thousand kisses ("spit kisses" if you're participating with Noah)

~ sometimes a trip to a park, sometimes a visit from a loved one, sometimes one more cartoon...

And before I knew it, my baby had slowly crept into new territories--- figuratively AND literally. Between nine and ten months, Lucy slowly, gruntingly figured out how to get mobile. Her first painstaking movements were to spin in 180-degree circles on her tummy, finding she could get to new toys by turning like she was on an upright axle. From there, she'd REACH and GRUNT and WHINE to get to things just past her fingertips, but there just wasn't any movement. No getting up on hands and knees and rocking.

And then one day, while on her tummy, she pushed. And her whole body inched backwards. She immediately did it again, and within minutes, she had gotten herself fifteen feet away from us, across our hardwood bedroom floor. And she looked excited and a little mad. Because she didn't WANT to go BACKWARDS. But she was moving, and that felt goooood.

Since then, this baby girl has managed to get her little body to go FORWARD--- but she's still not up on her knees. She moves herself with a combo of "inchworming" (hiking her hips and bum UP and DOWN to get her body to go forward) and dry-land "swimming"--- kicking those poor feet and pushing with them frantically until she gains an inch or two. She's not really using her arms in the army-crawl style, and she's DEFINITELY not officially crawling, but she's getting places. And she is DELIGHTED.

Along with this major milestone, Lucy has also:

1.  Gotten really smooth at getting from sitting to tummy in order to get moving

2. Grown out of the Puffs stage. She is so bored by them, and would rather have a cracker or a pretzel.

3. Gotten more and more exposure to table food, and is LOVING eating like a big girl.  But she still adores her purees, too, so we are still going with that.

4. **I might need to whisper this one** has begun sleeping through the night most nights. This has been going on for over a week now, with 7 out of 8 days seeing her go from 7:00pm-6:00 or 7:00am without waking long enough for us to need to go in and feed her a bottle. AMAZING! Noah didn't get to this point til 14 months, so I was prepared for that. Not this.

5. Continued to grow her blonde hair like crazy. She now really NEEDS a headband or barrette to keep her from looking like a total ragamuffin.

6. Started waving "hi!" to herself in the mirror consistently. She is a bit less consistent with "hi" and "bye bye" to us and others, but she sure loves that baby in the mirror!

7. Learned to shake her head "no no no" when we play a "yes yes! no no!" game with her. Thankfully, she's not been shaking her head "no" at us for actual rebellious reasons yet.

8. Been "singing" along with me for a couple of months now--- but most recently is actually sometimes matching my pitch a bit! Just "la la la", and not tunes, but still... She is another musical baby! Woot!

9. Weathered her second cold since birth... this one has been a goopy, snotty MESS, and is still going on, after almost two weeks. Seriously- how can a creature this small make SO MUCH SNOT??

10. Learned how to use her finger to flip her bottom lip down to do the "buh-buh-buh-buh" trick we all know how to do with our lips. (I don't know how else to describe it!!) And she'll also get our mouths to do it, too.

11. Started "dancing" a bit more to the music coming from her toys. Bopping her torso up and down, chanting along with the music... Cute!

12. NOT grown any more teeth after her first two. But just a few days ago, I noticed that the top middle ones and the ones just to the sides of the middle are CLOSE. One is nearly broken through, and the others look to be not far behind. This might be contributing to some of her snot problems, but is shockingly NOT messing with her sleep (yet!!).

13. Is showing interest in Baby Signs finally.... She'll attempt a couple of them, but is NOT distinguishing between signs, so she'll do the same thing for many words... So I'm not sure how much she actually "gets" yet, but she's getting interested. She can do the "bird" tweeting and her 'bye bye" looks like "milk" and she's used it when I sign "diaper", so she has the skill... Just needs to get it in context.

14. Is still the sweetest, most content, happy baby EVER (since her 5-month-old-personality switch)... and still the apple of my eye. And Joe's eye. And Noah's eye. We ADORE this girl!

 
(I love that third photo above--- she's been doing that with her bottom teeth for a couple of weeks now, since her bottom two teeth have gotten so long. She loves to feel her upper lip with them, fascinated by these crazy new things in her mouth. Just wait, Lucy--- you're REALLY in for a shock when those giant upper teeth come in!)

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A few more notes--

Lucy loves:

her Bunny Bunny, books, Noah's antics, Joe coming home from work, Mom and Noah coming in to get her when she wakes from naps, her purple lotion bottle and her tubes of diaper cream (as chew toys when she's getting her diaper changed), baths with Noah, going outside, being pushed in the baby swings on playgrounds, riding in her carseat and listening to music, riding in the stroller, rolling around on our bed as her playground, eating my necklaces, being propped up to look out the window above our bed, the song "Old MacDonald", looking at herself in the mirror, being in the Moby wrap facing forward, drinking water from sippy cups.

I love:

her blonde fluff hair-- always, holding her at our round window to say "night night" to the sky/trees/cards/houses before sleep time, the way she presses her face to mine when I sing to her before bed, the way she's taken to shoving her Bunny in my face while she drinks her bottles, or the way she'll sometimes find my nostril and get her finger all the way in. On purpose. The way she kicks like crazy when she's on her back in the bathtub, how happy she is when she wakes up-- often able to entertain herself for a long time in her crib before she fusses to be gotten. I love feeding her meals. I love how happy she is in a shopping cart at the store--- makes that errand so much nicer! I love her little squirmy warm body in fresh jammies, and the way her hair curls after a bath... I love how she smells. I love that she loves me so very much, not yet aware I'm imperfect.

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(Those were more for me than anything. I am so desperate not to forget. She is so amazing right this minute. I want to remember her as a 10-month old. A nine-month-old. An 8-month-old. But I know I'll forget.... Maybe if I write enough details, some of it will stick. )