Larkin: 10 Months Old

 If you've followed Larkin's milestone photos, you'll know that by eight months, she was DONE with laying flat on her back contentedly. So last month I did it with her sitting up. This month, even that was tricky. Just see for yourself!! 

 

So you see that initially having her uncontained just meant she would pull to standing and then plop back down to crawl away. Luckily, I'd just gotten two awesome crates from a friend, and they were just feet away from my shoot setup, so I pulled one over, lined it with faux fur, and confounded my little mover with some containment. Of course it didn't take long for her to work out how to pull to standing within the crate anyway. But at least she wasn't crawling away! 

 So, for the details about my clever girl at ten months old:

1. Right after turning 10 months old, she practiced cruising for the first time. She was wobbly at first, of course, but by the end of the month, she has gotten pretty comfortable with it. 

2. Around the middle of the month, she decided it was time to sleep through the night. Now, every so often, she will wake once, but I go in there with a bottle of water instead of formula, and she drinks it sleepily and goes back to sleep, and usually the next night she's back on track. 

3. So currently, Larkin's bedtime falls between 7:30-8pm, and she wakes for the day between 7:30-8:30am. It's pretty great! 

4. June 14- Larkin moved from her dedicated army crawl to a pretty good hand/knee crawl. Within a few days, she was a champ and it and never looked back. 

5. She also decided she wanted to try the stairs for the first time. Luckily, I was there with her, and I let her give it a go with me right behind her. I was SHOCKED that she did the whole staircase with total ease, no hesitation. So there's something for us to be very very careful about!! We still don't have a baby gate at the bottom, so I have to really stay on top of this crawling, curious, crazy baby CONSTANTLY. 

6. Other trouble she likes to dabble in: finding bathrooms. Playing with the cat food and cat water bowls. Pulling on Fiona too hard. Taking DVDs off of the shelf. Sampling unswept floor food from under the table. (Fourth kid. *shrug*) Standing in the bathtub. 

7. She like dabbling in sippy cups with water, but is still mostly a bottle baby. I sure love tucking her right arm under my armpit and nestling her close, tucking her fox lovey in her left arm, and rocking her close while feeding her her bottle. 

8. She still has a bit of stranger danger: we had tickets to a Cards game and left her behind with a babysitter for her bedtime, and my poor friend reported that she was inconsolable when we left, for almost an hour. That's a new one! Poor baby. Poor babysitter!! She also isn't keen on being held by others right off the bat... which is so unfortunate because she's SO CUTE that I want my friends to have the treat of holding her and playing with her. Bummer. 

9.  She laughs a LOT, and is such a happy baby. She loves her siblings, especially Noah, and is so quick to smile for them and wiggle in glee in response to them playing with her. 

10. She LOVES the swimming pool! So cute! 

11. She eats table food really really well. She loves cheese pizza, pancakes, mini bagels. Loves strawberries and cut up grapes. Watermelon. Spaghetti noodles. Toddler munchies from the baby food aisle. French fries. Peas and corn. She still totally loves baby food and applesauce pouches. 

12. She has two bottom teeth, finally! Visible to others, too! No sign of any others for now, but those bottom ones are pretty cute. 

13. Her hair is steadily growing in, and can make her look a bit scrappy. She loves to remember she has a bow or hairband in and tug it off and chew on it. But for now, I can still often make her forget its there and she will wear one for a little while before remembering again. 

14. Her eyes are pretty solidly hazel... Warming up past the gray to a pretty consistent green-brown. 

She's busy and so fun, and I am constantly in shock that she's SUCH a "one year old" already, a few months ahead of her time. She is by far my earliest baby to be this active and curious (and troublesome). It's frankly exhausting, and she's a full-time job right now. But that face. Come on-- THAT FACE: worth it. I love this baby, so it's worth it. 

To end, a couple last photos from our mini-shoot: upon being released from the crate-jail, she of course went straight for the kitty, and would've gotten the cat food bowl, too, if I hadn't quickly moved it out of reach. Oh, Larkin. You're so lucky you're cute. ♥

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(Photos taken on Larkin's amazing bird quilt made by my friend Melanie Hess of Thoroughly Modern Minis, on Etsy. See her 1 month photos HERE, her 2 month photos HERE, her 3 month photos HERE, her 4 month photos HERE, her 5 month photos HERE, her 6 month photo HERE , her 7 month photos HERE, her 8 month photos HERE, and her 9 month photos HERE. )