Ten Months – 3/11/2012
Dear Ellen,
Happy happy happy about sums up you at 10 months. You smile all of the time and have fun playing and observing others. You visibly brighten when you see me or Daddy, especially when picking you up from school.
My Favorite Thing: I love how you are starting to communicate. You have started signing “all done” and “more” and even adding more verbal communication. I swear one day you were saying “Mama!” to get my attention, and when I turned around you said, “Ah dah” (aka All done) while raising your hands in the air! I think you are a little confused about “All Done” versus “All Gone,” but we will get there. We still need to work on “More” and “Water” and “Please.” Also, when you try to tell me something in words or in sign, and I repeat it and get it right, you get a huge smile on your face.
Daily Activities and Playing: You are very independent and like to explore all over the house, but you generally stay out of trouble. You will sit and play on the piano or other toys in the play room, or you will sit and look through books by yourself. You are standing more and more but mostly holding onto our legs, the cabinets, or the ottoman. You took one step by yourself, but you aren’t really walking on your own and your balance needs time to develop. You still prefer to crawl everywhere since it gets you where you need to go FAST. I have honestly never seen a baby move so fast – you basically do a bear crawl RUN.
Sibling: You two get crazy together. Ian likes to report what you are doing (“Ellen touched me. Ellen play with that toy”) all of the time. You imitate everything he does, from splashing in the bath tub to banging on a toy, and it is very cute. Sometimes Ian likes to imitate you too! An interesting comparison between you and Ian is that your emotions seem to be more intense than his. Where Ian seemed generally content and easy going about just about anything, you tend to get very happy or very sad. Heaven help the one who takes a toy away from you. Crocodile tears and yelling ensue!
Eating: Nothing has changed in your daily schedule, although the milk source has gradually transitioned to all formula. I enjoyed the simplicity, ease, and time with you during nursing, but I couldn’t keep my milk supply high enough to satisfy you for dinner and didn’t want to spend hours every day pumping and washing bottles and other equipment, so I decided that we would move on after you were 9 months old. You get four 6 oz. bottles per day, spread out every 3-5 hours, but you don’t always finish all of them depending on your activity level and what kind of food you are eating. You usually eat 4 meals of food per day: breakfast, lunch, and snack at school and dinner at home. We haven’t had to serve any “baby” food in a while since you mostly just eat what we eat, with a few modifications. Some of the new things we have introduced: mango (steamed slightly to soften it), blueberries, strawberries, ground beef.
Sleeping: Night time sleep continues to be very good. You start getting sleepy around 7:30 or 7:45 and are usually in bed by 8:15. It is a breeze to put you to sleep; we read one or two books, give you a blanket and pacifier, and turn out the light. Usually you are trying to squirm out of my arms at that point so you can lay down, and you don’t have any patience for being rocked to sleep. At day care, you only take one long nap per day, right after lunch, and then again on both the morning and evening commutes. Every once in a while you are asleep when I come pick you up. On the weekends, you still consistently take a mid morning nap and a late evening nap.
Special Events: Your cousin James Luke Abney was born! We went to go visit him and Brooke in Rowena the very next week. He was very small and had a ton of fluffy hair. You didn’t notice him but Ian gave him a few kisses. Our family is going to be very busy over the next several years. The cousins will be stair stepped through consecutive grades in school with only one gap; Jack (then skip a grade), then Benjamin, Anna, Ian, you, and James! We are hoping you can all go to Texas A&M and maybe all live in a house together.
Dear Ellen,
Happy happy happy about sums up you at 10 months. You smile all of the time and have fun playing and observing others. You visibly brighten when you see me or Daddy, especially when picking you up from school.
My Favorite Thing: I love how you are starting to communicate. You have started signing “all done” and “more” and even adding more verbal communication. I swear one day you were saying “Mama!” to get my attention, and when I turned around you said, “Ah dah” (aka All done) while raising your hands in the air! I think you are a little confused about “All Done” versus “All Gone,” but we will get there. We still need to work on “More” and “Water” and “Please.” Also, when you try to tell me something in words or in sign, and I repeat it and get it right, you get a huge smile on your face.
Daily Activities and Playing: You are very independent and like to explore all over the house, but you generally stay out of trouble. You will sit and play on the piano or other toys in the play room, or you will sit and look through books by yourself. You are standing more and more but mostly holding onto our legs, the cabinets, or the ottoman. You took one step by yourself, but you aren’t really walking on your own and your balance needs time to develop. You still prefer to crawl everywhere since it gets you where you need to go FAST. I have honestly never seen a baby move so fast – you basically do a bear crawl RUN.
Sibling: You two get crazy together. Ian likes to report what you are doing (“Ellen touched me. Ellen play with that toy”) all of the time. You imitate everything he does, from splashing in the bath tub to banging on a toy, and it is very cute. Sometimes Ian likes to imitate you too! An interesting comparison between you and Ian is that your emotions seem to be more intense than his. Where Ian seemed generally content and easy going about just about anything, you tend to get very happy or very sad. Heaven help the one who takes a toy away from you. Crocodile tears and yelling ensue!
Eating: Nothing has changed in your daily schedule, although the milk source has gradually transitioned to all formula. I enjoyed the simplicity, ease, and time with you during nursing, but I couldn’t keep my milk supply high enough to satisfy you for dinner and didn’t want to spend hours every day pumping and washing bottles and other equipment, so I decided that we would move on after you were 9 months old. You get four 6 oz. bottles per day, spread out every 3-5 hours, but you don’t always finish all of them depending on your activity level and what kind of food you are eating. You usually eat 4 meals of food per day: breakfast, lunch, and snack at school and dinner at home. We haven’t had to serve any “baby” food in a while since you mostly just eat what we eat, with a few modifications. Some of the new things we have introduced: mango (steamed slightly to soften it), blueberries, strawberries, ground beef.
Sleeping: Night time sleep continues to be very good. You start getting sleepy around 7:30 or 7:45 and are usually in bed by 8:15. It is a breeze to put you to sleep; we read one or two books, give you a blanket and pacifier, and turn out the light. Usually you are trying to squirm out of my arms at that point so you can lay down, and you don’t have any patience for being rocked to sleep. At day care, you only take one long nap per day, right after lunch, and then again on both the morning and evening commutes. Every once in a while you are asleep when I come pick you up. On the weekends, you still consistently take a mid morning nap and a late evening nap.
Special Events: Your cousin James Luke Abney was born! We went to go visit him and Brooke in Rowena the very next week. He was very small and had a ton of fluffy hair. You didn’t notice him but Ian gave him a few kisses. Our family is going to be very busy over the next several years. The cousins will be stair stepped through consecutive grades in school with only one gap; Jack (then skip a grade), then Benjamin, Anna, Ian, you, and James! We are hoping you can all go to Texas A&M and maybe all live in a house together.
I didn't get to do a "photoshoot" for your 10 month milestone because we were traveling and quite busy... but I still got several good ones throughout the month.
{First Valentine's Day Cards}
{Crawl, baby, crawl; Ellen @ 2/26/2012}
{Happy Baby; Ellen @ 2/26/2012}
{Flying, courtesy of Daddy; Ellen @ 3/3/2012}
{Almost 10 months old; Ellen @ 5/10/2012}
{Swing, swing, swing; Ellen @ 3/18/2012}
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