10 Month Update

Last month when I posted Kate's 9th Month Update, I made a few predictions:

I'm assuming that this month she will start "cruising:" walking around while holding onto something like a table edge. I'm hoping that we hear "Momma" sometime soon, but I won't be surprised if she tries to say her sister's name first. I know we'll see more self-inflicted injuries. She pulls drawers open, which also means she shuts them on her hand. She hasn't figured out not to do that yet. And, as she learns how to get back to the ground after pulling herself to standing, I'm sure we'll have some bruising from just letting go and hoping for a soft landing. Also new this month...she was diagnosed with her first ear infection today. Hopefully that will be cleared by her 10 month update.

Well, I'm happy to say that she is saying Momma now, but not Padyn (or PayPay or some variation of the sort). She is absolutely cruising. So much so that nothing seems to be out of her reach unless it's 5 feet off the ground. And no, she hasn't figured out that shutting the drawer while her hand is in it does not produce happy results. She has mostly mastered getting down from standing, though not terribly quickly. It's more of a slow maneuver into the splits until her hands and knees are low enough to reach the ground. And the ear infection? The first one cleared up and a second one moved right into its place.

Her new favorite playthings are Padyn's markers. Yes, yes...markers. She doesn't actually color with them. She just pulls them off Padyn's art table and puts them in her mouth. Repeatedly. She also seems to love pulling Padyn's hair whenever she gets the chance. Interestingly, she doesn't really pull my hair much. She more plays with it. There must be something inherent in that sister relationship that makes hair pulling instinctive.

The waving has taken on new levels of hilarity. Kate waves at anyone and anything-the TV, the car, people walking past that don't see her-anything that is not waving at her. If someone does actually wave at her she does one of two things. She may become super shy and serious and stare at the person as if trying to figure out what type of life form they are. Or, she goes to the opposite extreme and waves with both hands frantically as if her life depends on it until they acknowledge her again.

Daddy may now be beating out Mommy as Kate's second favorite person. Whenever he comes home her entire body starts jumping and she can't even contain her happiness. About half the time she greets him with, "Dada!" accompanied by a big, fat grin.

Speaking of jumping, she loves jumping. I guess it's more bouncing, really. She bounces in her crib, while standing up at the coffee table, and while on her hands and knees. When she's doing it on her hands and knees, it's almost as if she is trying to bounce herself up into a downward facing dog position. This is usually accompanied by vocal narration. "Aha, aha, aha, aha..." repeated over and over rather rhythmically in time with the bouncing.

She's still not eating much of a variety of foods, but I am making a bigger effort with the table foods. She is still gagging and vomiting, but not with as much regularity as past months. She'd be happy to eat only baby food banana and yogurt if I let her, but I'm trying to consistently introduce her to new table foods-tofu, pasta, spinach nuggets, green beans. So far the only thing she'll eat with regularity is bread. But at least she puts the tofu in her mouth. It just doesn't stay there. It's a start, anyway.

She has turned into an easy baby to put down for naps and bedtime. Sleeping at night is altogether a different story, but I think now that her ears and teeth are settling, things will get back to normal. Last night she slept from 7:30 until Padyn woke her up at 6:30, only waking up once at 4:30 to cry for 5 minutes then go back to sleep. That's a new record. I'm pushing for that 11 hour sleeping, no eating in between thing. We'll see if she likes it as much as I do.

Oh, another thing she's figured out this month? She likes the taste of paper. I don't quite get that one and I'm hoping she outgrows it quickly.