Ellie has changed so much in just one month! Ten months old now and I definitely see hints of the toddlerhood to come. I’m already slightly mourning the end of babyhood but at the same time I look forward to all of the fun things to come as she gets older.
She has most definitely mastered crawling! At about 9 ½ months, she figured out how to push back up to a sitting position and very soon after that the crawling took off (not sure if the two are related or not). I can tell she is going to be pulling up to standing any day now! So now I am careful to close and lock the gate at the top of the stairs when we are up there and she is on the floor. And we finally did some “babyproofing” – locking up a few of the cabinets (especially the one with the cleaning supplies) and plugging up the outlets. She completely lost interest in her toys in the playroom because it was just so much more fun to pull the DVDs and CDs off of their shelves. Mean old mommy moved the media yesterday but now she has a bookshelf of toys and stuffed animals and I’m going to find some big legos or blocks or something that she can pull down and make a mess of even though somehow I’m sure that won’t be as much fun for her. We have moved everything we want to keep away from her into Chris’ office … she seems to know that’s where all the fun stuff is because every time the door is open, she makes a beeline towards it.
It’s amazing the tiny little things you start to notice on your floors when you have a baby crawling around on them! Fortunately I swiped up a nickel the other day before she got to it. I wasn’t as fast with the dog food though, I had to dig it out of her mouth. As challenging as it is to keep a closer eye on her now that she can get around well, it’s also really fun to watch her discover her world. She is extremely observant … noticing every speck whether it’s on the floor or my clothes or her high chair tray.
There are two sides to Ellie – one when she’s in an environment she’s used to around people she knows (at home with us pretty much) and one when she’s in a new place around new people. At home, she is boisterous and chatty, smiles and laughs easily, squeals and screams — whatever she can do to get attention. But when we’re somewhere new around “strangers,” she is so quiet! People will say hi to her and try to get her to smile and she just stares … I just started telling them “she’s shy.” She just really studies people before she warms up to them. Sometimes a well-meaning person will say “oh she looks really sleepy” which just rubs me the wrong way … probably because I am very intentional about her schedule and when it’s time for her to sleep, she is in her crib sleeping. I should probably just nod and smile but instead I say “No, she’s not sleepy, just very shy.” I don’t think people are used to shy babies, ha!
Chris and I will do just about anything to make her laugh. Sometimes she laughs at us, sometimes she laughs at absolutely nothing, and sometimes if there is laughter amidst conversation happening near her, she’ll start laughing! She’s very much in the mimicking stage. We’re trying to take advantage of this to teach her words … she often says “mamama” and “dadadada” but it doesn’t seem like she knows what those sounds mean. I think she has also said “baby” a few times. But the “word” heard most often during her chatter is “beckum.” Chris says she’s obviously a soccer fan 🙂 Recently she’s learned how to make even more sounds utilizing her tongue so between that and intonation, it often sounds like she’s really making a point or having a little one-sided conversation with her toy.
She still only has two teeth (on the bottom) but I think the top ones are trying really hard to come in. It’s going better with finger food though … she has realized that it’s for eating and not just playing. At the moment, sweet potato puffs seem to be her favorite. We are looking forward to the time when she’ll just eat a version of what we eat.
One thing that is quite obvious – this baby is used to getting her photo taken! I point either the phone or the camera at her and she stops what she’s doing and smiles. Makes it hard to get a candid shot! Especially a video … she’ll be chattering away and as soon as I try to capture it on video, she just stops and stares and grins. I swear the camera loves her though—she totally rocked her 10-month photo shoot!
In summary … Ellie is such a sweet, precious, joyful addition to our family and we are completely smitten!