10 Months Old - A Sociable Baby!

We officially have a 10-month-old baby.  She is truly everything I ever dreamed of and more.

Here are some updates:

Milestones:
Grace is officially waving!  It is the sweetest thing and it takes family, friends, and strangers by surprise as she raises her hand in greeting or in parting, accompanied by a big smile.  She will clap, too, which is also just so sweet. 
Grace will pull to standing, cruise along furniture, and walk using her push cart.  She is yet to stand up with no hands, and yet to walk without pushing her cart.  I'm not in any rush for either of those things to happen, I am happy to wait several more months before I have a standing, walking toddler.

Likes:
She loves her "Da" and she loves her grandparents!  Brian's parents have come down to visit a few times lately, and she is just full of smiles the whole time she's with them.  And luckily, living so close to my parents, she gets to see them all the time and especially loves our Saturday night routine of Mass followed by dinner out at a restaurant.

   

She loves making noises and "talking".  She loves food!  She loves seeing animals (cats, dogs, squirrels).
I would say what she loves the most right now, though, is being out and about and around other people.  She loves attention from adults, she loves watching bigger kids, and she even loves seeing the babies her same age at daycare.  She smiles as soon as she sees her "friends" at daycare, and it just melts my heart.  Is it possible for my 10-month-old to have friends??  She really seems to!

Dislikes:
She doesn't like if I'm out of her sight of vision, or if she's not being paid attention to.  She dislikes being put in her carseat, but once she's in it she's usually fine.  It's hard to think of what she doesn't like, because she seriously is a happy baby.

Talking:

Grace still makes all kinds of sounds.  Her first and only real word so far is "DaDa".  When Brian enters a room, she calls out "Da" or "DaDa".  She still occasionally uses the "Da" sound for other random objects/people/items, but mostly just for Brian.  She finally says "MaMa"! It's not really directed at me or anything, but she has no problem with the "M" sound.  And she still says her classic "Loddy doddy" and "leedle deedle" sounds.  I love all of her sounds and can't wait until someday when I can understand what she's saying.

Food: Grace eats all kinds of food: chicken, avocado, whole milk yogurt, hard boiled egg yolk, all fruits (except no blueberries anymore). She is an eater and just loves food.  She is still breastfeeding, and she nurses about 4-5 times per day.  Once or twice in the morning before daycare, twice in the evening and usually once overnight.  Breastfeeding has become such a special sacred time for me.  Because Grace is always on the go, I love this special time where she is calm and peaceful in my arms.  It is really special, and I know when the time comes to wean her, I will be emotional about it.

Sleep: This is the first blog post where I can write that sleep has actually improved.  Grace is now down to one wake up per night, and it is truly life-changing for me. After 9+ months of sleep deprivation, I can think clearly (most of the time).  It's still tiring being up once per night, because sometimes I don't fall asleep for several hours after she goes back down, leaving me with still just a 4-hour night of sleep.  But for the most part, she is sleeping, I am sleeping, and life has improved.

These past 10 months have just flown by.  Where did that tiny baby go?  I am clinging to every last "baby"ness from Grace that I can get.  She is our little angel miracle, and I am the luckiest woman in the world to be her mom.

9 Months Old - Back to Work for Mom

Each month I seem to claim that she has changed the most, but she is now 9 months old, and I swear at 8 months Grace grew the most, cognitively and physically!

She has been doing an actual crawl (no more army crawling or slithering) for about a month now. She is now very sturdy on her two legs (plus one hand holding onto something). She hasn't taken any steps by herself, but she does love to pull up to standing and check everything out from that view!

Grace has truly developed a personality and it is so adorable.  She is cuddly, sweet, playful, silly, and sneaky! I say sneaky because she is always trying to sneak her way into things that she isn't supposed to! (Her drawers full of clothes, our basket of shoes, or the kitchen for example)!  She is so playful and loves games like "Where's Grace?" Or "chase" where I pretend to chase her. She loves being chased and will crawl away and giggle and bury her face on the carpet (thinking that she's hidden herself). It is my favorite and so cute.

Grace now can officially say "mama", but it doesn't seem to be directed exactly/only at me yet. She says "dada" definitely at Brian, and only occasionally at other things/people.

There is absolutely nothing better than being with her. And I write this as my summer comes to a bittersweet end. I will forever remember the first summer where I was a mom. How proud I felt pushing a stroller through the neighborhood or carrying her in my ergobaby while we grocery shopped. How Grace squealed with happiness when we put her in the pool.

I will miss her more than anything when I'm back at school tomorrow. But luckily, this time is different than last spring. This time, I will be less than one mile away from her all day, every day. This time, I may pop in and visit her during my lunch. This time, she's 9 months and can crawl and stand and clearly show her dislikes and likes. She's a much different baby than the 3.5 month old tiny little thing that I first took to daycare last spring.

I will still miss her with all my heart.  But I love my job, I'm so lucky to have a job at my new school, and I know this is what's right for our family right now. She loves her Tuesdays and Thursdays with Grandma. And I think she enjoys the rest of the week when she plays with all the other toddlers and toys at daycare.

She is truly my whole entire world. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Here is the latest with Grace at 9 months;

Size: wears size 9 and 12 month clothes, size 3 diapers, weighs 19 pounds and is 28 inches long.

Teeth: still just the front bottom two teeth. I'm bracing myself for the inevitable teething that's going to happen sometime in the next few months.

Sleep: down to about 2 wake ups a night. Really hoping to get down to just one so I don't have to feel like a zombie while teaching this year. Still takes 2 good naps and 1 quick nap a day, the 3rd nap will probably be dropped when school starts, in favor of an earlier bedtime.

Food: still breastfeeding all day, but also LoVES her solids! She loves avocado, heard boiled eggs, bananas, Cheerios, carrots (I give her one big carrot to gnaw on and that keeps her happy for awhile)! Her favorite food of all is blueberries.

Language: she makes all kinds of sounds all the time, but her only true word that she says in association with its actual object is "DaDa". When she sees him, when she hears him, when I bring her down to the basement or upstairs to our bedroom. She whispers it sometimes at first, but then says it out loud when we praise her.

I know my time with a 'baby' is dwindling. She's about to be a toddler, exploring the world and challenging my life in ways I don't even know yet. But forever, no matter how old she gets, I will never forget this sneaky, silly, playful little baby she is right now.