Likes: eating, chewing on shoes/dust bunnies/anything disgusting found on the floor, destroying her brother's train tracks, pulling items out of bags/baskets/bookshelves, opening drawers and playing with doors, crawling as fast as possible towards an open dishwasher, being mobile, making hilarious faces at all times
Dislikes: diaper changes, sleeping, teething, sitting still.
Biggest Achievement of the Month: cut a million teeth and learned a billion new motor skillz (seemingly)
Biggest Challenge of the Month: Same as always: sleep. Has there been any other challenges in the past ten months? I can't remember. I'm too tired.
The Mecca (aka Sleep): Erratic and maddening at best. She technically slept through the night three times since my last update (whoop-dee-doo). Her usual is still waking once. But there have been nights which boasted FOUR wake ups and let's just say I'm kind of at the end of my rope with nights like those. Since we've stopped giving bottles in the middle of the night I'm feeling it even more as I'm the one up with her nursing. Nate = more rested this month. Me = aged 10 more years from sleepless nights. Hoping we are on the upswing of things here. I'm letting her cry / fuss a whole lot more lately and she seems to be figuring out the concept of putting herself to sleep. In the past week I've even noticed that she will actually take a pacifier, which could help with the whole 'self-soothing' idea. I just recently realized that she doesn't really care about a pacifier, never really taking it for more than a few minutes here and there. But of COURSE as she is nearing the one year mark now she wants to use one. Fine by me if it helps her sleep!
Naps were pretty ridiculous all month long but we have had a few solid daytime sleep sessions these past few days. I'm trying to stick to a 9am and 1pm nap schedule for Cecelia since that seems to work so well at Lori's. The morning nap is usually easier and longer, about 1-2 hours and the afternoon nap might be non-existent, 20 minutes, or sometimes 1 hour. It's always a guessing game around here! I have decided that if my baby napped consistently every day that I'm home with her I would feel 1000x more balanced--especially if CC and Truman could manage to nap at the same time for even just a teeny tiny bit of time. Because then there would be 'me time' built into my day before the 9 pm hour which would make me a happier person in general. Let's work on this nap thing this month, alright Cecelia? The nighttime stuff will come eventually but daytime is what is kicking my rear right now, I'm afraid. Mommy needs a breather during the days home with you two, like woah.
Temperament/Personality: Little sweetheart is still a happy, hilarious, content baby for the most part. She had a cold for over two weeks this month so we had some rough patches in there (snotty, grumpy, gross patches). But she seems to be better now! And now that she can crawl and pull up to explore her little world she is even happier than last month, it seems. Mobility is a good thing for this purpose;) She's still quite social and loves to people watch in public places. She's got a thing for her brother and I think she is going love giving him trouble as they grow up together. No other toy will do, except for the one Truman is holding. Uh-oh.
This month she tolerated Tony, Lois, GoGo/Memaw, and Daddy all watching her at separate times without mommy present. I definitely feel more confident leaving her with someone else now, without worrying that she will freak out the entire time that I'm gone. Freaking out part of the time is a given but at least it's relatively short lived now. She's even holding herself together at daycare drop offs in the past week. Hallelujah.
Talking/Communication: Sister can understand some of what we say now which is just so freaking cool. It's like she is a real little person that can kind of interact with us---something I still find so fascinating even though she hasn't been that newborn blob for many months. She definitely knows her name, she will do 'so big' upon request, will wave upon request, give high-fives upon request, will clap upon request....I suppose she is our little trick monkey or something. If I ask her, 'Where's daddy?' she will kind of look around and say, 'Dadadada'. I am not crazy enough to think she actually GETS that Nate = daddy = 'dada' but it seems pretty close to the truth sometimes. She can also mumble 'mama' and her favorite 'T' sound but nothing earth-shattering with words just yet. Also, just realized that we were baby-signing with abandon when Truman was 10 months. Sort of forgot about that with our second-born but every now and then I will attempt a 'more' or 'all done' at the dinner table. She looks at me like I'm a lunatic (awesome).
Also, I've finally started reading to her before bedtime. Trust me, any month before this would have spelled disaster because she knows when we are ready to nurse before bed and cannot.freaking.wait. See also: being overtired from lack of naps. But ANYWAY, I've started reading a few books before bed now that she can calmly sit in my lap without ripping my shirt off. She LOVES it and especially any of our touch-and-feel books. She is so good at feeling the various soft/fuzzy parts of each page, somehow knowing right where to grab. Watching her little finger touch the pages is one of the sweetest things ever and I'm glad she doesn't just try to eat the pages anymore. Baby girl is growing up and really 'getting' things these days!
Eating: See my previous post about milk/nursing woes--but I will say that she is nursing like a champ lately, usually four times per day and 0-2 times at night. Right side only. But for at least 5 minutes and she doesn't even need to be in a quiet dark room anymore to pound some milk. Atta girl, Cease!
Solids are her fave and she eats three meals each day with an afternoon snack thrown in there, too. Still doing some purees but she can basically eat any finger food we throw at her now. It's really fun to have one child that will eat the same meal as us;) She loves pizza, cheese, eggs, turkey dogs, cheerios, apples, and blackberries the most at this point. She doesn't seem to dislike anything but sometimes she will show her appreciation for my food offering by throwing it on the ground just to watch Henry scarf it in record time.
Her most astonishing dinner was when she ate an entire Yo Baby carton (4 oz), an ENTIRE turkey dog (cut up into microscopic pieces and peeled), and a ton of shredded cheese, crackers, and yogurt melts. I'm serious when I say she can eat Truman under the table. I hope she continues to be our good eater!
The Superficial: Red hair with abnormally long bangs (I am dangerously close to conquering her first braid, btw). Huge blue eyes. Still in 12 or 12-18 month clothing because of her long limbs, still in size 3 disposable diapers. Hilarious new 'grin' that reminds me of a teenager with braces that were recently adjusted. Like, 'oh hey, my teeth kinda hurt. Let me gingerly pull my lips back over them to resemble a smile while keeping my eyes completely still.' She looks kind of freaked out, kind of scared, and totally crazy. I can't really describe her new grin/grimace very well but I can certainly show you pictures.
Teeth: She now has six total, three new ones came through with a vengeance this month. Her top two center teeth are my favorites because they are huge, gapped, and sort of uneven--I had to look back at old Truman pictures to remind myself that the giant rabbit teeth won't stay like that forever (I hope). I can see three more teeth under the gums getting ready to make their appearance sometime soon. #teethingsucks
Motor Milestones: Big dog! She officially learned to crawl on all fours, army crawl (and not just backwards), moving from floor to sitting, and pulls to stand. What difference a month can make--she is officially all over the house, as evident by the explosion of toys that always follows her. Also, she can dance to a killer beat now. I have yet to catch her bee-bopping on video but I shall make it a priority because it's too cute to miss.
Out and About: She loves going places and will willingly/happily skip a nap in order to participate in activities. Truman's 'Paint and Play' class on Thursday mornings were a big hit with little miss this month and she secretly loves to go grocery shopping with her daddy. Anywhere that she can sit in the front of a shopping cart will win in her book. I think once it's nice outside she is going to be an outdoorsy baby girl---loving stroller rides and playgrounds and fresh air. Don't we all dream of those options at this point in March? ;)
Firsts: crawl, pull up, entire slice of pizza.
Fave Baby Gear: Eh, I'm over this topic for now. I guess she isn't really a 'baby' that needs 'gear' since her favorite hobbies include hunting for dust bunnies and tearing apart our bookshelves. Can't buy that kind of entertainment at a store!
Little Sis and Big Bro:
Oh, how the mind plays tricks on me with time! Thank you, Julia of the past, for blogging about your first born. Because otherwise I would never remember any of the details of the ten month mark from the first time around. The only similarities I see between kids at this age? Both like to clap and open drawers, and they each boast 6 teeth. Otherwise I was shocked to read all of the differences: I was already mixing in a bit of whole milk for Truman since he was only nursing once per day now and loved his freaking bottle more than the boob. He would sleep through the night 90% of the time at this point (WHAT?!?!) and would nap at least 3.5 hours per day total (OMG). He was getting very finicky about solids and showed a major preference to carbs. Ha! Should have been able to predict my three year old's eating habits! Also, T wasn't even up on all fours yet or pulling up, so even if he had her beat in the sleep department, she takes the cake for motor milestones. And for nursing so well. Gold star to you, Cecelia. Now learn how to sleep.
Present day is really fun with both kids because CC is all up in Truman's biz now. Most of the time he handles it well and is really sweet with her---'helping' her pull to stand on the ottoman, reading books to her, racing her on these riding toy thingies we pulled from the attic. But sometimes it's really hard to be a big brother to a curious little sister. I just tell Truman that Cecelia loves him and wants to do everything that he is doing---something I'm sure to repeat through the years.
I love you so much, Cecelia. Ten whole months. Wow.
Mommy
