Ten Months

Height: unknown
Weight: 16lbs 6oz

Grady at 10mo
David at 10mo

We are ten months old.  We have two teeth and the top gums are really swollen.  We army crawl and roll and get around when we want to.  Mostly we sit and roll and play with toys.  We are content.  She pulls up but can't get her feet under her to stand.  She wants to stand, but for some reason she just can't do it by herself yet.  I think it's strange.  The doctor is unconcerned.  He says we don't worry till 15mo.  So she has some time.  He is confident she will get there.

She sleeps great but she's sick right now and waking up.  She is congested and needs help getting things worked out.

I have heard words.  I've heard dada, mama, mommy.  I hear her yelling Grady.  It's just sounds, normal people wouldn't think it's anything.  But I'm pretty sure she's saying Grady.  She "sings" with the boys.  She babbles when everyone talks.

She loves the baby in the mirror.  She is so vain.  She babbles to the baby in the mirror.  So much so at the doctor yesterday I had to turn her around so she would stop talking to the baby in the mirror.

She is still in size 2 diapers but she needs to be in bigger ones.  But I have the size twos so thats what she is in.  She is in size 9mo clothes but even some of those are a bit long for her.  She is a petite thing, as I've said countless times.  But every time I pick her up from naps she is longer.

I'm still nursing her a fair bit.  I was much more structured with G and had him to four feedings by this age but I've learned and with the other two I just didn't do that.  It doesn't matter.  They will wean on their own and when they are ready.  D weaned at 15mo.  He was down to two feedings by 12mo.  They lose so much interest.  Nursing takes too long.  They would much rather eat crackers and laugh with their siblings.

David calls her Ju-ya.  Grady calls her Jule.  Grady - off topic - has also, unprompted, started calling David, Dave.  Lewis and I both stop short and blink when this happens.  It is weird.  Lewis doesn't like G calling her Jule.  But I figure if he makes a thing of it it will make it worse.  So I ignore it.  Plus it's his sister.  He can call her what he likes (as long as it isn't mean).

She had a lovely Christmas that she didn't understand and wanted to eat all the paper.  She fussed and cried and did her little "fists of rage" when we took it from her.  It's rough when mom and dad try to make sure you don't die!  Her favorite toy appears to be the klip flop horses.  The boys use it to race cars on and she beats the horses on the track.  I think she likes that they play with it with her.  But so far - that toy is the winner.  But it's not like I get a ton out for her.  I am eager to box up all the baby stuff and donate it / sell it / send it to another poor house to deal with the stuff.

The swing is in it's last throws.  She doesn't like it much.  But in a pinch she will rest in it when overtired.  And now when she's congested it's good to still have around.  I'm ready to get rid of the bouncer too.

It's my last baby but I'm ready to be done with this phase in my regards.  Babies are labor intensive, toddlers are more interactive and rewarding.

But oh I will miss her sweet baby smells.  Her soft cheeks.  Her little body that curls up with mine.  The bonding you get with your babies nursing is legit.  And it's my number one reason I do it (among the economy of free food).  The quiet moments with just you and baby force you to spend one on one time instead of feeding bottles on the go or out with the siblings or whatever.  Nursing - the way I do it - forces the issue of at least an hour every day, for just you and baby.

And when it started she was so little.  Just a wisp of a thing in my arms.  Now her legs drape down my thighs, her little hands rest with mine.  And she matches her breathing to mine and after about 12minutes, she sleeps.

I am grateful for the new stages and the increased sleep and the more normal routine.  She was a rough, rough infant in the sleep department, but her demands to be held I met because she was so sweet and ... she is my last.  And babies, as we all know, don't keep.

I never wish for time to stop or slow or anything because I feel it tempts fate.  I take a lot of pictures and try to breathe her in and remember for always these quiet moments when she is solely and completely mine.  She wants me and no other.  It's exhausting, but it is the one time in the whole of her life were I can meet all her needs and it's just me and her.  Years later she will race away with her brothers and cousins and friends and give me a cursory glance if I'm lucky.  Her problems will be big and I won't be able to just nurse her into comfort and solace.  Someday someone will hurt her heart and I won't be able to fix it.

Soon she will walk and run and jump and skip and all of those things are a dance of growing that leads her away from her mother.  And it's right and good and natural.  It is so odd to be a mother and so attached to these little people that I am purposefully raising to leave me.

Thank goodness sometimes they are annoying egomaniacs.  Otherwise we'd never let them leave.