Happy Easter Little Toddler

10 months old and toddling all over? How bout walking over to and putting your chubby leg over a ride-on toy, sitting and pushing yourself across the room? How bout you walk more than crawl now? Yep, check, check, check. Where did my crawler go!? My baby is growing up too fast.

You have 4 upper teeth now, still only 2 on the bottom. We really need to do some pictures before you, ya know, get your drivers license and move to Denver or something. Course, thankfully that's age-regulated. Whew.

One of your favorite activities is car seat surfing. You probably have outgrown riding in it at this point, it's an infant carrier, but anyway, you stand in it and rock it with your legs and never lose your balance.

 I'm pretty sure you never fall in general unless me or Daddy bump into you or Josie pushes you over. You get into the craziest predicaments and still manage to get down / out / un-pretzel somehow.

As for food, you had your first french fry about a week ago and did so well with it. Actually I'm pretty sure you ate at least 2, but you eat all but the bit clenched in your fat, lil hand then open your hand and it falls to the ground. hehe.

You also matched your shoes the other day, which I'm not even sure Josie could do. You were playing with your shoe on the ground, then you looked up and either saw or remembered where it was and crawled to it with your other shoe in hand. There's a lot of toys and clutter (distraction and obstacles) on our floor, so this is pretty amazing.

Also, you crawled up the slide at the park last week. Forget the little slide you climbed up at 7 months. This one was 6 ft high and spiral and you had BabyLegs on -- so you couldn't even use your knees, just hands and feet. No trouble, WHATSOEVER. And then you got to the top and repelled down systematically.

I told Dad we will need to pick your future career sport carefully because whatever it is you will most likely excel. You already are insanely dominative and stubborn. And obviously, you are coordinated like crazy-go-nuts. Muscle-tone is awesome. I just pray you stay healthy and continually strong and brave. Love you little-miss-10-months-already :)

April Update -- walking (a little)

Well Ms Mary! You took your first couple steps this past week at 9 months. You can stand by yourself for practically forever and often do while you stand and play on your feet, you go from sit to kneel to stand with no effort. Your balance is amazing and your muscle tone is awesome. You'd be walking if you were just a bit more confident, and little by little I see you taking a step here to something or turning around without holding on to take a step and then you realize what you are doing and sit. Mostly we have luck with you walking outside. You don't like the concrete (oh or the kitchen tile, which is how Josie was too) and so you will gladly walk the perimeter if there's anything to pull up on. Otherwise if I take just one hand you will unsteadily parade around wobbling a little.

You also are coming along in understanding language. It's always funny to me to see you around older kids who are at your gross motor level and they respond to stuff so easily; I think, are we behind and then I have to remind myself -- well actually we are a couple months younger so yes, we are behind. haha.
You definitely understand your name, no problem and always respond to it which is comforting to see. And I am 90% confident you know Josie, Momma, and Dada. You would probably know nursing if we called it anything. You know "No" for sure. Not that you always listen, but you start to crawl to or mess with an object and I will say NO and you sit up and start to go to something else. At least you've started this lately. You know "more" but no actual signing just yet though we've started, we're not pushing it so much.

Speaking of nursing you just came over and whined to nurse and are happily eating now. You are starting to develop a slightly demanding temperament which makes sense bc you are 9 months now and practically toddling and also bc you're my kid. Why would you not be stubborn and determined?

You had your 9 month check up about a week ago -- 80% for height and 80% for weight. 55% for head cir. Perfect if you ask me. Big, strong, healthy! I think it's funny Josie's head cir is always right at 50% and so is yours but Josie is always around the 3% for ht and wt and you are equal in ht and wt too just at the other end of the scale.

You LOVE grown up food. You see an apple and you get mad and tantrum and bounce up and down and scream for it. So we always have to get your applesauce. Which you like, but not as much as apples. You love bananas and do very well with them. I just give you a huge chunk and you eat it til it's just a small bit of mush. You pretty much will eat anything, at least the first few bites. You're not too excited over strained peas or green beans, but then, who could be? That'd be a sign of a really strange kid I think.

You still have 4 all-the-way-in teeth but you can see about 3 more uppers. And you bite me with them (though only when nursing to sleep). Which I should note is not as bad as your pinching me with your little fingers which you still do (all the time).

You can crawl up stairs no sweat. You also can lift your leg over objects to crawl in, but you often underestimate what you are crawling into and get stuck halfway when it's taller than you.

You also have an obession with playing with the laptop. It's so alluring.

Oh and earlier this week, Monday, you pulled my coffee cup over and it was completely full and it spilled EVERYWHERE and you got mad and threw a tantrum as soon as I picked you up to clean you up. Likewise, Tuesday you pooped the worst poop ever all over the living room rug and were playing in it (for the 5 seconds I had you out of view) and threw a tantrum when I removed you from that as well. Man that was really a disaster. Took me an hour to clean up and then I rested and realized I still had to scrub the carpet stain, mop the kitchen and bathroom floors and scrub the shower.

Speaking of sensory play (ew just kidding), we did an April / Easter sensory bin with artifical lillies and paper grass and plastic eggs and baby chicks. You love the plastic eggs. You love exploring and discovering. It's getting harder to entertain you. Although you LOVE your sister and she usually does a great job keeping you busy.