Alice Virgina at Ten Months

hahaha - well, she's more like 10-and-a-half months and I've been working on this letter to catch us up over the last month-and-a-half.  figured I'd better get it done before she turns - GULP - eleven months already. :)

happy girl

My Darling Alice Virginia,

Though I don’t quite believe it, you are ten months old now.  

Ten months old, 24 lbs. 10 ounces, and 30.5 inches long.  100% amazing.

We love the way you’re becoming more of yourself, and sharing all the wonderful parts of what makes you YOU with us each day.  Like, you’ve started making this scrunchy-nose smile where you bare your brand new teeth and how you’ll shake your head when you “dance.”  You protest with a shriek when you want something, and especially when something you want gets taken away.  Just last week I ran out with you and Meggie to the grocery store.  You recognized the puffs when I grabbed them off the shelf, and when I put them into the cart instead of your hands, every shopper within two miles heard your disdain.  We adore the way you’ve learned to stand up for yourself - you handle the role of baby sister so well.

AV's "being in the sun" pose and scrunchy-face

love this look

On your ten month birthday (April 16th), we’d been in our new home exactly four weeks.  You had a bit of a rough adjustment through the move, and started waking up frequently in the night again and refusing to eat.  Now, though, you recognize your new room with happy cries when we go in there to put you to sleep.  You make this precious noise when you’re ready to sleep and you see your crib.  It’s almost like a contented whimper or sigh.  As if you’re telling me: “oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!  You finally understood that I’m just SO tired.  And, look, oh! There’s my bed.  I can’t wait to fall asleep in it!”  You’re sleeping a full 12-13 hours at night now - usually 6:30 or 7:00 pm through the same in the morning.  In addition to nighttime, you still take two, sometimes three naps during the day.  These naps usually happen between 8:30-10:30 and again from 1:00-3:00.  You take three naps when you wake up early from your second one and it usually happens around 4:30-5:30. 

eating grass in the sunshine

you still love chewing on bean bags...no surprise, the doctor confirmed your molars are coming in today...

This month was the first time you changed positions on me in the crib.  You’ve always slept on your back without moving, but one day this month I got you up from a nap and you’d turned around to face the other direction.  Now, you’re usually on your stomach when I come in to get you, and today you were even trying to sit up in your crib by pulling on your bumper.  You get super excited when we come to get you from your crib, waving “hi” with both hands and squealing.  One of my favorite “jobs” as your mama is to collect you in the mornings.  When I do and pick you up, you usually pat me on the chest and swing your legs against my hips - you are a long, long legged baby growing everyday into a little girl.

I think she looks so grown up in these jam jams

on her actual 10 month birthday

While you still fall asleep in your carseat (we haven’t switched you over from your infant seat yet), we’ve noticed that this month you’ve found it harder to go back to sleep or transition from your carseat to your crib during a nap.  If you fall asleep on the way home from running errands, you won’t take a good nap in the afternoons.  You’ve also stopped sleeping while we’re out and about or in our arms if we’re not in the house.  I think we’ve finally reached the stage of your development where you need your crib to take a good sleep.

sampling the TX grass

I just love how she sits.

You’ve started signing (and saying!!!) a few words this month!  Your favorite word to say right now is, “UH-OH!”  You love dropping spoons or toys off your high chair over and over with an “uh oh!”  Almost always, you look at me after to make sure that I pick up what you tossed overboard.  You’ve also gotten very interested in putting things in and taking things out of boxes or bins.  One of your favorite games is to pull down baskets of toys, take everything out, and put everything back in.  You also like playing with this toy garage that we have.  Over and over, you put the car on the track and watch it spin down to the bottom.  You also like to put “non-garage” type objects on the tack - like teddy bears, spoons, rattles, or cups - which always gives your sister a fit of the giggles.  We can almost see the cause-and-effect study taking place in your mind.  You sign “more,” “all done,” “eat,” and we’re working on “please.”  You are mimicking our sounds this month, pay close attention to our mouths and hands, wave “hi” and “bye,” clap when we shout, “YAY!” and dance when we say, “Allie - Dance!”

AND.  You definitely say, “Mama!” now and know it’s me. At first I wasn’t sure if you really knew what you were saying because you’ve been saying “Dada” for at least two months now and every time you said it, I’d prompt you to say, “Mama? Mama?”  You’d answer with an affirmative, “DaDA! DaDA!”  But, a few days ago I noticed that you were babbling “mamamamamama...”  I went to pick you up and said, “Mama?”  And you repeated it back to me!  Last night, then, you cried out from your crib (you’d flipped over onto your stomach and couldn’t get back over) and when I came to check on you, you squeaked, “Mama!”  It happened again several more times today when you wanted me to pick you up.  I’ve always felt like we have such a special connection, but now it’s really feeling like you’re communicating in a way I for sure can understand.  I love hearing your sweet little voice.

her crawling pose

You aren’t quite crawling yet - in the traditional sense.  But you do scoot around and move a significant amount on your own.  You kind of pivot on one leg and push off the ground with the other one - and you can reach and bend with such flexibility!  We have seen you get into the actual crawling position and rock a little, so I’m sure our time of setting you down reliably is coming to an end soon.  When you get up on your hands and knees, you tend to stay there for a few seconds, think about moving, and then settle back into the sitting position.  For right now, you seem content to scoot, sit, and reach.  You’re also beginning to pull up - especially on our kitchen chairs and tea cart. (Edited to add: I take that all back!!! Just today (May 1, 2012) you crawled two or three movements several times in a row.  You do everything in your own timing, but we love that this attribute makes you still seem like an itty bitty wee one to us. 

a little girl in this big ole world

We have to be really careful because you’ve been concentrating on developing all of your fine motor skills and can pick up anything - ANYTHING - off the ground.    Meggie’s really good about helping us keep an eye out for you, and she’s rescued several cheerios and pieces of dirt from your fingers.

picking up everything

And eating!!! Oh, my girl.  We cannot get you interested in any solid food except for bananas, puffs, baby crackers, and finger food that you can put into your mouth yourself.  I don’t know why, but you’ll eat peas and carrots cut up on your tray and not touch a bite if I try to puree them and feed them to you with a spoon.

I did try to give you cheese this month, but you broke out into a horrible rash all over your body.  We had to take you to the Urgent Care clinic here, and they confirmed that you were having an allergic reaction to something you ate.   The only new thing that day was mozzarella cheese, which seemed so strange to me.  But, when we gave you cheese the next day - the same thing happened!  Then, I gave you a little cracker with milk in it today and you had a similar, instantaneously reaction around your mouth.  We’re staying away from dairy products now and are making you an appointment with the doctor to talk about allergy testing right away.

poor, poor baby at the doctor's office - it was so sad. :(

"I love my valentine's day dress, Grammy!"

Alice Virginia, you still love being around people.  Even though you’ve been going through a little bit of the stranger anxiety phase, you peek your head out from my shoulder to wave at church.  You tuck your head down into my neck when a new person talks to you or when someone you don’t know tries to hold you.  I love when you nestle, and I love how you still put your hand out to make sure we’re there.  You always want to know where we are when you’re playing on the floor - and when we’re down there with you, you like to be close.

Everywhere we go, strangers still comment on your porcelain doll-esque nature.  Even today, four different people used that term in the grocery store alone:

"Wow! She looks just like a porcelain doll!!!"  I think it comes from moments when you look just like this:

so still and focused

Your favorite time of day is bathtime, and you think your big sister is hilarious.  You have this easy laugh that just seems to bubble out of you - you laugh when playing “peek-a-boo,” when we tickle your toes, when we “get you” in your high chair, and when we shimmy your pants off during a diaper change.  Books are your new excitement; we’ve noticed that you really study each page and want us to read the same books over and over.  You most love your farm book from Grammy and Papa.  This month you’ve loved being in the big girl swings at the park.  When we swing you, you grip the chains and giggle.  You think it’s so funny when we catch your feet and kiss your face before letting you go...then, boy, how you cry when we take you out!!! :)

And as much as you love all these things, you do not love being in your high chair for long periods of time (meal times have become verrrry interesting), your exersaucer, or being spoon fed.

My Allie V, you make it easy to be a mama.  And out of any baby that God could have given to us when we got pregnant, I’m so grateful and proud and tickled that he chose you.  Daddy and I always tell each other how you’re so very tender, gentle.  You enjoy cuddling with us in our bed, and are fascinated by the simplest things like the eye-lashes on our faces or a freckle on our legs.  We love how much you teach us about observing this world in which we live, and how really to slow down in appreciation of our blessings.  You’re my on-my-hip, barefeet, wide-eyed, blowing raspberries, summertime, easy-does-it, cuddle-bug, snuggle baby and I love you so much - and forever.

Love,

Mama