Ten Months

My baby is ten months old.
The time is going by so fast that I already forget how old she is.
People ask me and I have to think. "Uhh, she's, uh, nine -er, ten months."
Sheesh.
Anyway, she's as cute as ever.
Of course. 

Her first time on the slide was a huge success. :)

But she's got this stubborn streak that is really starting to shine through. If she doesn't want to do something, she won't. If she does want to do something she shouldn't, she will anyway. Don't blame me. She gets that from her daddy. :D

Horrible photo, I know. Timer, Jessica, timer.

She knows when she wants attention, who she wants it from and how to get it. For example, yesterday we were eating lunch. Liv was in her highchair, seated directly behind us while we were sitting at the table eating. Quite suddenly she let out a piercing scream. Just so we would turn around and look at her. If both Dan and I are home, she will jump back and forth from me to him and from him to me. If she's really lucky, we'll be standing or sitting next to each other so she can touch us both at the same time! That's quite the treat for her.

She's starting to become a daddy's girl. Just a little bit. If Dan is home, unless she isn't feeling well or has been hurt, she seems to prefer daddy over mommy. I'm usually okay with that. It's nice that she'll be happy with Dan while I take care of other things - usually fixing dinner or something like that.

Even with her sudden desire to always be where daddy is {as long as he's paying attention to her and isn't sick or hurt, as I mentioned earlier}, she is still quite attached to me. We went to visit my family this weekend and she did not want anything to do with my mom for a while. She had a hard time warming up to everyone {except my brothers - she really loves those guys!} and wanted only momma. A few weeks ago I left to go to lunch with Dan's sisters and sister-in-law and as I was leaving she was screaming like she was being abandoned by all her love her. While Dan was holding her. She did not want me to leave! But I kind of think we are working our way to her becoming more of a daddy's girl because yesterday she cried when Dan left to go back to work after lunch. She sure loves her daddy.

She wasn't too happy about being stuck on daddy's shoulders. She wanted to look at the dogs next to us and couldn't see very well when she had to lean over!

She loves her baths and the bathtub. One of her favorite things to do in the bathtub is throw things out of the tub and then try to retrieve them herself. The most exciting thing she's ever thrown out was a glass full of water.

She's a climber. If there is something she can pull herself up onto, she will. If she can't pull herself up, she'll stand on tiptoes to see if that will help. She especially loves trying to climb into the bathtub.

As all mothers, I like to believe that my child is highly intelligent. For example, she has figured out how to open the sliding door of the entertainment center where her books are. She knows that her brush is for brushing her hair {though she still enjoys putting it in her mouth on occasion}. She understands when we tell her tell her to sit down {usually when she's in the bathtub} and usually obeys. She knows that when we put her shoes on, she usually gets to go outside. She knows how to carefully pull herself up onto the office swivel chair so that it won't go crazy on her. You see? Highly intelligent. :)

She isn't walking yet which is surprising to me a little. I really think she could walk if she would just decide to do it. But I think she's a little scared of the idea of not having something or someone to hold on to. I think she's afraid of falling. I'm sure that once she decides to go for it, she'll be running around wondering how she was ever satisfied with crawling. And I'll be glad that she won't be attached to my legs while I'm trying to walk or cook or something.

She loves loves loves her books. She will just sit and look through the pages of her books over and over. This will last a full five minutes, which is a big deal for her. She doesn't sit that still for anything else except eating.

First time in a swing: not so much of a success.

Speaking of eating, she's discovered how to spit her food out if she doesn't like it. And she does not like anything meat in it. Any baby food we buy with meat is not a favorite. She'll spit it right back out. Actually, she's super talented because I got one that had small chunks of turkey instead of the meat being ground up. She would eat everything else and spit out the turkey. Without fail. Every single time.

As she is learning more and more what she likes and what she wants, we are trying harder and harder to get her to communicate with us. We aren't trying to get her to talk or anything, but we are teaching her signs. We have a baby signing time DVD which she loves to watch! Those are a precious 30 minutes for me! I also have an app on my phone that I can look up different signs, and it has 300 signs on it! We are really learning the words now! The problem is that she refuses to use any of the signs. We know she knows them and knows how to use them because she has used them a few times. But she won't do it all the time. Only if she really feels like it. Once Dan was trying to get her to sign "more". He would take her hands in his and sign "more" and then give her some more of whatever she was eating. After a while, she started taking his hands in hers and signing "more" with his hands instead of just doing it herself. See what I mean about stubborn?

First time at the zoo. We were in front of the monkeys in this photo. She wasn't impressed.

One of her most recent favorite activities is taking things off of or out of wherever they are. She loves to take books off shelves, clothes out of drawers, dishes out of cupboards, diapers off shelves. When I was packing last week to go visit my family I would pack a few of her clothes in her back and then turn my back to get something else. Every time I came back, no matter how short a span of time, she would have all the clothes in her bag on the floor. She thought it was a really fun game and I let her play because she was so cute!

Ten month photo. She is getting so big!

She is so much fun and we love being her parents. Every day is a new adventure and it's exciting to see what she will figure out next. We love you, baby!