10 Months!

I almost refuse to believe another month has passed already.  My baby girl can’t be 10 months old already, can she?  Why is this so hard for me to wrap my mind around?  Obviously, time is going to pass and she is going to grow up, but it seems to be happening so fast!  I look at her these days and can’t believe how quickly she has gone from looking like a little baby to looking like a child.  This month has been all about her independence.  And Mama and Daddy spend a lot more time keeping tabs on her than we used to!

Some new developments this month include:
* Crawling EVERYWHERE!  If you remember from last month’s post, Annie took her first official moves forward on her hands and knees on her 9-month birthday.  After that, it took her about 3 or 4 days to go from virtually immobile to able to go wherever she chooses.  She’s all over the place.  And she’s quick too!

* Annie has completely mastered pulling up to standing and cruising around furniture.  In fact, bath time is nothing but standing up and sitting down.  She has also gotten over her initial hesitancy about getting from a standing position to a sitting position.  She used to sort of freak out when she was standing up playing and wanted to sit back down.  She was afraid to fall.  Now she actually propels herself down as quickly as possible, landing on her Pampered bottom with a thud.  It’s a game to her now…thank goodness!

* High fives and blowing kisses – The blown kisses come much less frequently, but the high fives are in abundance.  If you come into contact with Annie and she raises her hand up in your direction, she wants you to give her a high five…and she will hold her hand right there until you relent and give her one.  Just sayin’, be prepared.  She is quite proud of herself and loves to show off this skill.

* Clapping hands – For whatever reason, this milestone is the one that made me cry.  All of them make me a little teary, the crawling, the sitting up again after lying down, the standing up in her crib…because they mean she’s getting older.  But the one that got me just because, well, I don’t know why, was the clapping.  Perhaps it was how it happened.  The night before taxes were due (yes, we know, we know…procrastinate much?), when David (bless his heart) finally finished them and pressed “submit” or whatever button it is on Turbotax that releases you from the burden of having not done your taxes, he cheered.  It having been a particular stressful year where tax-submission is concerned, I cheered too.  Next thing you know, baby girl gives us a big smile, a laugh, and a hardy hand clapping session to show she was celebrating too.  Cutest.  Thing.  Ever.

* Annie loves to share with us now.  She hands us toys so we can play with her.  She feeds us pieces of whatever she is eating.  And she thinks it is hilarious to stick her pacifier in our mouths.  I love to see this sharing spirit.  And, although I know it’s a developmental thing and doesn’t necessarily indicate anything about her character or personality, I like to think it actually does show that she will be a generous soul.  Could be, right?

Just in case you are wondering, no, we still don’t have any teeth yet.  We have drool.  Lots and lots of drool.  We have constant chewing.  We wear bibs and get rashes on our chin because of all the liquid coming out of our mouth.  But we don’t have any teeth to show for it.  But we also don’t have any extra inexplicable fussiness yet either, so that’s something to be thankful for.

As always, I am still amazed by how much I love this baby.  I remember the first moment I looked at her and that feeling of awe that I had that she was ours and that we made her.  I think I thought that feeling would sort of dull with time, but you know what?  It totally hasn’t.  If anything, it has gotten more intense.  Because now I look at this precious sweet girl with her head full of blonde hair and wearing her “big girl” pjs and I am even more amazed that this time last year she was being made inside me.  What a miracle.  What a gift.