Ava: 10 Months

(I'm not sure why her hair looks red in this picture. It's definitely blond, not red.)

Clothing: She's really slowed down in the growing-out-of-clothing department. She's mostly in 12 month stuff and some 18 month. She was growing so fast that I bought all 18m summer clothes, but a lot of those are still a bit big on her. Still in size 3 diapers.

Eating: She's totally on formula now, a 6-oz. bottle in the mornings, 3 5-oz. bottles during the day and a 4-oz. bottle before bed. But I'm having a harder and harder time getting her to finish her bottles, especially during the day. She's MUCH more interested in real food. Every single thing we've put in front of her she's liked. And we're doing less and less purees these days. She eats soft-cooked or canned (no salt added) veggies, all kinds of diced fruit, and various crackers and breads. This month she tried spaghetti (loved it of course) and we made her these munchkin meatballs. They're a hit and I always end up sneaking a few too! She's drinking out of a straw sippy cup now and doing pretty well. We'll try putting her milk in it soon so we can start transitioning away from bottles.

Sleep: So, so good and I'm so, so thankful. Sleeps straight through from 7pm-6:30am. Usually two naps a day, anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours. Although since she's learned to sit up on her own, we've had a few nights where she's sat up either right before falling asleep or during the middle of the night and doesn't know how to lay back down. She's exhausted and somewhat delirious, so I just have to go in and lay her down and she usually goes right back to sleep. (Also, see adorable picture below.)

Illness: We did pretty good here this month. She's still had a bit of congestion and daycare "kennel cough" as we call it, but that's just the norm now. We had a follow-up with the ENT about her ears that went pretty well. She still has fluid in them but they're not infected. He said since it's summer and she still has fluid, she may need tubes down the road because fall/winter are probably going to be miserable for her. But since she's sleeping so well and her hearing is still not being affected, no tubes are indicated at this point.

Activity: We got a few new toys, including this ball popping dinosaur thing that she loves. But mainly, she likes playing with anything that's NOT a toy that she's not supposed to be playing with. A hairbrush, the remote control, tupperware, shoes, you name it. 

Milestones: She's up on all fours, and I think she'll be crawling very soon. But even for a baby who can't crawl she sure can get around a lot. Scooting, rotating, reaching. This month the waving at everything has turned into pointing at everything. And she even says a "dat" with it sometimes like she's saying "what's that?" She's also learned to say "uh oh" when she drops something, although it's more like a "uh uh" instead. It's terribly cute, but the downside is it means she's non-stop dropping stuff so she can say uh oh. 

Trying so hard to crawl:



So excited about all of this paper!



Music table:



Don't even think about touching my watermelon!



See? Loves her watermelon:



Winding down with bunny:



Quick swing at the park:



First spaghetti, and pointing as well:



First morning finding her sitting up in the crib:



First taste of Pizza Villa pizza crackers!



Baby parade:



When did I have a kid old enough to sit and drink her sippy cup??



Rocking the red, white and blue:



In this one she's saying, "stop taking pictures of me right now!"



Her with her daycare buddy Vivien (they share the same birthday):



After I put her down for bed one night, she sat up in her crib. We watched her to about 10 minutes as she tried to figure out what to do and kept nodding off sitting up. Finally I went in and found her like this, dead asleep, sitting up leaning against the bars of her crib. Pitiful!



Happy 10 months Ava!