Wednesday 9 September 2015

The Tenth Month

My first weekend after starting work went from fantastic to super-fantastic (heavy sarcasm). After sitting around at home on Saturday, exhausted, I came down with a nasty GI bug on Sunday. Luckily my mom was around to help with AJ and Mr. Turtle was back by the evening. But I'm taking longer to bounce back than I thought I would and so I'm home from work for the second day. My goal is to do some normal things today so here goes, catching up on the blog. I have an undercurrent of emotional turbulence too, so it's good timing.

AJ was ten months old at the end of August. Here's whats new and developing:

Social/Emotional:

  • Things she likes are "egg". (She also liked actual eggs until the past two days; they are boring now apparently).
  • She also says "Awgahtit" and "Ahlikeit" (sounds like "I got it" and "I like it") when she is doing something she likes.
  • AJ calls her toy cats gat,  gitt-ee, kitt-ee, kitty cat or gitty cat. They are her favourite toys. We have called "Kitty Cat" as her first word/words because she has learned how to ask for the kitty cats. She will say the word to us and then when we give them to her she laughs and claps. I think she's very excited that she has cracked this code. Since we are both cat people we are glad that we seem to be raising another cat person. She might get a cat at some point in her childhood: a puppy, never!
  • AJ continues to be a happy baby, at least during the day. She seems to really like daycare and we have had no issues with leaving her there (at least. she hasn't had issues). She enjoys all the toys, especially the toy xylophone and some interactions with the other babies.
Eating:
  • AJ eats most foods now, including meat, in fact pretty much anything we are eating that she can chew. She still breastfeeds at 6am, 5pm, bedtime and once at night, but at daycare she eats all solid food. I convinced her to take homo milk or formula from a spoon at one point, but it's much too impractical and messy an operation to do regularly, and she won't take either from a cup or bottle with any consistency (she drinks water from a cup). 
  • AJ finds it hilarious to offer me food while we are eating but won't let me have it: she just waves it in front of my face and laughs. Perhaps this is payback for all the times we did that when she was little.
  • She did give dad food once and was annoyed when he actually ate it.
  • Her favourite foods are melon, other fresh fruits, muffins, scrambled egg until recently and she likes chicken too. But she will try pretty much anything.
  • AJ is dextrous enough to pick lint or other rubbish off the floor and put it in her mouth, so we need to vacuum often/supervise closely
  • AJ accepts a spoon but prefers to feed herself
Large Motor:
  • Getting closer to crawling but slowly, slowly. She can now go up on her hands and knees, but has not figured out the forward motion. She ends up pushing only with her arms and going backwards, away from her target, which she finds super frustrating. Or she does a belly flop.
  • Standing with more confidence, starting to reach and show interest in pulling up.
  • Finally mastered the belly to back roll, which means she does not hate being on her belly quite so much as she used to. At least I say that having observed her do it several times; she doesn't do it anymore than she has to, even now.
Sleeping:
  • Usually (with luck) to bed between eight and nine, up between 2 and 4 hours later for one night feed, sleeps till 6am (with maybe one wake up where she needs to be soothed a little).
  • Occasionally she wakes up and refuses to settle for....anywhere from an hour to three hours. She will doze off in our arms, and then as soon as she is put down, scream. On these occasions we have to do sort of a version of cry it out, where we let her wail in her crib for a few minutes just to tired herself out.
Development:
  • Front incisors coming in. Teething doesn't seem to bother AJ too much, at least not constantly
  • Bigger, stronger, cuter.....Of course!
Likes:
  • Grabbing parts of our face - noses, ears, eyes, cheeks. When she wants to look at my ear she will grab my chin in one hand and push my head to the side to get at it. She also likes to bite my chin which I have had to put a stop to because of all the teeth.
  • Sitting and playing with her toys
  • Smiling, talking and interacting with people
Dislikes:
  • diaper change
  •  being in the car seat or stroller for too long
Important events in the tenth month:
  • In August we took a one hour plane ride to visit my parents at their summer place. AJ did very well on the flights. I had a bottle of milk pumped for her which we tried to offer her during takeoff and landing, but she wasn't interested. She only cried a little on the first flight, and not at all on the second.
  • At my parent's place she enjoyed daily walks in the woods, swinging on the swing they rigged up for her on the porch, and hanging out at the beach in a tent (she wasn't crazy about the lake.) And of course all the attention from grandparents. I must say I really love seeing my parents with AJ. She is their only grandchild, and probably will always be the only one unless we can have another child. Any time they see her they act like they just won the lottery.
I am way behind on photo organizing - maybe today I'll get caught up, maybe - but here is a favourite of AJ from our vacation.


We're so lucky to share our lives with her!


19 comments:

  1. She is so cute and I love that her first words were kitty cat! Hope you feel better soon!

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    1. Yes, her first words were awesome. Thank you, I think I'm finally on the mend.

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  2. I'm really impressed that she's speaking so much already! I think SB is getting frustrated that she can't quite communicate / I don't understand her. We were reading books earlier and whenever a book was finished, she pointed and said angry things, but I didn't really know whether she wanted to read it again or what... (we covered each book about 5 times). And what is it with the diaper changes? One would think it should be nice to get "rescued" from a dirty diaper...
    Also, I'm really impressed you still manage to blog so much despite going back to work! I barely mange to comment, and technically I'm not working, though childcare + household + moving/househunting/interviewing sure feels like 1.5 jobs... Glad that AJ is happy with the daycare situation! SB is starting kindergarden on Monday, and I think she's more ready than I am...

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    1. Ha, SB is frustrated because of communication, AJ is frustrated because of (not quite) crawling....I guess we all have to learn about and push up against our limitations! Yah, one would think that it would be nice not to have a dirty diaper...maybe by this age they've learned to ignore it a little? Thanks for your comments about the blog...I don't feel like I'm keeping up very well, but I haven't totally fallen off the (blog) planet. I think the stuff keep you busy counts as a couple of jobs at least. :-) Good like with kindergarden transition; I'm hopeful it will go just great.

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  3. That's a big first word!! And a much cuter story than " No" which I hear a lot. That one just depresses me. How often does your kid hear "No" that it's their first word?? That sounds like a really good first plane ride, too. She's going to be a great world traveler!

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    1. We almost never say no....haha! Of course AJ is not really mobile yet. Yes, was much relieved by her first plane ride, although it was a very little one.

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  4. Sounds like a smart, happy baby! She is so cute too!

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    1. thank you. Yes, smart and happy! we are totally in love.

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  5. Oh no-- the WORST to be sick early in the year! I hope you're feeling better soon. I love this update! That picture is amazing... so adorable, so much personality. Great milestones, and congrats on an event-free flight!

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    1. thank you. I know, being sick sucked. I'm just lucky that I had help at home and at work. What can ya do.

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  6. She's so cute--I love these updates to keep up with how she's growing!

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    1. thanks - I will try to keep them up! I'm better at posting the blog entries than working on her baby book :-p

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  7. So fun to read your update. Sorry you got the GI bug. We were all sick with a cold after Z's first week at daycare and then J's turned into a terrible GI bug. Anyhow, AJ sounds like such a happy, easy going baby. Glad the trip to your parents summer place was nice and that she is adjusting so well to daycare. How amazing to hear some of her thoughts in words now!

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    1. Yeah, it was gross. And of course people were like "Are you pregnant again?" HA I WISH. Trip to my parents' place was awesome. Ah, those lazy summer days.

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