TEN

Salem-

You're ten months old. Double digits, my love. If you would have told me 10 months ago when we brought you home, a tiny little helpless baby, that we'd be here, 10 months later, I wouldn't have believed it! You are at such a fun stage right now. Your Daddy and I could watch you all day long. Your little wheels are turning and you are starting to figure things out. You wave to every one and every thing. Hoping they will wave back. Most of the time the people do, but the trees and the aisles of clothes at Target don't, and I think you are wondering why. You give the most delicious big open mouth kisses. Every night before bed, you kiss your Daddy and wave "night night" to him.


waving. you will not put your baby down. Thanks Mimi ; )


this is your kiss face

We sold our house, Salem. And at first I was so sad. Sad at the fact that this is where we brought you home, to live, to begin our new life as a family. Sad that I worked so hard on getting your room just right for you, and in a few weeks it will be in boxes. You know your house. You're comfortable here. But Daddy and I feel like you need a better space. You need to be able to get down on the floor and play and crawl and get into things. We can't let you just roam, because of the stairs, hardwood floors, and cables! But I promise to re-create your room. To make it the same with a little bit more extra specialness than your first room. Hopefully you'll be comfortable in our new house. (We don't know where that's going to be, yet!:) And we hope that it has a space that's perfect for you.

You will only eat what we are eating. You are OVER baby food. You scrunch up your face and close your eyes to tell us when you don't want something. And you flap your arms. You love anything we put in front of you. You are a great eater. If you look at the floor around your highchair and the food on your lap, you would think nothing made it into your mouth! It's a mess. You still love to nurse. In fact, we have to work on lessening your nursing excursions. You're ten months old, remember? We have cut out most of the nighttime feedings. Usually, you go to bed at 7, wake up to eat around 6, and then we all snuggle in bed and sleep until 8:30! It is bliss. Can you please keep doing this?


this is your "scrunch up, all done eating" face

There are four pacifiers in your bed. Each night when we lay you down, we hand you your night night blankie, put a paci in your mouth, one in each hand, and one somewhere in your crib. Somehow you still manage to throw them all out and keep one in your mouth. But before they end up on the floor, you have to "try" them all. You put each one in your mouth to find the one that works best for you. And then you snuggle up with your night night, turn on your side and go to sleep. Sometimes you cry, sometimes you don't fight it...

You are obsessed with dogs. Any kind of dog. You want to look at them, touch them, pet them, kiss them, scream and squeal at them. We take you to the park to swing and see the dogs that are walking by. On the way home from NC, I saw an incredible pet shop and pulled over to take you there. We played with puppies for an hour and you were so content. You smiled and laughed. When a dog barks, look out, you start uncontrollably belly laughing! I sometimes say to Daddy, "We should get her a dog to grow up with." But then we figure not having to take care of a dog and just going to see one, definitely has its perks.

I took pictures yesterday of you playing in your toy box. You creep up onto your tippiest of toes, and lean over far. Your little leg kept coming off the floor because you were leaning in so much. I wanted to remember the time when you had to get up on your toes to get your toys. I have a feeling pretty soon, you won't need to do that. You'll be so big. You've changed so much in the past 10 months. You were a little under seven pounds when we brought you home and now you are a tall, chubby, almost 22 pounder! Mama gets her workouts carrying you around. Sometimes I wish we could pause time. I think it goes by so much faster when you have a baby. I love everyday with you. I want to remember it all. The other day you bit me. Not just, take a bite out of my hand, you bit me.....while you were nursing. And I screamed SO LOUD. You thought it was funny. Started laughing, looked up at me and waved. I called your Mimi to tell her and she immediately said, "Don't forget to write that down." And I thought...oh yeah..I want to remember everything. Even the uncomfortable bites! : )*





I haven't slept in about a month. You have been wanting to sleep with me and nurse ALL NIGHT LONG. We fell into some bad habits while Daddy was gone and we were traveling. We've been changing back to our normal routine and for the past few nights you've been sleeping great. And you know what, I miss you. I miss you being next to me in bed. I miss waking up and watching you sleep. Sometimes I would hold you, just because I could. And some nights I wanted to SCREAM because I was so sleepy and you wanted to "talk." Maybe when Daddy leaves we can make this our little plan and you can sleep with Mama. Shhh, it'll be our secret. : )

There's going to be lots of things changing this month, Baby Girl. We'll be in a new place, you'll be in a new room, and so many more things. I am so thankful to have you a long for this journey. I'm so thankful for these past 10 months with you. Learning what makes you, you, has been the best full time "job" I've ever had. I love knowing all your little quirks and what makes you tick. Thank you for making me such a proud, Mama.

You're my little sidekick.
I love you Punketies.
Love,
Mommy