Double digits, baby! Lila is 10 months old!

Lila is 10 months today! Her 9th month of life was a pretty fun one! It really flew by since it is the holiday season and everything. I just can't believe her first birthday is coming up! It's so crazy how fast time goes by when you have a child. I really am trying to enjoy this stage of life as much as I can. I'm so thankful for my little family. Neil is an awesome husband and daddy and we are just obsessed with this little girl! I've never loved anyone so much in my life!

Gotta love this little toothy grin! Still just 3 teeth! Two on bottom and one on top. Almost 2.

So yeah, my baby girl resembles a toddler more than a baby these days. She's practically walking. I'm pretty sure she will take her first steps before 2012! Maybe even before Christmas. She has been holding on to the tv stand or ottoman and looks like she wants to take that first tentative step... but so far she hasn't actually done it.

She is incredibly mobile, loves to play and talks ALL the time! It's really crazy how verbal she is. She actually says real words now! It blows my mind. She loves to clap, play peek-a-boo with anyone who will look at her, she loves people (well, not really Santa or men) and is just wonderfully pleasant to be around! Of course like every mother I think she is the cutest, smartest, most amazing little girl there is!

What she looks like when she's thinking about letting go and walking!

We don't go in for her 10 month checkup until Dec. 30th, so I don't really know her stats but I think she weighs around 19.5 lbs.

Sizes: Same as last month. 12 months in pretty much everything. 9 month onesies still work. Size 3 shoe. Size 3 diaper. We use Pampers Cruisers because they are the best deal on Amazon and I like how thin but absorbant they are. She wears Size 4 Huggies overnights at night. For size reference, sizes in the shot below: shirt and jeans are Old Navy 12-18 months. Socks are Robeez 12-24 months. My baby is so big!

Eating: We still feed her on the same schedule as we have for the last few months ~ 7:30, 11:30, 3:30 and 7ish. She still gets 4 bottles a day, usually around 6 oz. Of course we don't stick exactly to that schedule all the time but that gives us a good guideline for the day. I like the ease and structure of the schedule and she seems to like it to.

She does great with table foods but still eats a lot of purees because its easier and faster for me. But anytime I can give her table foods, I do. She eats 3 "meals" a day. She loves to drink water from her sippy cup but so far hasn't drank any milk from it. I tried once and she threw a fit!

Her typical eating schedule (food and formula):

7:30 - 6 oz and yogurt and/or fruit (applesauce or pears or pieces of banana)
11:30 - after morning nap, some kind of veggie for lunch (usually squash or mixed veggies) and then 6 oz
3:30 - after afternoon nap, 6 oz and a snack: puffs or cheerios or baby Mum mums
6 - dinner is whatever we are eating or an Earth's Best baby food that has chicken or turkey in it
7:15 - 6 oz bottle then bed!

New things she's eaten this month: lightly toasted bread with cream cheese, chicken noodle soup (she picked up noodles, chicken and veggies with fingers and I spoon fed her the broth), ravioli, small pieces of broccoli and other cooked veggies, spaghetti, multigrain Cheerios, teething cookies which are basically like a Girl Scout shortbread cookie (given sparingly, obviously!), and a bunch of other things I can't recall.

We are planning on getting her moved to the cup and to table foods only in the next couple months! I've been thinking about strategies to get some of her feedings over to the cup. I'm thinking of giving her the 3:30 feeding in a cup instead of a bottle with her snack. Then over time probably reducing that one and cutting it out, then working on the lunchtime bottle. Planning on leaving the morning and bedtime bottles alone right now...

Sleeping: She's still doing very well with her sleep. She naps better at daycare than at home - typically 9:30-11 and 1:30-3:30 with some off days in there. She has been testing us lately on the weekends! We'll lay her down for naps and she will just stand in her crib and yell for us or kick the crib or rake her pacifier along the bars! She also like to throw her pacis out of the crib and wait for us to come up and get them for her. Ugh!!

Lila with her Christmas pj's and a cream cheese mustache

I've found that I really need to just lay her down for her naps and leave for 10-15 minutes for her to really go to sleep. She doesn't always cry, she just plays in her crib and talks/yells until she falls asleep. Because I'm not with her during the week, the last thing I want to do on the weekends is have her cry in her crib... so of course I go up and rock her which usually perpetuates the problem.

Sometimes I lay her down at say 9:30, and go up a few minutes later and she's asleep. Other days it's like an hour long battle. This past Sunday she didn't take an afternoon nap at all! She was up from noon until 6! I think that is the longest she's ever been awake at a stretch and after I gave up on the nap and got her up... she played her little heart out. I ended up just making her bedtime 6pm and she slept 13 hours that night!

Lila only takes a pacifier for naps and bedtime. Not sure if they give her one for naps at daycare. She definitely likes her paci but hopefully we will be able to take it away when we're ready.

Stuffing a whole cookie in her mouth

Talking: Lila says lots of babbling sounds and some actual words. She seems to understand a lot of words and will repeat things back to us or say them when she sees an object. So far here are words that she is saying:

dada
mama
baby (when she sees any baby doll or stuffed animal. This is her most clear and consistant word)
Lila (when she sees herself in the mirror or repeats it sometimes)
uh-oh (really just uh, uh!)
bye (sounds like die, kind of creepy)
yay (when clapping)
also says mmm or yum when eating

Motion: Crazy fast crawler. Cruises, pulls up on everything, stands on her own momentarily, can get down from standing easily (not always gracefully), can climb all the way up the stairs, getting pretty good at bending down to pick up something while holding on with one hand. No steps yet!

Good shot of her new hair growth... my blondie baby! She loves these blocks. I have since moved them because she kept banging them on the glass table

Favorite Toys and Games

Tiny, her baby doll that is ambiguous in both race and gender... haha. She loves chewing on his/her hands and feet. She gets so excited to see Tiny and keeps saying "baby! baby!". Best $3.50 I ever spent.

Still loves the jumperoo and the exersaucer entertains and contains her while we get ready

Loves to crawl into her hamper and roll around in it... I'm thinking of getting her one of these for her birthday:

Loves to read books, especially ones with textures she can feel

Loves to rip paper! She could probably do that all day if we'd let her

Push walker and music table of course

Little People. Mostly just the people, not the bigger toys that go with it

Loves getting tickled, being "chased" by mommy or daddy, dancing, playing peekaboo

Anything with wheels - especially the airplane and helicopter (below)

Lila is a fun and funny little girl. She has such a good personality and is getting so big on us! I can't believe she will be ONE in two short months! Amazing!

We are really looking forward to Lila's first Christmas! She doesn't know what's coming but I know she'll love opening gifts, playing with her cousins and grandparents and seeing all the Christmas decorations. We don't even have a tree up this year! Yep, this mommy is a slacker. Well, have a Happy Holiday everyone! I'm so excited to have a whole work week off with my girl!