Quick Takes Volume 43: Ten Months

Katie turned ten months old yesterday.  I feel like the months melt away faster than a popsicle in the sun these days.  My baby is almost a year old. [Sniff, sniff, gulp, waaah!]  I wish I could keep her this size, but I know I can't.  If only time could just slow down a little.

~1~

Katie's little chompers have come in quite nicely.*  She's been testing out her four sharp little teeth on everyone in the family.  While I don't like to be bit, I'm just very happy that she chooses to bite my arms, legs and shoulders vs. the source of her favorite food.  We had some issues last month with her trying to test out her new teeth while nursing and mercifully she got the point that you don't bite the mommy that feeds you unless you want to be sat on the floor immediately.  

~2~

Katie enjoys waving at people and does what she can to engage others to give her attention.  At church she does her best to get the older woman who sits behind us to play with her during Mass.  She's figured out that Mommy and Daddy don't play at Mass and has decided that she would have to seek a alternative source of amusement for an hour a week.

~3~

She's cruising.  I can't express how much I'm not ready for this.  She cruises along the furniture looking for books that she can examine, or cushions that look just right for biting.  Once in a while she'll try out her balancing skills and give standing on her own a try.

~4~

It's not uncommon to see Katie kneeling on one leg with the other leg poised to stand.  She'll sit like that balancing herself for several minutes at a time.  I'm pretty certain it's all part of her plot to start walking like the rest of us.  Slow down baby, Mommy isn't ready to chase a toddler!

~5~

Katie loves to talk and now actually refers to herself.  She's been saying things like Kat Kat or Kit Kat for a while, but now she can sit there and look at me and say Mama, and then proudly say her name.  On Tuesday I brought her into our bed when she woke up.  Bryan had just left for work.  She decided to poke me, say my name, flail her arms like a wild baby and and squeal Kat Kat and then look for Bryan and say Dada over and over.  So she knows who she is.  I suppose that's a developmental milestone of some sort, right?  I don't recall Madeline or Ellie calling themselves by name at that age.  And so I'm not confusing any of you, I typically call Katie, Kitty Kat.  I wanted her nick name to be Kitty before she was born but nobody liked it and it was decided that we'd call our little Katherine, Katie.  I obviously didn't comply.

~6~

Katie likes to self feed finger foods and sample as many table foods as I will allow.  This month she's tried some small bits of chicken, cheese, and some fruits.  Her eyes light up when she gets to eat what the big people are eating.

~7~

She climbs steps and small pieces of furniture.  She experimented with climbing up on the the landing one day and was fascinated by the slightly higher elevation.  So now we have to be extra vigilant about her exploring.  A few weeks ago one of the girls just sat there and watched her climb five steps before saying anything to me.  If we just let her go she will climb up several steps and then try to stand and turn around.  Obviously this isn't safe at all, so we only let her climb the stairs if Bryan or I are right there with her.  I miss the stair case in our old house when it comes to this skill.  Our current stairs are one long steep staircase, where our old house had two levels of stairs with a generous landing in between.  It was nothing for a little one to climb six or seven steps and then rest a bit before going safely to the top.

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*I had previously likened her pearly whites to those of a hippo, but I didn't like that she showed up as the first image when searching for hippo dentition (using the standard word for the bony structures, of course).