Dear Siena – 10 Months

Double digits! A friend told Mike soon after you were born that things get really fun around 10 months and he was right. Your personality is shining more than ever and just like your mom, you LOVE to move. You’re incredibly active, never sit still and are as curious as they come. We can tell that you understand what is going on around you and have developed your own tastes and preferences.

This month was all about moving! You started the month pulling yourself up onto steady objects only and within a few days you were pulling yourself up onto less steady objects and a week or so later you were cruising around on anything. I’m not sure I’ll ever forget the night when you pulled yourself up in the crib for the first time. We put you to bed and several minutes later we heard some grunting and noises coming from you room. When we went in, we were shocked to see you standing. Of course I took a photo and you gave us your signature smile!

Now you pull yourself up and cruise around anything you can, including completely flat walls, your mommy and daddy’s legs, and to our dismay, drawers. You are pretty adventurous which means you’ve taken A LOT of tumbles, including a few falls where you hit your head pretty hard on the ground. Many times a day you cry loudly due to a fall, getting your finger accidentally pinched in something, or some other tumble, but you recover quickly. Half the time I think you just scare yourself.

Right after you turned 9 months you started crawling on your knees instead of doing your army crawl. At first you’d alternate them and now you are just knee crawling (or sometimes using one knee and one foot). Your absolute favorite activity is to climb the stairs. You have no reservations and can scale them incredibly fast. We never let you climb them without one of us standing/sitting right behind you in case you fall. Your dad loves to take you up the stairs and proudly tells me how many times you climbed them while I was out on a run or gone for a bit. We’ll be in the living room and you’ll crawl quickly over to the stairs and then look back at us like, “Hey, are you coming!?” before heading up.

We borrowed a walker from your friend Beau and you immediately took to it. Now you’ll even pull yourself up on it on your own and walk around. You also walk holding our hands and are pretty fast! You recently started letting go of the wall and standing for a brief second or two, but so far you haven’t stood completely on your own for more than a moment.

We’ve baby-proofed the house quite a bit, including putting a gate between our living room and dining room, locking several low cupboards, covering all the outlet, but we still have more to do. You really don’t like sitting still and diaper changes are still a wrestling match.  You don’t like being strapped down in your car seat but you do like going for walks in the stroller since you can look around.

While you’ve been clapping for a few months now, this month you really started to wave. There were a few times before this that we thought maybe you were waving but now you will usually wave back when we wave at you. You also imitate me when I do the sign for “all done.” We’re still working on “more,” which is the other sign I use the most. You still say mama and dada but your baby talk has gone to a new level lately and you’re starting to put two sounds together rather than just repeating the same sound over and over. You’ve also started to put things together rather than only take things apart – including stacking blocks, putting your bath toys into the bath bucket, and putting food on top of your sippy cup.

You’re now eating a lot of solid foods and it isn’t quite as messy as it used to be since you now get a lot of the food in your mouth and less on the floor and all over yourself (but trust me, you still manage to create quite a mess).  You only have three bottom teeth but you do a great job of eating despite that. To my dismay, you have begun to show a clear preference for foods, even without trying them first. If there are berries in sight, you won’t eat much of anything else until we give them to you (which means I try not to get them out before the end of the meal anymore and have been giving them too you less often). I was a really picky eater growing up and I was really hoping you would’t be either! I know it’s too early to tell, but for now you really, really like carbs and fruit and aren’t a big fan of meat. Luckily you still love some veggies, particularly broccoli, squash and sweet potato. You’ve mastered the sippy cup and now hold and drink water from it on your own. You must be eating a good amount because you’ve stopped nursing as long and drink less from bottles and are burning a lot of calories by crawling around, yet you’ve gone up on the weight scale (up to nearly 50th percentile at the 9 month appointment). You’re about 19 pounds now and are wearing mostly 6-12 month (Gap or Old Navy brand) or 9 month clothes (Carters, other) but even a few 12 month outfits.

I can’t remember the last time you didn’t sleep through the night, BUT you have started waking up earlier, usually around 6:15-6:30 but sometimes earlier. I don’t like that you aren’t getting a full 11 hours of sleep (your bed time is still 8 p.m. as it’s the earliest we can feasibly get you in bed and actually get to spend any time with you with our work schedules). You are still getting three naps a day most days at day care because of the way their scheduling works – you only get one really long nap during the middle of the day when all the other babies and toddlers nap and then two shorter naps in the morning and late afternoon (total of about 2.5-3.5 hours, depending on the day). Naps have been harder since you are so incredibly active and all you want to do is crawl around your crib or pull yourself up instead of sleep. It’s been hot so we aren’t using a sleep sack so you are completely free to roam the crib at your leisure. I read that there is a 10 month sleep regression and I’m hoping that the early wake time and difficulty getting down for naps are related. I still think you’re a pretty good sleeper, so I’m not too worried about it.

Your favorite things to do (besides climbing the stairs) are: play peekaboo with a big sheet or blanket (you play it too, pulling it down and then up off your face), check the mail, sit inside a laundry basket while we slide it around (or put it over you), push your standing activity center around the kitchen like it’s a walker, and go for walks or runs in the stroller (it’s the only time you sit still!). You think it’s hilarious when I blow on your belly – its the surest way to get you to giggle.  Sadly, you don’t have the attention span for books anymore. I try to read to you but usually we don’t even get halfway through by the time you’ve climbed out of my arms or stood up. You also don’t like being in the car seat and the toys that would previously entertain you are no longer interesting to you. Luckily day care figured out how to get you take a pacifier (you didn’t take one as a newborn) and that works wonders most of the time.

This month was a fun one – you celebrated your first 4th of July at the neighborhood block party along with your best friend Kairi, we went for several runs along the coast in the stroller (a few as a family), you watched your dad do a triathlon, we went to the beach, had a fun family dinner with aunt Claire, uncle Josh, Nana and Boo, had a barbecue with your friends Camden and Emi, and much more. We bought a baby pool for our backyard and have had fun splashing around with you in it.

After writing it all out, I can’t believe how much you changed in just one short month. It’s fascinating to watch you learn and grow and I can’t wait to see what the next month brings.

I love you!

Love,

Mama