Month 10: Teeth, Talking and Walking!

Julia, "Da da da da da" was the call from your bedroom this morning. I was on my way out the door for work, but I dropped my briefcase (okay...my lunchbox) and went upstairs to bring you downstairs and change your diaper. What I found was a beautiful, smiling, standing little girl who was so happy to see her "Da da da."

You pointed at lots of different things and told me what they were, in your own way. And we chatted all the way down the stairs and into the bedroom. You were surprised to see your brother and mother still in bed (sometimes I'm surprised to wake up and see your brother in bed with us too!). Your sheer happiness at seeing your family is so refreshing and lovely.

I changed your diaper and gave you to your "Ma ma ma ma ma" so she could feed you breakfast.

You're well into your 10th month of life now, and it's been hard to keep up with you. You've been growing and changing so rapidly that it's hard to fathom.

It seems just like yesterday that you figured out how to crawl. You're now a master faster crawler.

But now, you've grown to be able to do and say so much!

Before we went on vacation to Galveston again at the beginning of this month, your 'vocabulary' really started to grow.

You say "ma ma ma ma ma" to your Mommy and "da da da da da" to your daddy.

You say "bmmf" to your baby dolls or other babies. (It's your word for 'baby'). If we pick you up in the morning and you don't have your baby doll in your hands (which is rare), you'll point and say "bmmf" until we grab it for you.

You also recently started to say "bah" for "ball." Every toy ball, super bouncy ball, marble, balloon, they're all "bah" to you!

Through the month you also learned to talk about "bir", aka "birds!" You see them on the beach, you see them in the tree, you see them on a t-shirt. It's all for the "birs" for you!

Of course, all this talking is accompanied now by lot more of pointing. You use your index finger as an extension of your voice, telling us what you want, and where you want to go and what you see. 

Just before your 10 month-I-versary, you also started developing an even more acute sense of humor, complete with a really awesome, hearty laugh: "Ha ha ha!"

 

This is sort of your "I'm mischievous" laugh, perfect for such occasions as messing with your mama.

But, you also have such an infections "I'm really cracking up, here!" laugh! Whenever you're laughing, we are all enthralled.



Much to our amazement, you also started communicating non-verbally using sign language too! We always use the four or five signs we know to talk to you (and to your brother at this age), and the other day, we were feeding you and you bounced your fingers together to say 'more!' Wow!



Now, you may have noticed in the first video that you're walking pretty well. Well, you aint seen nothing yet. You've been pulling to standing for quite some time, with tremendous levels of success.

Sometimes you have help.

You've been walking while holding onto a finger or two for a while now too. Back when we went to the beach the first time this summer, your Mom predicted that you'd be walking for real by the time we went back in early August.

And, low and behold, we get to the beach, and guess what you figured out, much to everyone's surprise!



Everyone was so thrilled, including yours truly. My biggest fear was that I would miss your first steps; but here we were, on family vacation, and you decide to take your first strolls!



You may have been the most excited of all!

You're walking on your two legs now! And you're also able to chew on your two front teeth! In Month 10 your two front chompers came in (and a third one up top too!) But they're very elusive and refused to have photographs take of them for the longest time. That is, until, your 10 month photo shoot!

So, we caught your teeth, and caught many sides of your personality too!

 

As we returned to normal life from the beach, you continued to  practice your new tricks, work on your old ones too and just enjoy life!

You continued reaching new heights...

And taking bigger steps...

With all these big new steps, and words, it's been very hard to keep up with you. But luckily, you still want to hold our hands (or our fingers) and make sure we keep up with you.

But every day, among all this excitement, you still love to cuddle and give kisses and climb all over us (and your brother (and your dogs)). Just yesterday afternoon, you woke up in the middle of your nap and couldn't go back to sleep. I rocked you back asleep and laid you down, and you woke back up. I tried again, and you woke up again. So, since your mother and brother were out together, and I had no where else I'd rather be, I laid down on your bedroom floor on a pile of pillows with you on my chest, and together we slept just like on the day you were born.


The faster you are growing up and taking these giant leaps, the more excited I get...but also the nicer it is when we can have some quiet father/daughter time together. No matter how big and awesome you get, you will always be my little girl. I'm so proud of you, and I can't wait to be here for your next amazing step!

8 months old and standing...and crawling...and chewing...and lovely

Julia, you are 8 months old and just the apple of our eyes.

You are such a happy little girl, and are already such your own person.

What's life like for you as an 8-month-old?

Well, you chew on just about everything, as your teeth are all trying to pop through all at once:

You've quickly gone from no teeth,

to two teeth...

to now three teeth!

You clap! (and LOVE to clap!)

You stand up wherever, and however, you can. Sometimes you get very creative in how you try to get to standing, too!

And sometimes you try standing during night or nap time. One night you were crying and crying away in your crib and we finally went in and found that you were "stuck" standing up!

And one nap time, your Mom came in and found you sleeping like this:

Was that a "fell asleep standing up and slid down?" Who knows?

You also LOVE your big brother. You play with him, you goof around with him, you LAUGH at his jokes. This is the best.

Oh, and, new as of last Thursday: you're officially crawling...when you want to! No need to roll where you want to go any more.

Oh, and now, since I took too long to write this post, you're trying to walk too! You can do it pretty well with some hand-holding, and you're even starting to use the walker!

You LOVE pulling on hair (whether it's mine or Pops' or our friend Oliver's or your brother's). Nothing will make you squeal quite like pulling someone else's hair!

You are now into FEEDING YOURSELF some finger foods! And you do it pretty well. But the dogs are ever hopeful that you'll toss them some. You're also very vocal too! A trait that really comes out when we sit down to eat.

Your sleep is really day to day...sometimes you sleep well. But now that you're cutting tooth #4, sleep is back to being pretty hard to come by.

You WAVE to your Mommy and Daddy, and light up when we enter a room.

You LOVE the baby in the mirror, and are even more fascinated by other real babies!

You are a cuddler. You are a giggler. You're a busy little girl, with busy little feet and legs. You are fearless (crawling straight for the sprinkler!)

You are a rock star.

You are love. 

You are 8 months old!