Rhapsody of Cacophony: Kaitlyn's 10 month pictures

(so the sign was a great idea when she was 1 month old. Or even 4. By ten months she just wants to eat it and I have to hide it in the background. This is the best you're going to get)

If there were only two words to describe Kate this month they would have to be: Curious and Determined. This kid is into Ev.ery. thing. Wow.

She mastered how to go up the stairs. For the first two days she spent her entire days going up the stairs and then attempting to come down the same way (face first) and either Mommy would catch her or she would fall (only 4 steps down to our sunken living room so it's a great learning location). But once it was mastered (going up) she realized the world that this opened up to her.

Now she can get up to the dining room (where Mady's kitchen play centre is) and my kitchen, the bathroom (which we are learning needs to have the door shut at all times since she has discovered the joy of unraveling the toilet paper) and the bedrooms whenever she wants. After a few falls on the stairs she is much more cautious around them and has now gotten to the point where she can play right at the top and won't venture down. Instead she'll fuss until someone notices and helps her out. Part of the problem learning to go down is that she army crawls and thus has no skills in going backwards, so we're trying to teach her.

All this moving has made for a very hungry girls. Her previously chubby legs now are muscular and her "fluffy" cheeks are slimming down. She has always loved to eat, but now she can't get enough! This makes for progressing quickly with the solid foods. Sadly she can't figure out how to drink from anything (wait, I had this SAME problem with Mady!). I've tried all forms of sippy cups (hard tips, soft tips, straws) and even just regular cups. She can't figure out how to suck and not chew. She can sort of work a bottle, but even that she tends to chew on. Sigh. Perhaps trying to transition to a cup while she's teething isn't the best idea?

Speaking of teeth. She still only has four, but I think she's working on another 4-8 of them right now. Every day I try to check out if she's got any new ones because they're all SO CLOSE to coming through. She's very protective of her mouth and won't allow a finger inside so we generally have to resort to tickling to make her laugh and then a quick look. I think she's going to get them all at once at this current rate. At least she's not grumpy. She seems to have found lots of good toys for chewing on to relieve any discomfort.

She's started clapping and she thinks it's lots of fun and enjoys when we sing "if you're happy and you know it." Mady likes to indulge her with songs. But we're not really surprised by that, are we?

"If you're happy and you know it clap your hands" (and maybe smile?)

one, two, three...

She's FINALLY sleeping better. Typically she wakes up once in the night for her soother or if her teeth are bothering her, but she no longer needs to eat and more and more she's choosing to forgo the 4am wake up for the soother and keep sleeping. I thought this battle would never be won. It seemed every time we made progress she would get sick and be back to waking up all the time. Now we're working on the next stage which is to get rid of the soother. She only gets it when she's sleeping (or we're out at nap time). She uses it to fall asleep so now if she loses it before she falls asleep at nap time I won't give it back to her. She's pretty good about putting herself to sleep without it for naps so I'm hoping the transition away from it won't be too far off. The style of soother we have doesn't lend itself well to clips and she has chucked it over the side of the stroller so many times when we've been out its a wonder I have not lost it for good! I will be happy to be done with it.

I realized the other day that I didn't have any pictures of Kate sleeping. So here, after 10 months, is the first picture of Kate in her crib. She piles all her blankets and "friends", I'm sure as a way to help her get out. Which I'm positive will happen soon. Sigh.

Now that the weather has FINALLY warmed up we've been spending more time outside. Kate is definitely her mother's girl in that she prefers to enjoy outside sitting in a lawn chair with a glass of ice tea in a sheltered area away from bugs. She's not so into the grass either. She enjoys outside in that there is lots to do (and it's fun to watch your sister enjoy outside), but she doesn't want to be put down when we're out. Mark set up his tent in the back yard this weekend hoping that the girls would play and he could get some yard work done. Even in the tent Kate wasn't too impressed. I think she'll be into camping the same way Mommy is. Holiday Inn anyone? :)

But even though she's not much into the great outdoors, I am SO looking forward to spending the summer out and about in the warm weather (we better have good weather!) going for walks and going to the park (Kate recently discovered a love for swings). And I think eventually she'll figure out the fun parts of being outside!