Brooke is nearing that 1 year mark and while I love seeing her grow and watching her personality develop, it is a bittersweet feeling. I honestly cannot believe 10 months have flown by. I must sound like a broken record every month, but it really does go by fast. I feel like I have a toddler already...
Brooke turned 10 months on July 4th. So we wore red, white and blue all week leading up to Independence Day! She was a happy little camper in her red chair at Grammy's...until Thursday (when Grammy wasn't there)!
B has 8 teeth, and probably more on the way; she has been drooling excessively lately. She especially enjoys fruit in her mesh teether - banana, kiwi, etc. We have been gradually introducing more solids too. She still eats 3 meals per day, but most of the solids come in as snacks or while we are sitting at the table eating our dinner; she tries a bite or two of what we are eating. This past weekend she tried a stage 2 baby food with kiwi, pear and spinach. It was dark green (and mommy wasn't a fan), but she loved it! I was so impressed since she HATES peas and green beans as baby food. On her 10 month birthday, she also tried a peanut!!! Not by choice, of course, did we give her this; she found it on the floor. You really have to be so careful of little ones, as they will pick up anything! At first, I thought it was food she had stored in her cheek from the dinner she just finished, but I had an immediate impulse to check it out. I reached in her mouth, much to her dislike, and discovered a hard peanut. Looking back, I may have impulsively overreacted at the moment. However, she is already prone to food allergies and the AAP suggest waiting until well after a year to introduce nuts. She soon turned red around her mouth, but luckily since we noticed it so soon, it went away within minutes. I am so grateful that I noticed it in her mouth when I did, because she could have easily tried swallowing it or could have led to a worse reaction. Lesson Learned - Don't turn away for a second!!!
Then on the way home...was scare #2 of the day. Brooke has gotten really good with using her hands and has also learned to put the wrong end of the paci clip in her mouth (rather than the pacifier, she tends to suck on the clip end). Sitting in the front seat, at a light on Highway 6, I hear a scream. I immediately unhook my seatbelt and go flying to the backseat like a ninja. She managed to unhook the clip from the strap and clip it to her tongue. Obviously that hurts, and she was crying her eyes out! I was worried she cut it off or at least drew blood, but she wouldn't open her mouth for me. She finally opened her mouth to suck on the pacifier (the right way) and eventually stopped crying. My poor little girl. Who knew 10 months would be so fun??? She really does enjoy putting anything (and everything) in her mouth!
Other than scaring her mother half to death, Brooke also enjoys bouncing, walking with her activity walkers, the ball drop on her red car, playing with the blinds/strings, bath time with daddy, rubbing her face on her bunny play mat (we play "get the bunny") and pulling books off the bookshelf (to Daddy's dismay).
She does very well drinking water from her sippy cup, and loves it so much so that she must think it's a treat. She also is blowing raspberries again...and using her finger to make a "bubbbubbuu" noise. I haven't a clue what you call this - it's like a motorboat noise? I heard it a week ago on the way home coming from the back seat and it was the cutest thing. She is so proud and does it all the time right now!
She has learned how to open and close doors (not using the knobs) and has even shut me out of her room once or twice (hoping that's not a sign of the future). I have to sneak her headbands on and immediately distract her or it comes right off. And she has 2 pairs of sandals that I try to coordinate into outfits occasionally, but she really is not a fan of shoes either. However, she does love her closet. She will swing the door open and crawl right in. She pulls on hangers, clothes, stands up, looks around, plays with socks...and will just sit in there. So while she doesn't currently love her headbands and shoes, there is still hope of a little fashionista somewhere in there!
She eats 3 meals per day. Breakfast is around 8 - 3 tablespoons of cereal and a jar of fruit. At 10 am, she has a 7 oz bottle and goes down for a nap. At noon, she has 1 1/2 jars of food. Around 2, she gets another bottle before her afternoon nap. At 5, she gets another 1 1/2 jars of food for dinner. Around 7, she gets her bath and another bottle before laying down in her crib, where she sleeps 12 hours through the night. She thrives on routine and I am so grateful that we have such a good one in place. It makes things so much easier on all of us. She knows when it is time to eat, and she knows when it is time to sleep. Additionally she gets solid foods ("our" food, Gerber snacks, small pieces of fruit, etc) to snack on in between meals and bottles. Yes, she has 8 teeth, but we are in no rush to give her solid meals. She is prone to food allergies, because of my history and she is doing really well on Stage 2 baby foods. The Stage 3 "meals" we have tried, she doesn't care for...at all! There was a Chicken Orzo one that I thought tasted delicious, but she gagged at the first bite. Literally, she gagged it up and spit it out! She has no shame in letting you know she doesn't like something (can't imagine where she got that from!). Stage 2 or Stage 3, homemade solids or Gerber, Brooke is doing just fine. She is a great eater!
We are all learning to tell her no when she does something she shouldn't. We explain her why she shouldn't be doing what she was and remove her from the situation. At her age, she might not understand no or why she can't play with the electrical outlet, but slowly she will learn to recognize that tone of voice and accept "no" for an answer. In regards to babyproofing, we also finally got latches on all of the cabinets in the house. In the kitchen, she has her tupperware container full of straws, and that is all hers. She loves making a mess with them, then it's even more fun watching mommy pick them all up!
Everyone keeps telling us not to rush walking. And we aren't. Brooke was holding her head up on her own the day she was born. She has been straightening her legs pushing up since she was a newborn. And she started crawling by 7 months. We have a very strong little girl. I honestly thought she would have been walking by 10 months, but I am not fretting it. She will do it when she is ready. We are encouraging her motor skills and development all along the way. As for now, she is cruising the furniture, getting more brave by the day. Letting go of one couch to get to another. She squats down and stands up very well. She crawls so fast, mommy can barely keep up! And she loves using her Stride-to-Ride Puppy and Sit-to-Stand Learning Walker to cruise the house. I just love watching her little feet step one in front of the other... She's no longer a baby, that's for sure!
I feel like I am holding her a little longer at night and hugging her extra tight before she goes down in her crib. I am so in love (some may even say obsessed) with my little angel. She is the greatest gift God could have given us. I know in just two more months she will be one and then time is really going to fly by. I truly cherish every moment we have together. And as much as I am dreading that milestone birthday, I am in full planning mode for her first birthday party! It is going to be quite the celebration. August 23rd...mark you calendar!
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