10 months

Allie you are 10 months old today! I cannot believe in two short months you will be a year old. You are growing and changing so fast. You pick things up so very quickly. Here's what you are up to this month.

You wear size 3 diapers and we recently tried Cruisers, which work really well with you crawling.

You are wearing 12 months clothes, although I think you will be in 18 months very soon. You have already worn a few onesies that are 18 months. 

You kind of have a schedule now. You take an average of 3 naps a day. They vary from 30 minutes to an hour each.

 

You generally are ready to start your night time routine around 5:30. You eat Gerber organic apple cinnamon oatmeal, take a bath, nurse, we pray, sing Jesus loves me and then we bounce you to sleep.

When we lay you down for a nap or at night we lay you on your back. You will stay like this if you are really tired and asleep. Sometimes you roll to your side, but the cutest way you sleep is on your belly with your legs up under you and your little bottom in the air. It is so cute!

I love the first time you wake up to eat after you are asleep for the night. You are asleep once you start eating. I lay you back down and you stretch your arms straight above your head and leave them there. You look so relaxed and full.

You are so full of personality. You smile all the time and are easily amused. You love when Daddy does... anything! You love it when he acts like a goober. 

You are crawling all over the place and are pulling up on everything, but recently you have become a climber! You will climb onto your riding toy then over the arm of your chair. You will then attempt to stand on the arm of the chair to see out the window!

You love to sit in your reading corner and pull out every single book, especially if I put them back in the basket and stack them. You have to undo what I do!

You do your very best to escape from your play room, so Daddy rearranged your toys and lined up your basket and your ball pit to block you in. You will climb into your basket to try and get to the foyer! (We have ordered a gate and can't wait for it to come!)

You still love bath time. I think it is one of your most favorite times of day. Daddy gets in the tub with you because you are all over the place! You love to play with the water as it comes out of the faucet. You also love to line up all of your shampoo and body wash bottles on the edge and knock them into the floor.

You are still not a fan of getting out of the tub. You are way more interested in standing and opening the cabinets. I have mastered lotioning and dressing you while you do this. :)

When Daddy comes home you love to open the door to the garage and welcome him home. I will turn the knob and crack the door and you grab it and swing it open as hard as you can. Then you get the biggest grin on your face. You love your daddy so much.

You love to climb in your ball pit, sit down and then push all the balls around by waving your hands back and forth. You get so excited when you do this.

Your favorite books to read right now are: Mirror Me, Baby Animals (you open the flaps all by your self!), Twinkle Twinkle, The Precious Planet books and Inside Noah's Ark.

We have not left you in the nursery at church yet. I can't stand the thought of leaving you or the possibility of you getting sick. You are just too young. 

We did leave you with Grammie and G-Da on the 10th. They bought Daddy tickets to see George Strait and Martina McBride. I cried when we left. It was the hardest thing I have ever done. I do not plan on leaving you again any time soon. G-Da face timed with me so Daddy and I could pray and sing to you while you drank your bottle. You cried the minute you saw me and heard my voice. Broke my heart!

You eat Organic Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal for breakfast and supper. Your favorite foods to eat at lunch are: apples, pears, apple turkey cranberry, pumpkin apple and sweet potato cinnamon. You do not like any greens. You LOVE the organic puffs Daddy found. You like all the ones you have tried: apple, greens and I recently bought you banana, which I am sure you will love. I also bought you some organic yogurt melts. They are mixed berry and you love them too. Mine and Daddy's goal is to feed you as much organically as we can. 

When you wake up from naps Daddy and I will go into your room together and say, "good morning!" or "good afternoon!". You smile and love when we come get you together!

You are still nursing. You wake up 2-3 times during the night to eat. I treasure our time together, because I know it will come to an end all too soon. 

I read a book, "The No-Cry Sleep Solution". It gives all these different ideas and things to try to get you to sleep longer and better. We have used some of them. One of the things is to get you to be able to fall asleep on your own. Mommy struggles with trying this because I always said that when I had a baby I would rock them to sleep every time I laid them down until they wouldn't let me anymore. And you love it. You only want Mommy at night. I love that. I love our snuggle time together!

You rarely sleep in the bed with us anymore because you think it is playtime when you are with us! But the other morning you woke up to eat (it was about 6am) and you fell asleep in my arms. I was so tired I just put you between us. You woke up before we did and I woke up to you laying your hand on my forehead and leaning over me with the sweetest, most precious grin on your face. I will never forget that! I have decided that eventually you will sleep on your own and you will sleep through the night. I just want to enjoy every second with you, so if that means I get to snuggle and rock you in the middle of the night I will. That is why I am a stay at home Mommy, to be here for you whenever you may need me. 

You have finally grasped the concept of a sippy cup. You mainly just want to chew on the spout, however you will suck! I am so proud of you!

You have favorite shows and you will do whatever you can to see the tv if someone is blocking it and you hear the intro music! You love Little Einsteins, Special Agent Oso and Jake & the Neverland Pirates. You love the intro to Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but quickly loose interest.

You love to sit with Daddy in front of the computer and watch Sharky and Bones sing all of the Jake & the Neverland Pirates songs. 

You still love mine and Daddy's iPhone's. We even have Fisher Price apps on them for you to play. You love to play them, but also love to send text messages and occasionally try to call people.

You have 6 teeth now! Four on top and two on the bottom.

You love to make choices! So Daddy and I have started letting you pick out your own pajamas, towel and wash cloth for the night. We will give you two choices of each and you pick one. You love to do this, and just like your Momma if there is a choice of anything pink, you choose that one!

You still love your paci and need it to fall asleep and for most of the day. We have not made a plan of when we are going to wean you. I pray you will wean yourself. Grammie says Mommy did, so I hope you follow in my footsteps.

You have started throwing things. You love to throw things down and have us pick them up. You love your balls in your ball pit, as well as the ones in your gum ball machine and dinosaur.

You are a pro at dispensing the balls from your gum ball machine. Daddy and I cannot reload them fast enough!

You love to play the game, well you think it is a game, where when we are rocking you to sleep you will take your paci out of your mouth and throw it at the floor as hard as you can. Sometimes we will go through 3-4 paci's at nap or bedtime! 

You love to be outside! Going for a walk is one of your favorite things to do. Whenever we go shopping your favorite part is being outside. Your favorite store to shop in is Target. I think you like the wide aisles and that there is so much to see.

With it being so cold outside I always take a blanket to wrap around your legs when we are out and you are in your stroller. You think it is so funny when I tuck the blanket under your legs.

You are still very, very ticklish. Your neck, belly, legs, arms and especially your hands are ticklish.

You love to play the game where you are holding a toy and I will take it and say, "give me that!" and then I will give it back to you. You love for me to do this over and over.

You love to hold and sometimes pull on my necklaces and earrings. You also like to turn my head so you can see what earrings I am wearing. You think it is funny to turn my head and for me to turn it back quickly. You crack up!

You love the dogs and are obsessed with their collars. You love the loop where their leash hooks. Taylor is still by far the best with you. She will just sit there while you pull up on her. Or lay there while you push on her or attempt to crawl over her. Bella wants to lick you in the face and takes her chance when she gets it. Bentley just wants to sniff your face, like he does to everyone else. Zoe is kind of oblivious that you are even in the room and Chesney... well Chesney isn't too fond of you, but I will explain to you when you are older why. We are working on all the dogs being like Taylor.

  
Your hair never fell out, and is getting so long! It is so pretty and soft. Your bangs go all the way to the tip of your nose! We have to pull back your hair so you can see. We use a bobby pin (which works really well!) or a bow of course.  

I am so proud of the sweet little girl you are becoming. I can't wait to see what this next month will hold! I love you Puddin' Pop! 

Panera and Coldstone

We took Allie to a new pediatrician on Friday. We haven't been impressed with her current one. He never talked to us about anything (when she could drink milk, drink juice, eat yogurt, start table food, etc.) so we were filled with all kinds of information at her 9 month well exam! He told us we could start table food, anything she could easily eat, now. We were kind of overwhelmed. We chose not to start baby food until 6 months, because we saw it best to solely nurse her until then. So she hasn't been eating baby food very long. I worry about her choking, as well as not knowing how to chew. Well today she showed me! We got up on time, got ready, missed the first service so we ran to Target... big mistake, we then were way too late to make it to the second so we decided to go shopping. We drove up to North Point, which is my favorite place to shop. We went and ate at Panera. One thing the pediatrician told us was that eating was a social thing and so she should eat when we do. So while Nick was eating I fed her some apple turkey cranberry, which she loves. She finished and so did Nick. He held her while I ate. She was watching me eat, so I pulled open my baguette and pulled off a tiny bit and gave it to her. She chewed! It was the cutest thing as she opened her mouth really wide and chomped down. She was so precious and ate a good bit of bread. She even got a little upset when I didn't immediately give her another bite.

We went into Marshalls and got Allie and book and some really cute Valentine's jammies and a few other things. We then went over to the mall and walked around. We went into the new department store Von Maur. Might be my new favorite place to shop! They have some of the cutest kids things! I found Allie's Easter dress there. I can't wait to go back and get it! The sales associates were a little overbearing, but I really liked the store a lot.
I have had a Coldstone gift card for over two years now that a student gave me. We don't have one around here so I haven't used it. I saw one when we were on our way to the mall and told Nick we had to stop there on the way back. Ooh it was SO good! I got Berry Berry Berry good. It was delicious! It was sweet cream ice cream with blueberries, strawberries & raspberries. Nick got cotton candy ice cream with sprinkles... I am married to a five year old! Ha! I love him and I tasted it and it was delicious as well. Before I took a bite of mine there was some ice cream that didn't have any berries in it, so I gave Allie a bite. Her first bite she didn't know what to think. She made a funny face and looked like, "Momma! That's cold!" But opened her mouth for another. I gave her a few more bites while Nick was paying. I grabbed the cup and started walking out. Allie got very upset thinking she wasn't getting anymore. We got in the car and Nick took these pics. She was loving it!