Raven: 10 Months -

Don’t be fooled by these pictures–it took a LOT of wrangling with an overexcited, giggly baby in order to get most of these, and it made me wonder how much longer I’ll be able to trick her into doing a “formal” photo session on a monthly basis.

But for now, I present for your amusement, a very happy/crazy/energetic 10-month-old Raven:

Quick Stats

Weight: 18.25 lbs. (50th percentile)

Height: 28.5″ (75th percentile)

Clothing Size: about ready to start phasing out of the 6-9 month size

Diaper Size: 3-4 (depending on the brand)

Milestones Reached

Cut two top teeth
Easily pulls to standing and has let go *very* briefly on her own a couple times
Kneels (and can go from standing to kneeling)
Can eat most “real people” food, if it’s in a small enough size (and actually chews food now, thank goodness!)
Turns the pages of books when we read together

Physical Appearance

Her 9-month appointment (which was actually at 9.5 months) showed that she continued on the 75th-50th-25th track she’s been on in since birth (75th height, 50th weight, 25th head circumference), and she definitely is starting to look a little more like a toddler and less like a baby (although I think we still have a few more solid “baby” months yet). No matter what though, wherever we go, people (strangers and known friends) oooh and aaah over her adorableness (which we understand completely, though I think we’re a bit biased).

What I Love About This Stage

I love her natural zest for life, which has become more and more apparent these past few weeks as she just obviously delights in everything around her, from the games we play to the toys scattered on the floor to the new tricks she’s trying to learn. She’s always been a pretty mild-mannered baby, but lately, she’s bordered on exuberant as she’s started mastering her way around the apartment and is learning so much every day.

She also has started to think not only that we are hilarious, but that SHE is hilarious, and she’s started to laugh at her own little antics (like the fact that she kept trying to crawl off of the bed during our photo shoot today, prompting me to pull her back to the middle by her ankle, and then which she kept doing because she (naturally) assumed that this was some hilarious new game she’d just invented).

Challenges

With her exuberant nature comes explosive energy sometimes, which means she’ll frantically crawl toward whatever she wants (whether or not it’s something she “should” have or not), and in the past few days alone, we’ve had to pull her away from trying to tip over the garbage, pull everything out of the recycle bin, chew on a dirty diaper, and shut her fingers in a drawer. It’s fun to watch her learn so much and so quickly, but she definitely requires near-constant vigilance when she’s on the move.

Also, with increased solids of all types (including eating bits of almost everything we’re eating during mealtimes) has come an increase in blowouts as well as a few really nasty diaper rashes, which have just caused her to scream and scream (so sad) when we try to change them and put diaper cream on her. I’m hoping she grows out of the sensitive skin thing, but knowing how my skin is, she probably won’t.

Things I Don’t Want to Forget

Her horrified face the first time she tried barbecue pork (which is funny because she normally loves meat). It often surprises me which foods she immediately takes to and which ones she doesn’t so much.
How she reacts the same whether she’s eating vegetables or trying ice cream or chocolate for the first time. We were going to wait until her one-year mark before giving her ice cream, but we couldn’t resist the other day and decided to give her a bit of our Frosty, eagerly anticipating a huge reaction, but nope–it was just business as usual, with her just happy to be eating period (never mind what it was).
There was one day, however, when she started protesting when I was eating chocolate chips and wasn’t giving her any (one of the first times she’s done so). I totally gave in, too, which probably set up a terrible precedent for the rest of all time…
Her delight when we finally introduced her to baths in the “real” bathtub (which we’d been putting off and putting off because she’s just so squirmy that we feared she’d slip and bonk her head on the side of the tub). But now that we’ve done it, we’re thinking we probably should have done it much sooner–bathtime seems to cure even the worst case of the grumps, and she just looks so dang pleased with herself as she sits and chews on the foam letters we put in there with her.
Speaking of looking pleased with herself, she is fighting naptimes worse than ever, and when we finally have to go in and take her out (because she’s kicked out of her blanket and is babbling at the top of her lungs while standing up in her crib), she just has the most smug look of triumph you’ve ever seen in your life, and it takes all my willpower not to just burst out laughing every time.
The afternoon when she thought it was the funniest game in the whole world whenever I said any word that had a “B” sound in it (especially “Baby”).
The way she’ll open and shut her hands really fast (like a crab) whenever she’s excited about something.
The fact that no matter how upset she is, she’ll almost always calm down if Mama picks her up and snuggles her (my heart melts every time).

And then a bunch of pictures to both prove her mischievous streak during our photo session and because I’m a typical mom that just can’t narrow it down…