Apples, New Teeth and Crunchy LeavesAbigail continues to change almost daily, including talking and trying to stand alone. She eats a lot of meals with us and more often than not it's the same food we're eating. She's had chicken, beef, eggs and almonds and all is well, which makes me pretty happy. She also is much more amenable to playing on the floor next to me while I'm doing things, which makes it a little easier every month to get things done even when she's awake. This is probably good since she's rapidly switching from three naps a day to one in the afternoon, so if that were the only time I was doing things I would really not be getting much done around the house.
There is a sweetness to Abigail's personality and disposition that was a lot harder for me to see when she was younger and pretty crabby, but now it's becoming clear. She has the biggest, most beautiful smile I've ever seen except on Ben and I'm really happy to see it since I was hoping she'd have Ben's smile. The Turner smile is a wonderful asset! |
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She has a very busy mind and even busier fingers and can take things apart seemingly at the speed of light. I caught her chewing a hole in a box for our sample cabinets a few weeks ago and she seemed genuinely puzzled why I thought that wasn't a good idea. If she's playing in the bathroom while I'm taking a shower, I'm likely to get out to find the toilet paper unrolled, all the washcloths scattered across the floor with the dirty laundry from the laundry basket and she's eating the label off the extra bottle of hand soap. As long as she's not eating the toilet plunger (caught her just in time), I'm not all that concerned; but she can certainly be a one-girl wrecking crew if I'm not paying attention.
Thankfully, she still wants to be right by me all the time and I continue to encourage this since that's the best and safest spot for her. If she hears the doorwall alarm chime she starts making worried noises if she can't see me because she's afraid I've gone outside without her. I'm not sure why she's so afraid of this since I don't do it very often at all, but she really doesn't want me going anywhere without her.
She and Grandma Lila get along very well. Grandma Lila gets a little more attached to her every day and Abigail seems to love Grandma very much too. She makes a beeline for her when she gets up in the morning and likes to stand at Grandma's knee and play with her hands or her beads or the brakes on the wheelchair. We're still working with her not to touch the wheels on the chair since she used to want to sit and play with those and we didn't want an accidental finger smash if Grandma didn't know she was there.
Abigail has two new teeth this month - both her front top teeth are in now, which makes eating things much easier. She likes to chew on apples and makes a pretty credible effort at eating them now. She chokes much less and digests things properly instead of just swallowing things whole.
We had to put away her little co-sleeper this month since she fell out of it and we didn't need her breaking any bones or getting a concussion or any one of a number of unhappy things. We were in a bit of a quandary what we should replace her bed with since we still don't have room for a regular crib and even a mattress is too big to fit on the floor next to our bed. After a good (ahem...brilliant...sorry) idea from my sister, we went shopping for a pet bed mattress, which turned out to be a lot nicer than even most crib mattresses for some reason and was small enough to fit next to our bed. With sheets and blankets, it turned out to be pretty comfortable. I know because I sit on it to nurse Abigail during the day a lot. And since her old mattress was your basic cardboard-type pack-and-play mattress that came in the co-sleeper, her nice new posture-pedic pet mattress seems like it would be a whole lot nicer to sleep on. Mom Turner was afraid Abigail would just go crawling all over while we were sleeping, but this turns out not to be a problem for two reasons: our bedroom door is closed at night and there's not much in our room on the floor she can do anything with, let alone get in trouble with; and two, she still doesn't realize she can get out herself and tends to crawl to the side of the bed and cry for someone to come get her just like she would in her co-sleeper or a crib.
As the leaves on the maples trees came down toward the end of the month, Abigail discovered that crunchy leaves are hilarious. She holds our hands and walks on them and giggles every time they crunch, which is pretty cute. She also wants to eat them in the worst way and can't understand why we don't think that's such a great idea. Ben started showering leaves on her while I was taking her 9-month photos and she thought it was amazing that the leaves were falling from the sky!
She continues to talk a little and my favorite thing she says is, "All done!" when she's done eating or nursing or just wants to get down. Her little voice is so clear and it comes out of nowhere when she just announces, "All done". It's such a strange thing for her to go from just crying or babbling to actually saying things. She makes more and more complicated strings of sounds but most of it is still not recognizable as words yet. She also finally gets the idea of walking while holding onto our hands and would much rather travel that way even though she's faster and faster at crawling. She often stands in the kitchen holding onto to my leg with one hand and eating a graham cracker with the other while I'm making meals.
Bedtimes have become a little tricky, since Abigail has turned into a night owl and really doesn't want to got to bed until at least midnight. This means we usually go through a half hour or so of lying her back down constantly before she decides to go to sleep. I really do believe there will be a day when she just goes to bed, but that day hasn't been since she was born and is not yet. Oh well. Ultimately she does sleep once she is asleep, just getting up a few times to nurse for ten minutes and go straight back to sleep; and she certainly takes her naps by just falling asleep and sleeping for a while, so she's been easy-going in that respect.
On to ten months...we're almost at a year now!
Thankfully, she still wants to be right by me all the time and I continue to encourage this since that's the best and safest spot for her. If she hears the doorwall alarm chime she starts making worried noises if she can't see me because she's afraid I've gone outside without her. I'm not sure why she's so afraid of this since I don't do it very often at all, but she really doesn't want me going anywhere without her.
She and Grandma Lila get along very well. Grandma Lila gets a little more attached to her every day and Abigail seems to love Grandma very much too. She makes a beeline for her when she gets up in the morning and likes to stand at Grandma's knee and play with her hands or her beads or the brakes on the wheelchair. We're still working with her not to touch the wheels on the chair since she used to want to sit and play with those and we didn't want an accidental finger smash if Grandma didn't know she was there.
Abigail has two new teeth this month - both her front top teeth are in now, which makes eating things much easier. She likes to chew on apples and makes a pretty credible effort at eating them now. She chokes much less and digests things properly instead of just swallowing things whole.
We had to put away her little co-sleeper this month since she fell out of it and we didn't need her breaking any bones or getting a concussion or any one of a number of unhappy things. We were in a bit of a quandary what we should replace her bed with since we still don't have room for a regular crib and even a mattress is too big to fit on the floor next to our bed. After a good (ahem...brilliant...sorry) idea from my sister, we went shopping for a pet bed mattress, which turned out to be a lot nicer than even most crib mattresses for some reason and was small enough to fit next to our bed. With sheets and blankets, it turned out to be pretty comfortable. I know because I sit on it to nurse Abigail during the day a lot. And since her old mattress was your basic cardboard-type pack-and-play mattress that came in the co-sleeper, her nice new posture-pedic pet mattress seems like it would be a whole lot nicer to sleep on. Mom Turner was afraid Abigail would just go crawling all over while we were sleeping, but this turns out not to be a problem for two reasons: our bedroom door is closed at night and there's not much in our room on the floor she can do anything with, let alone get in trouble with; and two, she still doesn't realize she can get out herself and tends to crawl to the side of the bed and cry for someone to come get her just like she would in her co-sleeper or a crib.
As the leaves on the maples trees came down toward the end of the month, Abigail discovered that crunchy leaves are hilarious. She holds our hands and walks on them and giggles every time they crunch, which is pretty cute. She also wants to eat them in the worst way and can't understand why we don't think that's such a great idea. Ben started showering leaves on her while I was taking her 9-month photos and she thought it was amazing that the leaves were falling from the sky!
She continues to talk a little and my favorite thing she says is, "All done!" when she's done eating or nursing or just wants to get down. Her little voice is so clear and it comes out of nowhere when she just announces, "All done". It's such a strange thing for her to go from just crying or babbling to actually saying things. She makes more and more complicated strings of sounds but most of it is still not recognizable as words yet. She also finally gets the idea of walking while holding onto our hands and would much rather travel that way even though she's faster and faster at crawling. She often stands in the kitchen holding onto to my leg with one hand and eating a graham cracker with the other while I'm making meals.
Bedtimes have become a little tricky, since Abigail has turned into a night owl and really doesn't want to got to bed until at least midnight. This means we usually go through a half hour or so of lying her back down constantly before she decides to go to sleep. I really do believe there will be a day when she just goes to bed, but that day hasn't been since she was born and is not yet. Oh well. Ultimately she does sleep once she is asleep, just getting up a few times to nurse for ten minutes and go straight back to sleep; and she certainly takes her naps by just falling asleep and sleeping for a while, so she's been easy-going in that respect.
On to ten months...we're almost at a year now!