Oh.my.gosh.  I want time to stop.  Now.

I cannot BELIEVE that Lula is 10 months old.Last week I was thinking about the date and suddenly I realized that Lula was closer to 10 months than 9 months and then I further realized that in only one week, she would be 10 months old!  2 months until her first birthday?  Impossible!

Well, she has had quite a month!  From sleeping through two evenings of crazy-loud fireworks to going to the city pool for the first time, Lula is certainly growing up!

What has Lula been up to this month?

She can finally sit up from laying down…which has led to more awake time in her crib and her pudgy legs getting caught in the crib slats!  When it’s nap time, she frequently starts screaming when she can’t get them out.  It’s exciting!

She is still not really crawling.  Yes, she is.  It just happened on her ten month birthday.  Our lives have officially changed!

This was her movement of choice just days ago…down on all fours to…

pushing herself back to a sitting position.

Now, she is mobile.

yup, definitely a crawl

She’s not fast, but she can go anywhere she wishes.

She is definitely her father’s daughter in that she is very observant and needs to know what is happening at all times.

Dadada and ninini are still her main babbles, although she has recently added in ah-dah.  I try to get her to say mama but she just smiles at me and either clicks her tongue or says dada again…I’m sure you can imagine how delighted Pa is whenever she does that!

We are introducing more new foods to her and so far, she loves all of them.  We pretty much have a standing lunch date every single day.She enjoys sips of water through a straw or my water bottle and it’s fun to watch her hydrate using something other than me.

I am definitely more cognizant of the fact that she is watching my every move and although she isn’t talking yet, I am trying to refrain from swearing (sometimes it’s hard) and overall being more conscious of being a good example to my daughter.

As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I am increasingly aware of how fast time is going by and how fleeting some of these moments with my baby truly are.  As just one example, after a napless afternoon and an evening splash session in her baby pool,Lula fell asleep during bedtime nursing and as I was carrying her to her crib, she nestled her head on my shoulder.  It wasn’t until she did so that it dawned on me how much I miss her doing that!  I held her there and treasured the moment.

Sometimes I will think back to the days when she was really little and not aware of much of anything.  With some perspective, it’s incredible how fast those days passed by (even though I didn’t know it at the time).

3 months

We are still cloth diapering and plan to continue until she is potty trained.

Her hair is coming in more and more and I am seeing a few curls!

She sleeps 11-12 hours overnight, her morning nap is between 1.5-2 hours, and her afternoon nap is 45 minutes long.  Lately she has been having a tough time with her naps.  I try to roll with it.  Sometimes it’s easy to do so, other times it can be a challenge.

She loves waving bye-bye but she will not do so on command.

We wave to Pa every morning when he goes to work and she usually starts waving after he is driving away.

Frankie is starting to warm up to her too.  He was actually letting her pull his tail the other day while he tauntingly swished it back and forth.Interestingly, whenever she yanked on it, he just sat there, completely nonplussed.  I didn’t know what to make of it.

a gentle kitty

 I kind of hovered there, ready to intervene if necessary, until she got distracted by something else.

Pa put up a baby gate that includes a pet door a few nights ago.  Poor Frankie’s reaction was something like this.

Say WHAT?

We do a lot of errand running and it never fails to surprise me how many people approach us…or should I say her.

I remember my sister telling me stories of strangers approaching her son and completely ignoring her while they tried to engage my nephew in conversation.  That very thing happened  to me and Lula a few weeks ago at Free People- lady had nothing to say to me but told Lula all about her grandsons.  It was a trip!  I wasn’t sure if I was involved in the discussion or not but since Lula wasn’t saying anything, I responded with what I thought was the appropriate level of interest.

Another day we were headed into Price Chopper and two burly, tough construction workers were taking a smoke break on a bench that Lula and I were walking past.  As we got closer, one of them said, “Awwwwww…” and the other said, “She is PIMPING those sunglasses!”

Lula and I are having  a blast.  I cannot believe her first birthday is coming so soon!  She is a sweet, happy baby who loves to be with Ma and Pa.  We are so fortunate to have her in our lives.

Have a great day!