Dear Emersyn: 10 Months

Sweet girl it feels like each of these letters begin the same- surprise over how quickly time is passing.  It is hard to believe 10 months have passed since you were born, but on the other hand, it feels like you've always been a part of our lives.

These days you are crawling like crazy, following me from room to room whenever I have to leave your side, and also pulling up all over the place.  You can pass from place to place while standing, though you're still a tad wobbly, and in general you're able to get back down from standing, but you occasionally get stuck and I have to come rescue you:)

You got your top two teeth in this month, bringing your total to four.  You can often be found with a finger in your mouth, so I suspect you're working on a few more too.  Let me tell you, that toothy grin is the most adorable sight in the entire world.  You scrunch up your nose, squint your eyes, and just beam at us.  I melt.  A strange thing with your teeth- we realized your top teeth had come in when we heard you grinding them, and you haven't stopped since.  I grind my teeth in my sleep, but I've never heard of it starting this young.  Ughh, it sounds awful.  You also now like to chew on an even wider assortment of things, including our coffee table.

You love music, and anytime your toys play a song you bounce along to the tune.  You also nearly constantly keep a leg moving- I think you've got a tune in your head and your little legs are just keeping up with the beat.  

You are an expert at waving, and whenever we say hello or bye bye you're quick to wave.  You also have a good understanding of No No, and you're not a fan.  For example, you love to play with the window blinds, but you're not allowed, so after a few times of being told no, you'll start to reach for them, stop yourself, and begin to cry.  It's honestly hilarious, and we have to hide the fact that we're laughing when trying to discipline.

Eating is still a favorite pasttime of yours, and we have a great routine down.  You nurse at 8am, noon, 4pm, and right before bed.  I think you may be getting close to going down to three sessions a day, but Mama's not quite ready for that.  You usually nurse on both sides now, but only about 4-6 minutes each side, sometimes less.  You have three solid meals a day at 9am, 1pm, and 6pm, and you can pack away the food!  We've introduced several new foods this month, such as mac n cheese, peanut butter, green and red peppers, mashed potatoes, roast beef, hummus, corn, spinach, ice cream, tomato, french fries, mandarin oranges, waffles and strawberries, but you also often just eating whatever we're having (with a few exceptions) so you've probably had even more food than what I've listed.  Watching you eat and experience new tastes is a lot of fun for us, and Gus also appreciates meal times.

I don't want to jinx myself, but sleeping is finally going really well!  Crying it out lasted about a week and was tough on all of us, but I know it was the right thing for our family at this time.  You wake for the day around 7:30am, nap at 10am for 1.5-2 hours, nap again around 2:30 or 3pm for 1-2 hours and go down for the night between 7:30 and 8pm.  Glorious, glorious sleep.  Looking back I have no idea how I survived so many nighttime wake ups for so many months, and really have no idea how I did it when you were only napping for 20 min at a time.  This is my very favorite month so far if for no other reason than we're all so much better rested.  Even your dad said if we could have a baby come out at 10 months old he'd be on board with having another one tomorrow haha.

This month you and I took a trip just the two of us to Florida to visit mama's college roommate, Rebecca!  You were a great baby, but traveling without your daddy was still quite the adventure.  You had flown before to Maine when you were 5 months old, but you're a lot more active and curious now! We still had a great trip though!

You love your paci, your crib, Gus, eating, bath time, mama and daddy, your toys that make noise, and window latches.  You're not such a big fan of bottles, drinking very much in general, pooping, getting a new diaper or getting dressed, and being told no.

Emersyn Grace we love you more than words could ever express.  You're so happy, you babble constantly (though your only consistent word so far is still Dada), you giggle easily, and you love to snuggle with us.  

Love,
Mama