Bella Grace at Ten Months

Double digits.  One.  Zero.  10.

Wow.

You are holding steady at four teeth, two on top and two on bottom.

You are the most awesome peek-a-boo player. Ever. You’ll hide behind the curtains or pull a blanket over your head. We play peek-a-boo on a daily basis and it’s almost always your idea.

You clap whenever everyone else does. You’ll holler and shout and squeal too.

For two weeks, you slept through the night 6 nights a week.  Six nights.  Talk about a rested mama! I thought “Oh my goodness! I birthed a child that is going to sleep through the night before 18 months old!” I jumped around and Praised God Almighty every morning that I woke refreshed and energized. Then, poop. Back to normal. Bella’s awake. At 11. At 3. At 5. At 7. Oh well, it’s was a wondrous two weeks! You usually wake up at least once a night, sometimes twice, and once in a while, you just refuse to sleep for more than an hour at a time. I’ll praise Him anyways. Because I have you.

You are thisclose to walking.  And I’m not sure how I feel about that.  On one hand, I’m so proud.  On the other, you are growing so quickly.  It’s bittersweet, really.  You’ll take a few steps here and there.  You’ll walk beside me holding onto my finger.  When we get excited for you, you do the same.  You’re so proud of yourself!  You can and do stand alone.  Until you realize that you are doing it.  Then you promptly plop back down on your bottom.  It’s much safer there, you seem to think.

The baby carrier is still a good friend to us.  You’d much rather me wear you than ride in a stroller.  I wore you all around the aquarium last weekend and at the pumpkin patch last month.  If you are super fussy and only want to be held, I wear you and I get some peace from your weird whining/grunting sounds.

You were a flower for your first Halloween.  You did fantastic with the getting in and out of your car seat.  Much better than expected!

Nursing is still something we both cherish.  So much so that you tried to take my shirt off and pull my boob out the other day.  Then, you laughed out loud and smiled really big.  You still nurse about 5 times a day and I hope you don’t wean anytime soon.  That’s our special time, where I run my fingers through your hair and you are completely at peace.

You love your brother and you want to do everything he does.  You’ll go to his room just to hang out with him and you always, always snatch his sippy cup and drink it dry/ spit it all over yourself.  You love to play and I’ve moved  you a couple of bins filled with toys into the living room.  I also moved the play kitchen into the living room because you play with it so often.

Bath time is your favorite part of the day, other than nursing, of course.  Daddy always handles bath time and you and Bryson play for quite a while.  Sometimes, if we forget to close the bathroom door, you’ll crawl in there and try to climb over in the tub.

You are into everything.  I just trail behind you cleaning up your messes.  Every cabinet, every piece of paper, every book- if you can reach it and/ or get it in, you are going to.  And if you can’t, you’ll keep trying until you find a way.

You are wearing a size 3 diaper, size 6-12, 12, and some 12-18 month clothing.   You refuse to wear socks and bows.  I’ll put your socks on and then put your bow in and when I look down, your socks are gone.  Or the other way around.  Every once in a while I can slip a pair of socks on or get in a bow in that last for more than a few minutes.  It doesn’t happen often though.

I never knew how much I would love having a daughter.  How much fun it would be, really.  How my heart would beat for you.  How I wouldn’t be able to handle being away from you.  I never knew how much I would love you.  Oh how much I love you.