Dear Kaitlyn: Ten Months

Dear Katy,

You are growing so fast and changing so much these days. Every day your Daddy and I have a moment where we say what an amazing little person you are! You continue to make people smile, whether it's us at home, your teachers and friends at school, or your many adoring relatives. As always, thank you for the continued gift of joy that you bring to our lives.

This month was very special for me because I got to celebrate my first Mother's Day with you. It felt so different to not just be honoring other mothers, but to actually be one myself this year. And you are the reason, my sweet girl!

We had a fun time at Great Grandma's (aka GG) house...four generation of ladies!

I love seeing how you make your Grandma and GG smile and laugh! You were cracking up the whole crowd at the dinner table — your laugh is infectious!

You continue to thrive at school, and you love playing with your best friends, Duncan and Anna. They call you three "The Breakfast Club" because you all get there early, when the school is still pretty much empty. Your teacher says that you're "in charge" in the classroom and often initiate activities/games with the other babies. You even take the time to engage the younger babies who aren't yet mobile — you bring them a ball, try to make them smile, etc. I love hearing stories about how engaging and interactive you are. And it's especially fun to see you giggle with your friends! It's amazing what a bond you have formed with them.

You pretty much want to be standing or active most of the time. You're content to hang out in your stroller as long as we're moving, but you have little desire to sit back and watch the world go by! When we're out in the city, you look at passersby and smile and wave.

Sleeping: You still get nearly 12 hours per night, from around 7-7:30pm to anywhere between 6:30-8am. Lately, you have been struggling to get two solid naps at school. I think all of the action going on around you keeps you up. There are some days where you'll only nap for a total of 30 minutes!

You love to snuggle once you fall asleep, and we love it too! It's not uncommon for me to come home from my Wednesday night kickboxing class to find you and Daddy sleeping in the chair in your room. It's adorable!

Eating: You continue to love eating, and you're very open to trying just about anything! You eat all of the lunch options now at school, and you have most of the breakfast options too (the only thing you're not eating that they serve is bowls of cereal).

For dinner, you'll often eat what we are eating (chicken breast, pasta, rice, sweet potato, salmon, meatballs). On nights where I don't cook a "formal" dinner, you'll have things like scrambled eggs, veggie burgers, and grilled cheese. You don't seem to mind!

You LOVE fruit, particularly summer fruit! You gobble up strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, bananas, and cantaloupe.

You have about 6 4-6 oz. bottles a day, sometimes only 5. You really love your morning and pre-bed bottles, but the others you seem somewhat indifferent about.

Stats: You are still in size 3 diapers, and you wear mostly 9-12 months in clothes. You've been wearing shoes more since you love to walk around. You look so grown up lately! I'm not sure of your height/weight at this point — your next pediatrician appointment isn't until you're 1. (Side note: I can't believe you're almost 1!)

You now have your two center bottom teeth, and you're cutting one of your upper front teeth. I can't see the tooth yet, but I can see the red, sore line where the tooth is going to poke through. You poor girl!

Firsts/Milestones: You had your first overnight away from home without us there with you! We dropped you off with Grandma and Grandpa, and we went out to celebrate our 2nd anniversary. We had such a nice time, but we missed you a ton! We are told you had a great time and did wonderfully. I think you're starting to really like hanging with G&G! And you love Jack, their dog.

You took your first trip to the zoo this month! My company sponsored a work event on a Friday after work, so we enjoyed an evening stroll through the zoo. It was a little late in the day for you to be totally alert, but I think you still enjoyed yourself and the nice weather.

You weren't too interested in some of the animals/displays (e.g., the giant giraffes who were moseying right in front of us). You did, however, enjoy watching the lions/tigers, otters, and monkeys.

(In the picture above, you're applauding the otters — it was adorable!)

You even came face-to-face with a duck and you were so intrigued by him! I think you would have pet the duck if we let you get close enough.

Likes/Dislikes: You love playing so much. You have lots of toys that make music, and you often break into a dance when the music starts. You usually will look to us to see if we're dancing too, and if we are, then you go all out!

You have a little pink guitar that you like strumming — we love to see you explore music! You have such a fun time when you're allowed to explore, so we try to let you do that as much as possible.

You also tend to turn everything into a drum: the wipes box, an old sherbet container, a basket, an empty canister, etc. Anything will do!

You love seeing your friends at school, and it makes me so happy that you get so excited when we arrive. Some days, you'll see your friend Anna and squeal!

You love your toothbrush! I think at the moment it's doubling as a teething ring, but you always grab for it as soon as you get into the bathtub. It's pretty cute to see you hold it and put it into your mouth — it makes you look so grown up!

As for dislikes, you're no longer a fan of laying on your back for diaper changes. You desperately wish to roll over and crawl as soon as we lay you down. Needless to say, diaper changes have become very interesting! :) You've started to really dislike having your nails cut. For so long, you really didn't care one way or another; now, you would think I was clipping the ends of your fingers off! I try to reserve this fun activity for times when you're not overly tired.

Dear Kaitlyn: Nine Months

Dear Kaitlyn,

My sweet girl, you emanate happiness and joy. At this point, you have been alive in the outside world for as long as you lived inside of me. It's so incredible just how much you've grown in that time!

You bring so much laughter to our lives. And as you have grown, your personality has too. We can see so much about what kind of person you will be. You are happy, funny, clever, engaging, and you love to interact with people.

You are an explorer of the world around you, and you love to see, feel, and even taste what you find.

You are really enjoying your classroom, which has a lot of different "centers" in different areas of the room and even outdoor space. You are given so much freedom to explore, and you make the most of it!

You have become much steadier in motion, whether you're crawling, "cruising", or squatting. You can twist, turn, reach, dance, and laugh with grace — most of the time! You love to crawl up to me or Daddy and stand up by pulling on our pant legs. Sometimes you also "speed-crawl" to come and get us, and you giggle the whole way! 

You are very attentive, and you seem to be aware of every noise and motion that happens nearby. When you're watching something that interests you, your eyes get wide and your mouth opens up a little bit. We think it's pretty cute!

You love to laugh, Katy! You have the sweetest giggles, and the three of us have so much fun laughing together. Your sense of humor already seems apparent, as you laugh at funny things that Daddy or I will do or say. Your teachers say that you also laugh when they are making a joke with other teachers — you just seem to be tuned in to what's going on! You've also learned how to "fake laugh", where you will make a fake giggle towards someone to get them to look at you or laugh. It's so funny!

Sleeping: Oh how you are a great sleeper! Like your parents, you seem to really love getting a solid night's sleep, and you rarely wake up in the middle of the night. For the most part, you are usually asleep by 7:30pm, and we wake you up on weekdays around 6:30am. On the weekends, you wake up anywhere between 6:45am and 8am. Usually you wake up as soon as Daddy or I make noise/wake up.

You still nap at home pretty well, but at school you are more distracted by noises and your friends. Your teachers say that it is common for kids your age to start to struggle with naps until you transition into the older infant classroom. There, nap time is more universal and therefore more successful! For now, you are taking about one 30 minute to 1 hour nap...and that's it! This means that you're really tired by the time we pick you up in the evenings.

Eating: You love to eat too! You eat three meals a day — two of them at school. You've been having cereal/fruit for breakfast and cereal/veggie for lunch. In addition, your teachers continue to give you portions of the school lunch, which means you are trying a lot of new flavors and textures at school. You've had things like turkey noodle soup, grilled cheese, turkey sloppy joes, meatloaf, mashed potatoes, chicken marsala, whole wheat french bread pizza, broccoli, peas, green beans, brown rice, pasta primavera, cod, and so on. We love that you are able to try this variety!

In addition to the new foods at daycare, this month you also had scrambled eggs (with a little shredded cheese sometimes), watermelon, strawberries, tuna, broccoli, meatballs (both turkey and beef), and chicken. You prefer to have at least some sort of finger food that you can feed yourself, so even if you're being fed by one of us, we try to keep something on your tray for you to eat on your own. We've started to give you a sippy cup of water to have with dinner as well, but so far this is more so something that you like to gnaw on, bang on your tray, or drop from your highchair to the floor.

Some of your favorites are plain yogurt (sometimes mixed with fruit), avocado, scrambled eggs (with or without cheese), bananas, and meatballs. And every now and then you have a guest feeder! Grandpa has tried lots of goofy things to get your attention.

Stats: At your 9-month check-up, you weighed in at 19 pounds, 13 ounces. And you are 28 inches tall!  You are still in size 3 diapers. As for clothes, you mostly wear 9 months or 6-12 months (for Baby Gap, Old Navy). Your shirts that are 6-12 months still fit but are short in the sleeves. And many of your 6-12 months or 9 months pants are getting short on you too. It is a constant process to weed out clothes from your drawers that have become too small!

Milestones/Firsts: You went to your first Phillies game this month, and you made so many friends! There was a group of girls sitting behind us, and they were laughing and chatting the whole game. You kept standing up backwards in the empty seat next to us, and you would look at the girls and fake laugh right at them ("ha ha ha!") to get their attention. They loved it, which only made you do it more and more!

(You are clapping in the picture above — you're so aware of what is going on!)

This month you took your first trip (with many more to follow) to the park this month. You love the swings! And for us, it's pretty rewarding to push you because we get to hear you giggle! What a sweet sound.

You've started cruising along low surfaces. You're pretty steady on your feet when you're holding on! The coffee table and sofa are a perfect height for you to hold on.

We found a new toy that you really like, and it allows you to stand to play. Not to mention that it plays "beat-boppin" music that makes you dance! Before you start to dance, you usually look at Daddy or me to see if we're boogieing too. Family dance party!

You got your first tooth in (lower center)! It's amazing how much it changes your smile. I can tell that you have another one that will be coming through right next to it soon. We've started brushing your tooth during bath time — for now this just means running a soft toothbrush around your new tooth and rubbing your gums with a damp washcloth. You love your toothbrush! And you hold it and use it correctly.

Likes/Dislikes: I'll say it again: You love to laugh! You laugh at yourself and your friends, teachers, grandparents, Mommy and Daddy, and even strangers. It's like you're on a mission to make people smile, and I love this about you.

You love to play, and you are very tactile. You like to touch and feel everything, and you love pushing buttons. One of your favorite things to hold is the remote control...we have relinquished the remote for our DVD player (which we rarely use) and added it to your toy collection. Of all things!

You like your freedom, and you spend a lot of time on the floor exploring your space. We put up the baby gates this month so that you can explore freely.

You play the silliest games and you crack yourself up. You'll throw your hands in the air and slap them down on the floor and giggle like crazy. You'll fake cough and make yourself laugh — and if someone joins you, you're even more amused! 

You like to read books together, but we rarely get to the end before you pick up the next book to be read. It cracks me up! You love to look at pictures in some of your picture books too. In particular, you seem to recognize pictures of other children and babies, and you point to them and laugh/smile.

We like to say that you really "get into your books"...see below. :)

You love (love!) sitting on Daddy's shoulders, and he loves having you laughing and bouncing and patting his head! When you get especially squirmy, it calms you and makes you more content with sitting still.

You love to play with Daddy, and riding on his shoulders almost always makes you bounce up and down and giggle.

We love you so much, Katy, and we are having the time of our lives watching you grow and learn. You will never know how much joy you bring to us each day. Thank you, little girl!