Day 141 - May 21

As seems to be the usual these days, I'm a bunch of days behind in updating, and I'm also a few days behind in getting Cate's monthly picture done. These second kid really wrecks havoc on my ability to get anything done. You'd think I'd be used to that by now.

So here we are at ten months. Ten.

Ten.

Do you realize how close that is to twelve?

I'm not going to think about that.

Instead, I'll tell you all about Cate at 10 months. She's gotten ACTIVE this month. Actually, just in the past week or so, she's started to really crawl. It started off as a few tentative wriggles and now she's trying to follow us all around the house. Of course, she still prefers to be picked up and get around the lazy baby way, but if she really wants to get to us (or to something she's not supposed to have), she'll go on her own. The best part is that, when she gets somewhere on her own, she gets so darn proud of herself. She breaks out in a big, wide grin and vibrates with excitement.

Besides crawling, she's also started shaking her head no when she wants to say no, and nodding yes when she wants to say yes. The "no" isn't all that new to see since she's been shaking her head like that forever, but it is funny to see it in context. The "yes," on the other hand, is amazing. It's especially funny when we're telling her not to touch something and she nods, "yes" instead. Too smart! She also enthusiastically signs "milk" when it's time to eat. She's only instigated it once or twice, but she'll sign it  back when we ask if she wants milk. I love that she's starting to be able to communicate with us. And not a minute too soon since she's also learned how to throw a real fit when she doesn't get what she wants. That starts early, huh?

Lastly, on the physical front, she is pulling herself up to standing on pretty much everything now, and likes to practice walking when we hold her hands. She hasn't figured out cruising yet, but it's probably only a few days away. I'm curious to see if she how long it takes her to walk in comparison to Michaela, who took her first steps just shy of her first birthday.

In other news, Cate still doesn't seem to like to sleep. Well, that's not true. She doesn't like to sleep in her own bed, but she'll sleep all night cuddled up to one of us in our bed. I am not a fan of bed-sharing, but desperate times call for desperate measures, and she's spent a lot of time in our bed over the past month. We've tried the pack n play in our room, the pack n play in another room, the crib mattress on the floor of our room (which resulted in a baby half on and half off the mattress, or fully on the floor before we remembered that we had an inflatable bed rail we could use), and our bed. She also spent quite a bit of time on Jason's chest on the couch for about a week - teeth appeared shortly after that stint.  I remind myself daily that this won't last forever and she'll eventually sleep well, but it's tiring right now. We've had some success with the crib mattress on the floor of our room, so we're hopeful we've turned a corner. Just not overly hopeful.

The one thing she is doing well is eating. Once she got the taste for real food, she's all about it. We've started calling her Frank the Tank because her appetite seems insatiable at times. The child ate a whole banana the other night. She pretty much just gets what we're eating now, though I resort to pouches of pureed food when we're eating something she doesn't like or can't have. She definitely likes food, though. A lot.

Cate's love of the outside continues. And we've now added swimming into the mix. She wasn't sure what to think at first, but now she loves the pool! Since Michaela asks a bajillion times a day to go swimming, there are plenty of chances for Cate to get acquainted with the water. She loves to sit on the steps and splash, and kicks up a storm when we bring her out to "swim." We definitely have another water baby on our hands!

And now to the pictures. These are getting much more difficult to get every month. She doesn't want to sit still and is too distracted by everything going on around her to just wait a second while I snap a picture and then move on. Even with Jason's help this month, there were three decent pictures in about 20 shots. And the ones that were bad were really bad! But, I did get at least one really good one, and one funny one. Apparently, it's tough work posing for your ten month pictures.