Kaitlyn 10 months

Kaitlyn at 10 months old….

I can’t believe how quickly Kaitlyn has grown over the past few months. We look back at Christmas pictures and she has changed so much since then and that seems like yesterday!! I am so excited to be out of school soon so I can finally spend more time with her! When school began in August, Kaitlyn was only 6 weeks old so I feel like I didn’t get to finish my maternity leave.

Miss Curly Sue! Her hair is so wavy at the top--its hard to brush it and keep it from sticking straight up! I am anxious to see what her hair will look like at it grows longer. We still don't know what color her eyes are. I think we are saying blue...but in some lighting they are green and some lighting they are very gray.

Kaitlyn discovers something knew everyday. One day she will blow in and out of her nose all day long and scrunch up her face and she will think its so funny. Another day she will make a fish face by sucking in her cheeks. Then she might make a clicking sound with her mouth and tongue. Then she will wave bye bye a whole lot throughout the day…then she discovers a high pitch noise to babble sounds….then she’ll clap a whole bunch another day…or blow bubbles or discover any other sound she can make or do. It’s hilarious!! She gets more and more fun everyday!

For Easter we had a friend take pictures with real baby ducks. She picked up a duck and put the entire head in her mouth before I could get to her. YUCK!

Kaitlyn’s first word was “Dadda” at 8 months old. After she said Dadda, she said “Jacey” (our dog’s name), then she would repeat things we would read in books “boat” “ball” “duck”. “goodnight”. FINALLY at 10 months she said “Momma”. It was the greatest thing (to me!). I cried. Now after saying “momma” she has also said a few other things… “dog” and “uh-oh” and “book” Its really funny to see her say dada and momma…she says Dadda with a huge smile and can change the tone from low pitch to high pitch…with Momma its more difficult for her to say…always low toned and sounds like she has a stuffed up nose.

Kaitlyn LOVES playing peek-a-boo and now she can hold up a blanket and cover her own eyes and peak from behind it. She also has learned how to purposely drop something and say “Uh-oh” and she knows that we’ll pick it up and give it back to her to do it again. She LOVES water bottles. I could be drinking from one and she will go nuts trying to take it from me. I give it to her and she wants to drink it so bad so I tilt it up for her and half the time it spills all over. Ha.

She got her first tooth at 9 months and within 2 weeks she had another tooth come in right next to it on the bottom of her mouth. Her upper gums have been swollen for months now. I just know one of these days she’ll wake up with four upper teeth.

There is a song that I sing to my Kindergarteners that I started singing to Kaitlyn…it goes “If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gum drops, oh what a rain that would be…standing outside with my mouth open wide, ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah ah (during that part I have my mouth wide open and tilt my head up to catch raindrops and make that sound) Kaitlyn will sing it with me during the “ah ah” part. She LOVES doing that. Now we have sung that song so much, she starts doing the “ah” part when I say the beginning of the song. It’s adorable. I got it on video. So that is definitely her favorite song now. She likes patty cake too, but not nearly as much as the rain song.

Kaitlyn LOVES books!! I can pick up three of four books and say “Kaitlyn wanna read books?” and she will smile really big and crawl super fast to wherever you set down the books. She will stop whatever she was getting into to come read a book. But then you HAVE to read to her when she gets to you or she won’t be happy! It is so neat to see how much she likes board books. We have a book that has buttons that you can push and a voice tells you the word of the picture…the other day Kailtyn said “dog” and after she said dog she reached down and touched the picture of the dog to hear it say “dog.” I was really impressed! I know it could have been coincidence, but I really think she knew what she was pushing.

The other day when I picked up Kaitlyn from the home day care, she was sitting on Betty’s lap. When she heard my voice and saw me, she jumped up and reached for me…I picked her up and she immediately waved “bye bye” to Betty. She knows her routine well. It was cute.

Kaitlyn is VERY curious and crawls very fast!! We get worn out chasing her around the house. We are finding more and more things that need to be baby-proof! She loves to crawl and get into ANYTHING that she is not supposed to get into. She will have all her toys all over the floor and she will want the remote or the dog’s bone or to go straight to our fireplace!

She can stand on her own for about 20 seconds. She’s been pulling up for a few months, but she is very close to taking her first step. She gets scared when I try to get her to take a step but I have a feeling she will take a step before her 1 year birthday.

Well that is my update for my 10 month old. I am trying to write about her every few months so I can put it in her baby book. There is so much that has changed over the past couple of months I know I will forget if I don’t write it down.

Tomorrow is my first Mother’s Day. It is a joy to be a mother and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I am honored to have Kaitlyn be my daughter and I am looking forward to watching her grow. At nighttime after giving Kaitlyn her bottle she usually falls asleep in my arms. I sit there and just stare at her not wanting to put her in bed. I am so thankful to have such a precious little baby. I am so blessed that I get to help mold her into the woman she will become. I pray that I can always set a good example to Kaitlyn and be a mom that she can always be proud of.

Happy Mother’s Day to all moms and “mother figures” out there!