Ten Months Old

Kayden Grace is 10 months old.  That feels dangerously close to the one year mark!  This little missie sure is growing up these days.  I feel like she has grown up a LOT this month.

I have no idea how big Kayden is.  Her legs are definitely stretching in preparation of the first steps which are just around the corner.  She probably weighs more than last month but she doesn't feel much bigger so who knows.  Last month she was about 16.5lbs so this month she's probably around 17lbs.  Our bathroom scale battery died this month so I have no way of checking where she's at :) She's officially grown out of anything smaller than 12 month sleepers, though 6-12 month shirts and even 6 month pants still fit.

Kayden's hair is slowly coming in, though she still has a pretty prominent bald spot at the back.  Kayden's eye-hand coordination is ever-improving.  She can easily grab even the smallest little pieces with thumb and forefinger and put them carefully into her mouth.  She choked on her first marble this month, thanks to this skill...though I'm sure if presented with the opportunity, she would have managed this earlier.  Yes, everything still goes in the mouth.  I'm sure she's teething by now but no teeth have made an appearance yet.  And all day long, she's still happy as a clam so if she is teething...best teether EVER!

Her playing has changed a bit this month. She's discovered the fun of peek-a-boo, pulling a blanket over her face to hide from us then moving it with a big smile as we say "peek!"  She bangs toys together on purpose now, just to hear the noise. As I watch her play, she seems more deliberate in her actions, as though every movement is an experiment to see what will happen as a result. She also seems to be finding her "silly" side as she sometimes will do something just to make us laugh. This is just starting though and has maybe happened once or twice that I've noticed. She has also discovered her toes this month and put her toes in her mouth for the first time this morning. Late, I know. I blame cloth diapers for reduced range of motion :)

Kayden's sleep patterns have not improved at all this month.  I moved her into our room (as mentioned in the last post here) but the results have been not as drastic as I'd hoped.  She has this terrible habit of waking up between 10-11pm every night and crying for 1-3 hours.  Nothing seems to be wrong except that we're not holding her.  If we pick her up, she is happy and calm but we put her down and there is screaming so intense that she starts gagging.  Seriously, girl.  Just sleep!  After that night-interruption, she usually sleeps in 2.5-3 hour increments before waking again for a feed.  She goes to bed between 7-7:30 and wakes for the day between 7:30-8:30am.

Kayden is a happy happy girl.  Well, "content" is maybe a better word.  We don't hear alot of giggles from her and even smiles are not a constant thing.  It's not hard to get her to smile if you're part of her family, but you'll most likely get a serious face if you're anyone else.  She is often a quiet observer, occasionally making a little noise or babbling a few words.  She definitely doesn't have any "words" yet.  No "dada" or "mama" or anything like that. She does have sounds like "aah!" and "ayaah!" that come out more regularly but it doesn't seem like she's trying to talk much yet. She loves animals, babies and faces/fuzziness in general.  She gets most excited when she sees animals (pictures or real life), babies (pictures or real life or dolls), or her brother playing and laughing excitedly.  When she gets excited, she flaps her arms like she wants to just fly over there and join in the fun.  Sometimes she almost tips herself over, she is flapping so wildly. 

Kayden's most notable changes have been in the physical realm this month.  She has become quite the steady stander, even just in the last week or two.  Her favourite is to hold onto our fingers and then steady herself and let go.  She can stand on her own in the middle of the room for seconds at a time!  It's incredible, really.  She's even tried to move her foot forward on a couple occasions but actual steps and walking are still a ways away, I think.  Though at this age it can happen so fast!  Kayden is not crawling yet, nor skooching, nor rolling so once she gets fed up enough with not being mobile, I think she'll just work on walking that much harder.  I wouldn't be surprised if she just skipped crawling altogether.  I say that she's not rolling but as of this morning, she has now rolled both ways (front to back and back to front) at least once.  :)  She mostly just lays down the way we put her though.  She can rotate in circles a bit when she's laying down or sitting up but even that doesn't happen alot.

Kayden loves to eat.  She often insists on eating what we're eating, even if I've already put a version of it on her high chair.  It sometimes just NEEDS to be out of our bowls.  She does incredibly well, considering she has no teeth.  She still nurses every 3 hours (day and night - sheesh), but is more and more ok with stretching that a bit.  Today she went 4.5 hours and was freaking out a bit and I couldn't figure out why - it's so unlike her!...until I realized that I hadn't fed her since before we left for town that morning and it was now 3pm.  In my defense, I did give her some lunch while we were eating but still.  Poor girl. I haven't been very careful with introducing one food at a time this time around.  Even starting with pureed foods and working up to different textures has been different from last time.  It went from a little bit of baby cereal straight to crackers and all sorts of things.  But I followed her lead and she's done great with it.  I think I'll go this route again if we ever have more kids.  It's much less work and stress than the way "they" say to do it!

Here is a picture of Kayden trying to stand on her own on the couch.  Notice both hands are off the couch?  She practices standing alone ALL the time.  She's getting pretty good at it :)  She seems quite willing to try new things over and over again until she gets it.  I try not to compare the kids, but Levi's personality seems much more hesitant to try things unless he knows he'll succeed on his first try.  Kayden seems to be much more willing to experiment and try things over and over again until they work, not phased at all by things not working the first time.  This is only one way that Kayden is different from her brother.  It has been interesting to see how these two are different.  Right from the beginning, they have been two totally different kids.  And they compliment each other so well.  I think they'll have fun growing up together :)




What a crazy and fun 10 months it has been.  You make being a mommy easy, Kayden. Even when you are awake and crying in the middle of the night, you give the best smiles and hugs.  We love you to pieces and look forward to another month with you!