Andddddd she’s 10 months

And I am clearly not a very on-top-of-it-blogger, seeing as how my last post was about her nine-month milestone! Sorry for my absence on here, but I tell ya the days are just getting away from me. I have so much that I intend to blog about, but somehow I blink my eyes and my baby is a month older, and I haven’t posted a thing in the meantime!

Anyway, I am loving watching this little girl’s personality blossom more and more. Holland is quite the little social butterfly these days. She is not one to be overwhelmed by bigger kids and their active play; she wants to be right in the middle of it all! Case in point: yesterday, we spent some time playing at a local kid’s spot called ‘Cartwheels & Coffee’, where it was wild. Not in a bad way (Hi Abby if you’re reading! We love C&C! ) ; there was just a lot of activity and a lot of bigger kids everywhere. It fascinated me to see that unlike he brother who is quite the quiet observer type, Holland seemed to be energized by the activity level! She crawled all over the place and literally giggled with delight. Perhaps she is destined for the life of an extrovert (like her mama!).

She continues to love animals, especially dogs. She also likes fish and will do the baby sign for fish (a kissing sound) on command. The other day we took a little trip to a pet store just for fun, and she and Wade both loved checking out all the animals. I am considering a fish for a family pet. A fish is a pet I think I could handle. And I know my kids would really like it….we shall see. She is still a big fan of the swings too! Such joy!

It totally melted my heart when Holland started to sign for ‘nurse’ this month too! I continue to love our nursing relationship. I had some concerns a little bit this month about my milk supply, but I popped some fenugreek and drank some magic potion from my midwife, and I’m happy to report that I think all is well there.

It’s been an interesting month with regards to sleep. Several weeks ago, we did some <light> sleep-training because homegirl was getting up all throughout the night, barely nursing and neither of us were sleeping well. Two episodes of crying that only last five minutes each and she was right back to sleep! Then two nights later, she slept through her usual wake up around 11 pm and slept till morning! For about the next 10 days or so, she slept through the night for about 11 hours or so! Unbelievable! Then for some reason (possibly aforementioned milk supply issues?) she began waking again, and now we’re back to a ‘good’ night being one wake-up each night to nurse. Her mornings are pretty early in my book too—around 6:15 am, though I’m ususally lucky enough and she’ll sleep in till around 7 with me. Naps are usually somewhere between 45 minutes (which elicits complaining from mama) and 1 hour and 20 mins (which I feel is ok) and happen around the 9 o’clock hour and again around 1:30. (Once this month she napped for 2 hours and 15 minutes! I know this because I wrote it down in one of her baby books. You mamas of babies who regularly nap for this long, please know that I am envious.) Bedtime is 7, though I know she’d go down earlier…I just can’t get dinner and baths done much earlier than that!

This month Holland started playing the 'So Big’ game, and she loves raising her arms (sometimes only one arm which is pretty funny) high above her head (during meal times, for some reason). She also recently started waving bye-bye, which is also pretty darn cute. She cruises the furniture with ease, and I am wondering when she’ll be brave enough to let go. I frequently find her barely holding on with one hand, so we shall see. Oh, and she can climb the stairs now too. Heaven help me.

She still only has her two bottom teeth, though we are convinced there are some others just ready to burst through. I am actually hoping that maybe teething is part of the reason she is back to waking up in the night?

{This is her favorite thing to do with her feet while she sits in her high chair! Curls those toes under the tray just about every time.}

Holland continues to eat well, though I’ve recently backed off of dairy in her diet, as well as drinking cow’s milk myself. She had some diaper rash (which is unusual) and I noticed some faint eczema appear on her cheek/neck. I had recently begun drinking cow’s milk again and she loves her some cheese. Thankfully, this change seems to have taken care of the issues. Hopefully she’ll be able to tolerate it better when she gets a bit older. She loves little bits of protein like deli meat and fish, and she is the biggest fan of fruit. She will literally tell you she is all done (no kidding, she says “aaaahhh du” and has been since she was 7-8 months old. We just couldn’t believe that’s really what she was saying, but it’s clear it was!), and then you give her some peaches or mango, and she is ready to roll some more. She’s pretty keen on semi-frozen bites of pureed veggies too. We came upon this discovery by accident when we only partially thawed some veggies for her, and she seemed to really like the cold on her gums I suppose. I made a quinoa and millet casserole the other night and was quite delighted to watch her happily eat it as well!

Oh, and I suppose I should note on here that Holland had her first trip to the ER this month. Don’t worry—she’s fine, and it was probably a bit overkill to take her, but here’s what happened: Holland was in the johnny-jump-up, and Wade was swinging her (we let him do this and have worked to teach him to swing her straight). Unfortunately, he did not swing her straight this particular time and I heard a loud bang! from the other room. My little love was rather upset and had a big ol goose egg on her noggin. I kinda freaked out, so we took her in. Thankfully, she’s fine, but this episode reminded me of how thankful I need to be for all the missed accidents each day! It is by the grace of God none of us gets hurt more frequently or more seriously.

Lastly, Holland weighed 18 lbs, 5 oz, as of this past Monday, keeping her in about the 30th percentile. People are starting to tell us they think she is favoring Wade more these days, and I have to agree.

And with that, I am done and baby girl is on her way to 11 months! Slow down, Miss Holland, slow down.