10 Months!

Calista Diane is 10 Months old!

We're a bit overdue for this one (the picture is actually a week late!)  Unfortunately I came down with what I thought was a stomach bug at the end of October, was sick at home the day Cali turned 10 months, wound up in the hospital the next day and then had an emergency appendectomy the day after that.  Oof. I'm now home and recovering, slowly but surely.  It was not a fun week for any of us, but we're finally starting to get back to normal around here.

This month, Cali has been...

On. The. Move.  She's started standing up on her own for a few seconds at a time more and more and the day she turned 10 months she actually took her first steps!  She was holding on to the coffee table, Jay called to her and she let go and took about 2 steps to him.  Hooray!  She's done it a few more times here and there since.  It's only a matter of time now before she's running around.  She also loves climbing and anything she can pretend is a tunnel and crawl through.

Trying to make the table a tunnel

Always climbing

Had her first real illness.  Poor thing had a fever and was just miserable for a couple days.  After the fever went she broke out in a rash so I think it may have been roseola.  Her fever was never high though so all things considered I think we were lucky.

Poor sick baby.

Eating. And eating, and eating.  This kid loves food. If anyone has food, she needs to have some too.  She'll crawl right over and stand next to you whining until you give her a bite or a piece.  She loves cheese, frozen veggies, frozen fruit, corn on the cob, plums, chicken, fish, sausage, pasta, crackers...pretty much everything.

Mmmm plum!

Breastfeeding like a champ.  This girl is a bit of boob monster.  While Ceci was starting to lose a bit of interest, never fell asleep nursing and had pretty much dropped all of her night feeds by this age, Cali is still a huge fan of falling asleep feeding and waking 1-3 times a night to eat (normally twice).  She generally nurses when she wakes in the morning, before each nap, before bed and then overnight.  She's capable of not nursing to sleep but seems to sleep longer and better if she does.  Plus, it's easy.  So we're riding this one out for now, having faith that when she's ready to give it up she will.

Becoming more and more independent.  She wants to use a spoon to eat and doesn't want help.  She even tries to scoop food up with her utensil. If she wants something, she figures out how to get it - climbing, pushing objects around, whining...she doesn't whatever it takes to achieve her goal.

Learning so much!  She now waves hi and goodbye, gives hugs and kisses, does touchdown and how big does the baby grow, plays peek-a-boo with her hands, throws and (sort of) catches, and follows lots of action words (bang, bounce, dance). Her babbling has now transformed from dadadadadada to short burts that sound like words.  Dadada, mamama, nanana (for no no no), numnum (usually for food), da! (I think meaning that when she's gesturing towards something), etc.  It's adorable, and it all the sudden feels like she's really trying to communicate with us.

Touchdown!

Teething.  For what feels like forever.  She now has three teeth - the two on the bottom have been here a while, and the right top finally came through a couple weeks ago, but the left top is taking its sweet time to cut through.  We can see it, and it occasionally plays peek-a-boo popping out a little and then retreating back in.  The poor kids seems miserable with it - drooling up a storm, gnawing on everything, etc.  Hopefully it will sort itself out soon and the rest will find their way down a bit more quickly!


Here are the best outtakes and alternates from our (rather late) 10 month photo shoot:

And here's Cali's 10 month video

Cali continues to impress us every day.  We love her so much!