Highlights of Month 10

Month 10 has been a fun month. Abigail is very interactive with us now, which is really fun! This month, she learned to wave bye bye, play peek-a-boo with us (where she will even sometimes pull the blanket over her face and throw it back down so we will say "Peek-a-boo!" back to her), and is starting to mimic some of the sounds we make. She babbles a lot these days and changes her inflection so that it almost sounds like she is speaking in sentences, just using words we can't yet understand! She has also started making this funny swooshing/whispering sound. Last month, she moved from screaming to blowing raspberries when she was frustrated, and this month, she has started growling or roaring instead! All of this of course makes it hard as the parent not to laugh!

She is biting down on this squirter and it keeps squirting her in the face!

She loves bathtime!

So fun!

Sharing with us

These two photos are of Abigail signing "all done!" - the only one she consistently does at this point, but she is really good at it and seems to mean it when she does it.

She has also started really paying attention to what we do and wanting to copy us. Waving bye bye or playing peek-a-boo are two examples, but she has also been really interested in us brushing our teeth and grabbing at our toothbrushes. So this month we got her her own toothbrush, which she loves! She likes the noise it makes when she pushes it against her teeth but she especially loves biting down on the bristles, then pulling it out of her mouth so she rips the bristles out of the toothbrush one by one. Funny kid!

She also seems to have discovered both her tongue and her index finger. It was like watching her discover her hands when she was 3-4 months old. It would pass in front of her face and catch her eye an then she would just stare at it. These days, she likes to revel in the discovery of both of these body parts and you can often find her with her tongue sticking out and her index finger on her tongue!

In the past couple of weeks, she has also taken to crawling under furniture or at least trying! One time, she was trying to fit her head under the changing table, but it wouldn't fit. So little problem-solver that she is, I watched her look at the space, then turn her head to the side and stick it under there so it would fit! I don't have a picture because I was laughing too hard!

Finally, at 9 1/2 months, she took her first steps. I laugh because the reason she took those first steps is because she had a spoon in her hand that she did not want to let go of and could not figure out how to crawl with it! Since then, she has gone back mainly to crawling, but every once in awhile will just walk over to something instead of crawling (again, usually when her busy hands are full!). At the end of month 10, she also started coming up on her tiptoes to see or reach an inch higher! I have a feeling we're going to have a climber on our hands! She is still mostly wearing 6-9 month clothes and her growth seems to have slowed down a bit - likely because of all the energy devoted to walking!

To make the most of winter, we created a Minnesota winter stroller and took her out for a nice walk. I was trying to figure out how to keep her contained and not falling all over, when Claude said, "Do you think the laundry basket will work?" Sure enough! It was perfect!

Abigail continues to be a great and adventurous eater, for which we are very grateful! To keep her busy while I was cooking (and give her some teething relief), she enjoyed chewing on some lemongrass.

She also thoroughly enjoyed our last CSA until spring and was very interested in tasting the different things!

Finally, like most babies, she is a Cheerios addict. I honestly don't know why she likes them so much, but like cheese or yogurt, when she sees it, she starts flailing her arms wildly, as her sign for "give me some of that good stuff!!" This month, we taught her how to use these ingenious snack cups, where you stick your hand in and pull some Cheerios out without the whole thing dumping out. Fantastic! She is a very clever little girl, so it only took her a few tries to figure it out. However, she ran into another problem she needed to solve when she got too greedy and had one hand full of Cheerios then stuck the other hand in but now didn't have a free hand to pull hand #2 out! So she just shook it really hard and eventually it came out, and she sat there with two hands full of Cheerios looking pretty darn pleased with herself!

This month, she also started learning how to use a spoon, and is actually quite good at getting at least some of it in her mouth! Though, she does like to try to eat both ends of the spoon at this point, which makes for a messy endeavor.

Finally, we celebrated Abigail's first Valentine's day in style thanks to Grandma Rae. And Uncle Aris came to visit for a few days, so that was fun!

Like I said, Abigail the Cheerio Monger

She's walking!

And she's off! Walking at 9 1/2 months...we're in for it!

Monthly Photos - Month 9

I am hoping we'll get to 1 year with these photos of her on the blanket, but each time it gets harder! Next month may show either Claude or me in the picture holding her down next to the lamb!

Highlights of Month 9

Life continues to fly by. In month 9, we continued to battle illness and Abigail has still not kicked the cough she has had since November. The doctor put her on a nebulizer twice a day for the next 3 months to see if that will help. We have had fevers and coughs and stuffy/runny noses, oh my! They say the first winter with kids is the hardest and everyone gets everything passed around. I say, come on spring!

In more fun news, Abigail is standing alone these days, including standing up from the middle if the floor. She had also taken a couple of steps a couple of times, but still prefers the speed she's got with crawling.

I had fun making these fabric letters for her with magnets sewn inside where she can't eat them!

My dad visited in the beginning of January for a few short days, but got to enjoy some time with Abigail and see how big she's getting! And we enjoyed cooking and eating good food together!

She also cut her first top tooth, which somehow, even more than the bottom teeth, makes her look shockingly like a big kid and not my little baby anymore! This month, she also became aware of and very interested in shadows. It makes for a new and helpful distraction technique as we try to get her to stay on her back for the 2 minutes it takes to change her diaper.

We also had a nice visit to see Aunties Mari and Michelle in PA. It was nice to see where they live and hang out with the animals. Mari and Michelle watched Abigail Sunday evening while Claude and I drove to another part of the state for a wedding of a friend of Claude's from Senegal. It was nice to see him and also spend time with the best man, another good friend from Dakar. I also enjoyed chatting with the groom's mom, who came over from Senegal for the wedding.

Auntie Mari teaching Abigail how to do stairs - she liked going up but not going down!

The Best Man Cedric, Claude, and the Groom Jules

The groom's mom was beautifully dressed in a Senegalese outfit

A few more random photos from this month and quite a few short videos:

Abigail's first Christmas

The only other picture I have of her on her first Christmas...oops

The yogurt drink that she loves

Big girl drinking out of a big person cup!

The hunt for small pieces of anything on the floor that she can put in her mouth. Her specialty is little tiny pieces of onion peel that fall on the ground. 

Still looking

Cheering on their favorite team!

One of her favorite things to do - take all the books off the shelf!

Crinkly paper and her shadow

Abigail and Daddy playing call and response in the car - she does this when she's tired

Abigail laughing

5 minutes of Abigail at 9 months - are you tired yet?

Random facts about 9 months:
Weight: 17 lbs 15 oz (35%) Height: 27.5 (50%)
Wears: size 3 diapers, 6-9 month pants, 12 month jammies, 6-9 month shirts and onesies, size 3 shoes
Teeth:  2 on bottom, 1 on top!
Loves: bathtime, snuggles in her warm towel after the bath, playing with Daddy, looking at shadows, finding the tiniest pieces of things on the floor, picking them up, and putting them in her mouth!

Hates: having her diaper changed and her nose wiped

Brags: she's going to be an early walker!

Foods she loves: yogurt, kefir, cheese and hot pepper chicken, eggs, beans and rice, puffs

Foods she hates: not a big fan of corn - she picks the peas out around the corn if we give her mixed veggies, but the peas might just be easier to see!

Favorite toys: books, but mostly when she is pulling them down off the shelf, anything crinkly or shiny, the popup toy, but she only likes slamming them down not trying to figure out how to pop them up