Ten Months

Pulling up to stand... and even lowering herself back down again.

My joyous girl is cruising (well, crawling) towards a year. Hard to believe.

She endured allergy testing a few days ago and does not have a wheat allergy. I'm flummoxed. Of course I don't want her to have allergies but both the nanny and I have repeatedly noticed eczema flare ups (or an eczema-like rash) after wheat exposure. But the allergist said it's not an allergy unless it's hives or difficulty breathing or other symptoms like that. And keeping wheat allergy out of her diet now can actually make her more prone to allergies or Celiac Disease in the future.

So she'll be having a little challah with her dinner tonight. Fingers crossed that it goes well.

She's crawling everywhere now, and can switch from crawling to sitting and back again. And just a week or so again, she started pulling herself up to standing. My little baby isn't so little anymore!

She also chatters something fierce -- mostly a lot of Dadada, though I swear she says hi, or rather, "Haaaaa" as she waves. She pants excitedly as she crawls around the house. She's just so enthusiastic about everything that she can't contain her joy.

Everything makes me smile!

We have a growth check next week to make sure she's still getting taller. I think she's thinning out a bit. My robust eater is definitely less interested than she used to be. Especially with me. She's way too busy. She definitely drinks more milk from the bottle with the nanny (who feeds her alone in the glider, whereas we are always on the go when she's with me during the day) than she nurses during the day with me. She still loves her morning nursing session, and when she doesn't nurse enough at night, she wakes up around 9 pm for a topping up. Since I'm still awake, I don't mind that too much. And then she sleeps through the night. Hooray!

I was having an issue with her for quite a while with her waking up around 4 or 5 am. I would rush in to try to soothe her, or else move her to the pack n play in my room, in an effort to keep her from waking her sister (since they share a room). But then Amelie wouldn't go back to sleep. She'd happily chatter in her crib until I came in... and then cry once I left her again.

Finally I brought Calliope into my room for a few days. Amelie stopped waking up. And now I have found that even when Amelie does cry, especially before those 9 pm feedings... Calliope no longer wakes up. She's learned a enviable skill -- heavy sleeping. One I've always wished I had.

Calliope is doing great. She's rocking her new shorter "do." And she's suddenly very interested in writing words. She tells me what she wants to write and I spell it out for her. Today she wrote her first sentence!

You'll be surprised, no doubt, to know that she composed this sentence herself.
Because she decided, independently, that she won't engage in "potty talk" any more.
I'm not holding my breath on that one!

I'm not doing any formal instruction with her at all, and am suddenly wondering if I should be introducing the idea that letters have sounds? I wouldn't push, but given her sudden interest in writing, I wonder if she would be interested. I suspect I will introduce the idea in a casual way, like "Hey, did you know that every letter makes a sound, and put together, they make words?" and ask if she wants to learn some letter sounds. I have no background in any of this and don't want to screw it up. Her school is very anti-academics at this age (and until first grade) so I'm very cautious about pushing.

ETA: I tried mentioning the idea to her and she wasn't into it. I'm backing off now!

But then this morning, she said, "Do you know what sound A makes? Aaaah."

So she's figuring it out. Just as she always does, she will be figuring it out on her own. And on her own schedule.