10 Months!!

It's really hard to believe but our baby girl is 10 months old today!! And what a month we've had!! Right at the new year she began to wake up early. At first I thought it was a fluke, so I rushed into her room, patted her back, laid her back down and she just cried and cried. The next day I thought that maybe it was a diaper thing...so I changed her and put her back down. She cried and cried. Then I thought, maybe she's cold...so we turned up the heat at night. The following day I thought maybe it was a hunger thing...so I nursed her and put her back down. She was quiet for about 15 mins (like she'd gone back to sleep) and then cried and cried. Ugh...at this point I wasn't sure WHAT was going on!! I decided at this point to stop going in to get her. She ended up just playing in her room from the time she woke up (anywhere from 5:15 to 6:00) until the time I went and got her at the normal wake up time (7:30). Finally after 3 weeks, she's settled back down and is sleeping until 7 or 7:30 (at least I think so...if she's awake, she's quiet as a mouse). SO, all that said...THAT was new to us this month! Here are some more things that we've noticed about our little munchkin this month:

~She's standing steadily on her own now. In fact, just this week she took a couple of steps.
~She's FAST at getting around the house. She follows us from the living room down the hall to our bedroom.
~I've said this before but, OH BOY, she's a TALKER!! From the moment she's awake from a nap until the moment she falls asleep again, she's talking.
~Her appetite has increased! She's now eating 8-10 oz of puree every meal. I'm also giving her finger foods at the beginning of each meal. She's now eating cheese, biscuits, pasta, rice, tortillas, crackers, toast, cheerios, peas and diced carrots for finger foods. I'm ready to be at the point where she feeds herself all food at every meal. She's getting better at it.
~She weighs about 19 1/2 pounds. HUGE weight gain this month!
~She associates certain things with different people. For example, she knows that Grandma likes it when she snorts...so when she sees Grandma, she snorts. She knows that Nana likes her to stick her tongue out and go, "ah, ah, ah" so she does that when she sees Nana. She knows that when Mommy sits in the floor with her, she can jump on me and I'll catch her...so she does that with me. It's precious to see that she is playing games but also that she knows people.
~She is a social bug. She loves to be held by people, even total strangers. She loves to watch people talk and kids play.
~She's become an imitator. If I cough, she'll cough. If someone grunts, she'll grunt. If you make any kind of sound, she'll imitate it.

Claire, we love you more than you'll ever know. You've truly been a joy in our lives and we love every day that we have with you.