Ten Months

Sorry the picture's blurry.  It's hard to snag a picture of her standing while trying to keep her attention focused on something other than the sticker she so desperately wanted to pull off her dress to eat.

 Today, Juliet is ten months old.  Fun facts about this month's developments:

• She is 28 inches tall.  I forgot to weigh her this morning, but I can tell you this: she is getting heavy. However, at her check up on Tuesday, she was measuring between 30th and 40th percentile, she isn't  a big baby by any means.
• She has stopped sleeping through the night.  I thought it was connected to teething, but she's not teething currently.  I asked her doctor about it, and he thinks it's more likely tied to a growth spurt and her body's ability to more quickly process breast milk.  She's averaging waking up starving twice a night now.  This is not fun, but it's still better than the eight to ten times a night she was up screaming while teething.
• Yesterday, standing just seemed to click for Juliet. She's been trying to stand and standing for a few seconds a time for at least a month now.  But yesterday, she began standing for long periods of time - minutes at a time.  It's so cool to watch her balance!
• Juliet has four teeth - her two front bottom teeth and two top teeth, the ones on either side of where her front teeth are. She is the most adorable snagglepuss ever.
• She has mastered solids and is now really working on feeding herself.  She loves chicken.  
• Juliet "paces" in her crib and in the empty bathtub.  It's hilarious to watch her crawl back and forth as fast as she can and just yammer away.
• She likes to dance and sing.  On our recent road trip to Savannah, she sang along with Dave Matthews, Jack Johnson, Willie Nelson, Flatt and Scruggs, Allison Krauss, Nelly, and Taylor Swift. (Clearly, I believe in exposing her to a diverse array of artists.)
• Her curiosity will get the best of her.  I've said in previous posts that she lives dangerously, and this is only getting more true as the days go on.  She will give me a heart attack by the time I'm 40 at this rate.
• Juliet has learned to throw her toys out of the tub and then crawl out of the tub to get them.

Here are some pictures of Juliet doing her thing this month.

I love to pull all the books off of my shelf and chew on one or two while Mama reads me some of the others.

If you look past all the blueberry, you can see three of my four teeth.

I really like to be outside, despite the look on my face in this picture.

Feeding myself food with a spoon is a lot harder than feeding myself finger foods.

I still really love bath time.

I thought I wanted to shower with Mama, so I cried and crawled in the shower with her.  But then I realized I don't like showers because the water sprays in my face.  This is a lot different than when I splash water in my own face.  So I cried until Mama took me out of the shower and wrapped me in her robe.  I was so exhausted from my trying adventure (and all that crying) that I just had to lay down.  Being a baby is very hard some days.

I stand in the tub all the time.  It makes Mama very nervous.  But I love it, so she lets me do it whenever I want.  She is hoping that I don't fall but that if I do, I don't hurt myself and just learn a good lesson about what the limits of my balance are.

I apologize for the quality of this video. But this is our life these days.  I let Juliet play in the bathtub until she's prune-y, and then I let her pull the plug.  After she pulls the plug, she tries to grab all the water as is goes down the drain.  Once the tub is empty, she runs laps and hollers.

Here's a video of Juliet showing off her table skills. We've got to work on chewing with her mouth closed, but I think she's doing a great job feeding herself.