10 Months

10 months. 2 months to go 'til the big 1.

And after crawling comes walking. No, she's not there yet, but she's well on her way--cruising along the furniture and beginning to stand without helping hands. And she is, of course, quicker than ever with the crawling and climbing. The necessary reorganizing of the house (to keep important things out of Kaida's tiny, curious grasp) is underway.


Surprisingly, Kaida doesn't have any more teeth and the one she's got has barely moved since last month. But there are signs that three more are on their way--life is getting particularly slobbery recently and there is a hint of white below the gums.


She's also become quite the champion eater. This month she devoured lasagna, pasta shells stuffed with ricotta and spinach, strawberries, eggs (both scrambled and hard boiled), cheese (just cheese in general), a ground chicken burger, ground beef in tacos (soft shell--of course!--both at home and at Moe's!), tomatoes, clementines, and likely others that we simply can't remember.


With all her new eating and moving, we've got a lot of energy to contain. Luckily, it's finally time to go outside! Every time we wheel her out in the stroller she does a full body wiggle of excitement. Things are going to be fun.

3/4 of a year!!! Has it really been 9 months already???

And we have a mover! The art of crawling has been perfected around here, even on hardwood floors. Of course as soon as she could crawl she started trying to take steps while she is standing. Oh my are we in trouble.

With crawling has come a new appreciation of all the small particles on our floor. She can pick up even the smallest crumbs and inspects them very intensely.



The other big news of the month is that a tooth finally broke through! The bottom right front...her right. We suspect more are on the way (hello drool!).

She has also had a bunch of new foods including yogurt, toast, pasta, quesedilla, mac n cheese, pizza breadsticks, more fruits and veggies, etc. Perhaps more exciting is the fact that she is really starting to understand eating now and actually consumes more than we find on her clothes or the floor (most of the time). This girl can down almost a whole banana and piece of toast at a sitting. We can see now that she really chews. We are still working on drinking from a cup without liquid going everywhere but her mouth, but that will come in time.


Isn't she pretty? :)

Official stats to come after our dr. appt tomorrow.

Kaida's New Skill

K's New Skill from Brandon Davis-Shannon on Vimeo.

From March 19th!

2/3 of a year! In February, Kaida:

*got even closer to crawling. She can get on her hands and knees and just hasn't quite found her forward momentum yet.
*pulled herself to standing! From the moment she could sit she's wanted to stand and now all she needs is leverage from mommy or daddy, After that her little leg muscles go to work!
*learned how to clap. so cute. She loves to clap along to "If You're Happy and You Know It."
*started going to work with mommy a couple days a week.
*got very clingy and whiny.
*went through a growth spurt and all her pants got too short.
*became very expressive. So many more faces and emotions going on. Her angry eyebrows are especially adorable. Definitely check out the pictures on Shutterfly.
*started to communicate in basic ways; she understands that if she puts her arms up we will pick her up and things like that.
*discovered an intense love of her jumper. Girl loves to bounce!
*moved to her big girl bath, which she loves. If we let her, she would probably just stay in all day.
*started to understand books; she turns the pages for us when we are reading to her instead of just trying to pull the book into her mouth, although she still does that too.

That about covers it. We don't get any official measurements for another month, but maybe we'll do some unofficial measuring of our own and let you know. We know she has grown for sure, but how much is the question. She is just developing such a little personality and is more fun every day as she understands more and more. We also continue to introduce more foods and she tried a cup for the first time and loved it. Like really loved it. We can't wait to see what this month holds!

A Message from Kaida:

Happy Valentine's Day!!!

It was a big month around here. In January, Kaida:

*Started reaching, grabbing and lunging for things very purposefully. Girl knows what she wants.
*Started babbling, lots of "bababa, dadadad, gagaga", etc. Very cute, especially when she is mad
*Had her first solid foods. So far she has tried sweet potato, avocado, pear, banana, carrot, broccoli, zucchini, and honeydew. She is not eating much of them yet, more just playing with them, but it is very cute and she seems to enjoy it.
*Started working toward crawling. She hasn't gotten the coordination down, but she pulls herself from sitting onto her belly and clearly wants to go somewhere. She scoots a little and loves to stand holding on to our hands
*Moved to her crib. I wouldn't call this a success yet, but really it's not going much worse than her co-sleeper was before we moved her. We just need to get her to stop waking up and screaming when she is put down....
*Went on her first vacation. This included a lot of firsts such as, plane ride, boat ride, leaving the country, going in the ocean, going in the pool, meeting her west coast family, bus ride, trip to disney (even if brief and not actually in the park...)
*Unfortunately had her first cold. It was not bad and really only one bad day plus some stuffies.
*Got a bit more hair, which means it is kinda crazy as it grows in and is whispy and in all directions :) very cute

Kaida versus the Sweet Potato!

Today marked Kaida's first encounter with "real," i.e. non-mommy-provided, food. She had two slices of sweet potato. She certainly was shocked by the taste, but, as you'll see, she kept coming back for more . . . .