As I've stated a few times already, we are amazed at the little baby we made and have brought into this crazy world. She amazes us daily with how quickly she has grown, both physically and mentally.
Here are some notes about Maddie's development at 10 months old in no particular order:
*Crawling: Maddie is officially an expert crawler. She is so fast and coordinated. She no longer spreads her legs into the splits when she starts to crawl. She now sticks her arms out straight, lands on her hands and bends her knees.
*Climbing: She LOVES to climb! She will climb up both flights of stairs in the house multiple times a day. When it's nap time, we'll let her climb up the stairs on the way to her room. Sometimes she gets distracted by the spindles and will stop at each spindle to talk to the other parent, but then will go onto the next step, stand up again and reach for us through the spindles. Other times she doesn't get distracted and will go straight up the stairs. It takes her around 2 minutes to get up all 18 steps of the main stairs! She will also climb on the playground, and she has even climbed UP the slide at the playground too!
*Standing: If Maddie is holding herself up standing, on the couch for example, we will hand her a toy to play with in one hand. We will then give her a toy to take with the other hand, and she will stand on her own for a few seconds before she loses her balance! She's getting better at standing on her own each day.
*Sitting down: Maddie has really great control when she goes from standing to sitting. I have heard stories of babies crying because they have pulled themselves up to standing, but can't sit down! We have never had that issue with Maddie. Sometimes there is more control than others (she flops down hard when she has less control), but she has always been able to lower herself down.
*Signing for Milk: A couple of weeks ago Maddie mastered the sign for milk. She actually uses it for water or food too, but usually she wants milk. Sometimes she just wants a taste of milk, we'll make a full bottle but she only drinks 1-2 ounces so we put the rest in the fridge. We are working on other signs since she has mastered this one! It's great for her to be able to communicate her needs to us, and for us to be able to address her needs without frustration!
*Recognizes her name: Maddie has started to recognize her name more often. If we call her name, she normally will turn her head to look at us.
*Baby proofing: We finally started to baby proof. We arranged the furniture in the living room and dining room as Maddie kept bumping her head on the barber chairs. The couch now is by the windows and blocks the barber chairs. She now has one large space to play in (living room and dining room) and I can keep a better eye on her now when I'm working from home. It's been difficult finding a baby gate for the main stair case as it's so wide and curved. We have returned 2 gates and 1 new gate is on the way - fingers crossed it works!
*Sleep - Bedtime: Maddie slept through the night for only the second time the day she turned 9 months old! Ironically at our 9 month appointment, the doctor said we should let her "cry it out" if she woke up in the middle of the night for a bottle, as a baby her age (and size - she's a big girl) doesn't need a bottle and is only waking up out of habit. At that point, she had been waking up once a night for a bottle, but quickly going back to bed. Well... luckily Maddie just decided on her won at 9 months old, she was a big girl and didn't need to wake up for food anymore! She only woke up one night a few days after that (and I gave her a bottle), and ever since then, she has slept through the entire night! She still gets about 11-12 hours of sleep a night.
*Sleep - Naps: Maddie is now taking 2 naps a day. Her naps have gotten longer, and she's able to stay awake and alert for longer periods of time. It's great to be able to get some housework done while she's napping! So far her longest nap has clocked in at 2 hours and 45 minutes!
*Sleep - Falling asleep on her own: This is a huge development for her! Sleep is developmental, babies need to learn how to sleep on their own, which is why a lot of babies need to be rocked to sleep. Of course when she was first born and the first few months we rocked her to sleep. Then there was a period when we would lay her in her crib on her belly, and pat her back until she was alseep / almost asleep. Then we went back to rocking. Then after she turned 9 months, we started to put her down in her crib drowsy but still awake. We let her "fuss it out" if needed, she usually she flops around a bit, sometimes she even fully sits up or stands, but eventually she does falls asleep. The quickest she has fallen to sleep for a nap or bed is 30 seconds! We believe this is a big part of her napping and sleeping so well, because she gets better rest since she is putting herself to sleep.
*Pointing / Lifting her arm / Reaching / Waving: In the last couple of weeks Maddie has started to point at everything with intent! It's really cute. She actually remembers things and will point at the same things day after day. For example Joseph takes her to see the flowers in the yard every day. She will point to the next flower in the yard in the order she usually sees them. She will lift one arm up with her palm flat, and we will give her a high five (before she was lifting up both arms at the same time. She often reaches for people. If I'm holding her and Joseph comes by, she will reach for Joseph with both arms, and vice versa. She has also gotten a lot better at waving. She still waves when the train goes by, and now waves when she see us enter the room or when I get home from work. She even waved goodbye to Pau Pau when she left today.
*Clapping after a lesson: We have a set of videos which are meant to develop a child's right brain activity. There is a section at the end of each lesson titled "Affirmations" (it is the same at the end of every video) and within the last week Maddie has started to clap whenever she sees this - she knows the video is done and claps at her job well done!
*Loves being in the water: We have a water baby on our hands! She loves bathtime (for the most part), she loved being in the lake when we went to Michigan. She loves the fountains at the park. We still sit her by the fountain and she gets the biggest smile when the water comes on and claps and laughs. It's absolutely adorable!
*Health: She is a healthy girl! I may be jinxing us but we haven't had to take her to the doctor except for her regularly scheduled check ups. She did have a bad cold and also a fever during the winter but it was nothing that time, milk and rest didn't take care of (we did call the doctor though and they told us we didn't have to take her in). She also hasn't had any ear infections, which apparently the Wagner kids had a lot of, and no cases of diaper rash!
*Eating a Ton: Maddie is now eating meals around 3 times a day. Each meal usually starts with some cornflakes or some baby puffs while we get situated as she gets antsy in the high chair if she doesn't have any food! Breakfast is normally something mixed with fruit. Lunch and dinner are normally a jar of baby food, and small bites of whatever Joseph and I are actually eating for the meal. She is so smart, even if we are feeding her her own food, she can tell the difference and wants what WE are eating! We are still exposing her to lots of different foods. One new food we introduced after her 9 month appointment, after receiving approval from the doctor, is eggs. We started off with egg yolks, and then scrambled eggs with both the yolk and white, as most people have allergies to the protein in the egg whites. She has luckily had no reaction! She has had a lot more fruit (including strawberries - no allergic reaction) and we are giving her bites of real pieces of fruit now such as banana, honeydew, and fresh pears from the pear tree in our next door neighbors yard. She loves it all!
*Reading / Books: Maddie is enjoying books and being read to a lot more now. At first she didn't seem interested at all and it was hard to keep her attention. Now if she doesn't seem interested, rather than force her to sit in our lap while we read, we will read while she plays. She will usually come over and look at the book or give us a kiss, then go back to playing. She has books she likes and doesn't like. If she likes a book she will often reach for it and play with the cover, and she even handed me a book once! I read the same 2 books to her at nighttime. Sometimes Joseph will read a new book, and Maddie will fuss and point towards the books that are normally read to her! Also as we near the end of the last book, she will cry because she knows the book is almost done and bedtime is close by! She is such a smart cookie!
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