Dear Mungee,
You have entered the double digits and are now 10 months old. To sound totally cliche', where has the time gone? Everyone tells me to savor each and every moment because they go by so fast and it's completely true. Just the other day I was thinking about your teeth and how it's hard to remember what your gums looked like before you got them. It seems like you've always been as big as you are now, but of course, I know that's not true.
You're a baby on the move ... you started crawling on June 5 and you continue to practice. You don't crawl on your hands and knees, rather you use your elbows to push up your body and then drag yourself forward. You still find rolling around the room to be an effective means of transport as well.
You love to go after the cat. You squeal with delight when you're close to her. You've even started to look for her when she disappears into the laundry room to try and escape from you eat.
If you can't get the cat, you might as well just go after her food.
You're beginning to eat more textured foods and are trying very hard to feed yourself. The table food you've had includes bread, pita, watermelon, bananas, blueberries and broccoli. You are trying to perfect your pincer grasp, but you've got a little ways to go. You get food in your mouth every once in a while, but you often forget to take your fingers out of your mouth before you start to chew. There's definitely more food on your bib, highchair, face and lap when you're finished. You've also become quite a pro at drinking from your sippy cup, as well as drinking through a straw from a regular cup.
You may be imitating the sign for "milk". You seem to understand what I mean when I make the sign. Sometimes you do it while you're eating in your highchair. Other times you do it when you wave, so I might just be seeing things that aren't really there.
Speaking of waving. You wave hi and bye randomly and upon request. In the morning when you wake up we wave to your lamp, owl pictures, bird mobile and frog humidifier. We do the same for night night. You wave to people you know and don't know and you wave to the baby in the mirror. You wave to the Kit Kat clock. I've concluded that you're very social.
You clap when you're excited and when we exclaim "Yay!" You also clap your feet together when you're laying on your back and often when we pick you up and fly you through the air.
You love to play "Where's Mungee? ... Oh, there you are!" (Our version of peekaboo).
You give great big hugs, sometimes on request.
You love buttons and you still like to pick at the eyes on your toys, eyes in books and eyes on your stuffed animals. You also like to wrestle with your stuffed animals and eat their faces. Your favorites are Violet and Sock Monkey. You know that Violet sings and her collar lights up when you squeeze her paws. You're beginning to understand that squeezing toys or pushing buttons can result in music, sounds and songs.
Your hair is slowly growing in. Your eczema has cleared up tremendously since I stopped eating peanut m&ms and took you to the dermatologist. I am sorry I waited so long. You're getting three more teeth on the top (one appears to finally be breaking through your gums) and I think I can see two more teeth appearing under your bottom gumline.
You can stand with support and you are trying very hard to pull yourself up. Every once in a while I put you in your crib to practice pulling up on the rails. I'm probably going to curse myself for doing that once you can actually start pulling up, but for now I like to help you practice.
You are having a bit of a hard time going to sleep at night right now, due to your teething. We try to get you in bed by 7, but you've been resistant to falling asleep. Sometimes I put you down after nursing you and you're asleep but you wake up soon after, sometimes you're not asleep at all and I hope you'll fall asleep on your own. On really good nights, you're asleep when I put you down and you stay asleep through the night.
You generally take two naps a day in your crib (finally!), around 9 and 2, with varying lengths. Again, because of teething, your newly acquired good napping habits have reverted a bit.
It's hard to believe that you're just two months away from being one year old. That soon I'll be sending out birthday party invitations. That you'll be a toddler.
Daddy and I love you very much and we are so blessed to have you in our lives!
