Abigail is 10 months old!

Wow, it is weird to think that she's in double digits now. Ha. My baby is growing up! I left my camera in Tyler (I think), so no 10 month old picture yet.

Abigail weighs 20 pounds, 11.5 ounces (courtesy of the doctor appointment last week) and is in size 3 diapers. We bought a pack of extra-absorbant size 4 diapers, though, for nighttime in hopes that she'll sleep longer. So far, it works! On Sunday night, she slept for 10 straight hours! For some reason, she always sleeps better at Nani & Papa's. I don't know if it is because the room is colder (I love that fan!) or if it is because she is worn out from all the attention, but Robby & I love going down there because we can sleep really well. She has 3 teeth, if you can count that new sprout as a "tooth", and is working on 2 more. They're right underneath the gums.

She is EXTREMELY mobile now; Robby and I joke that she should enter speed crawling races, and we'd put our money on her. She is fast! It was really interesting to see how her crawling progressed: backwards on her back/head at (late) 7 months; going everywhere backwards on her tummy, and sometimes in circles at 8 months; "inch-worm" crawling forward at late 8 months; slow, awkward crawling at 9 months; and incredibly fast speed crawling (like the diaper commercial) at late 9 months. Wow! I think she got so fast because she likes to chase Chance. Abby loves him!

She's an expert at sitting up from lying down, and can even go in circles to turn around while she's sitting. She's pretty good at pulling up on every and any thing, and she can walk well when holding on to someone's fingers. She's working on standing up on her own, without pulling up. It's really funny to see, because she can stick her bottom in the air (it looks like she's bending over touching her toes) and then she gets stuck. She doesn't know what to do after that. I feel bad for laughing, but it is so funny!

She likes to eat, but not nearly as much as before. I guess her ravenous eating has slowed down for now, which is okay with us. The daycare teacher calls all the time because she is concerned about it, but if she gained more than one pound in a month, I'd say she's doing okay! It almost seems as if she is bored with baby food and only wants table food. She likes to feed herself and she loves real food. The only thing holding her back is my fear of her choking, so I need to work on that. How else will she learn? I'm working on it and trying to introduce her to new foods. Good thing her daddy will share ANYthing he is eating!

Oh, one important milestone: she has learned how to share! She gives Mommy and Daddy whatever she is holding. She'll pick something up and hand it to us. We're very proud about that! She also loves to play peek-a-boo and loves to dance. She loves music - and reading. She is captivated by story time, and some days we will read 2 or 3 books to her...sometimes more! It's amazing to us how she loves books. She actually crawls over pillows (which, by the way she grunts and acts, looks like the equivalent of hiking up a mountain) to get to books!

As far as language development goes, she says Mama, Dada and dog on a regular basis, Hi pretty frequently and has said multiple times Papa. Words she has said once: Baba (when looking at a bottle!), Jojo, Nana (which will have to be turned into Nani). I love to see her grow!

Abigail is 8 months old!

Look closely! You can see her two bottom teeth!

Today marks the 8 month anniversary of our little one's arrival. According to my measurements, Abigail is 27.5" long, 18.8 pounds, and has a head circumference of 18.25" (ish - it was hard to tell because she squirmed!). She wears size 3 diapers and shoes, although she hardly wears shoes - or socks! - for very long. Depending on the brand, she wears 6-9 months, 6-12 months or just plain ol' 12 month clothes. Many of her 6-9 month clothes are getting too small. In the case of rompers or some of the such, her torso is too long for it to snap!

She goes to bed around 8 pm and gets up in the morning about 7:30 or 8 am. She usually wakes up between 3-4 am for a bottle, but lately she has been waking up at about 11pm also. It's new to us and we don't like it! I think it is because she has a wet diaper, because usually she will just get a diaper change and go back to sleep. She really hates being wet! She has two teeth, bottom center, and it feels like the top two are getting close. Of course, it took months for the bottom two to come in, even after we said it looked "close."

She loves food, especially Gerber puffs. This past month, she tried mashed potatoes, various beans, saltine crackers, dry cheerios and a few bites of other table foods. She started eating diced soft fruits and I think I may do the same for vegetables soon. She's on stage 2 foods and loves most of the fruits. She's even starting to come around to peas and green beans! We just tried giving her pureed chicken a week or so ago, and she HATES it. Every bite would make her gag. It's kind of funny to see a baby have such a strong preference. She will eat it, however, if we mix it with sweet potatoes.

I am really amazed with her development. I already mentioned how she moves in a previous post, but now (started today) when she stands up holding on to something, she is getting brave and letting go to reach for a toy. Scary! I have to fight my urge to make her hold on while I hand her the toy. Not much progress on crawling since that post last week, but she does get on all fours and rock quite a bit more often. When she is sitting, she will reach for toys and almost put herself in the crawling position. One noticeable change from last month is the amount of time she spends on the floor and on her tummy. She used to HATE being on her tummy, but now she will stay that way and scoot (backwards, or in circles) for 10-15 minutes at a time. Mind you, that is accompanied time. She is not much for playing by herself. I wonder sometimes is she will crawl or walk first. She can walk pretty well when holding on to my hands - when she wants to. She did yesterday at the Little Gym, and the teacher was impressed. :) It's give and take on any given day. Oh - and she FINALLY rolled over back to front on July 3rd. Whoo! Also, if she drops something, she looks for it, and I think that is amazing. Funny how object permanence develops.

As far as language goes, she is quite the copy cat. Robby once said to her, "Say, 'Hi, Dada'" and guess what? She actually said it! She did it several times because I kept telling Robby it didn't count. After the third time, though, I had to admit she was doing it! And once I was going "Beep beep beep" and she copied me! Better watch what we say. The only new sound I've heard this month is the "p" sound -- and that was after a weekend of my dad saying "Say, 'Papa'" a billion times to her. I guess all that repetition had an effect! I have noticed that she jibbers in syllables now - not as many vowel single syllable sounds. Once while she was sitting in her crib playing with her baby dolls, she was jibbering away and would pick up one, say something, put it down and pick up another. It was cute and I caught a little bit of it on video! If she is mad at one of us she will just jibber and jibber and jibber. We can tell she is so mad and she really goes off on us, although we can't understand it. At this stage, it is cute. :)

Scootin' around - very proud of herself!

Standing up like a big girl! We're lowering the mattress tonight!

Abby and her BFF Chanceypoo.