Another month with this little beauty and life is so sweet! Nora is so different from her brother at this age in so many ways…she’s much gentler, much more snuggly, much more cautious about things. While Jameson loved to be tossed in the air as high as we would let him go, Nora prefers to be in my arms or quietly reading a book on my lap. I love getting to see her personality and experiencing this stage in parenting all over again with her unique qualities.
Here’s what’s new for Nora at ten months…
Weight & Length: No well visit until her one year old appointment so I’m not sure of her percentiles at this point, but I weighed her at home and she’s right around 18 pounds! About half a pound more than last month. 🙂
Clothing: She’s still in size 4 diapers and the 9 month range for clothes, but I’m guessing she’ll be heading into 9-12 month stuff soon if I can find it. She might just have to jump into the 12 month size though. Getting soo big!
Eyes & Hair: Blue eyes and curly brown hair…and getting curlier by the day! I’ve been using Shea Moisture Kids Curling Butter Cream (which smells amazing) to help define her curls, because otherwise the frizz is unreal. I love it when she wakes up from a good nap, though, and her hair is sticking up in fuzzy ringlets haha! So cute. We’ve found that washing her hair just a couple times a week is enough, whereas Jameson’s hair used to get greasy in like a day. Too much washing dries Nora’s hair out. I’m planning on switching her to a curly hair specific shampoo/conditioner product soon, but the Honest Company body wash is doing the trick for now. Her hair is still baby-fine so it’s not a huge deal yet.
Sleep: Her nap schedule is just fine (an hour and a half in the morning, an hour and a half in the afternoon, occasionally a 40 minute catnap around 5pm). But she’s been waking up preeeetty consistently around 5:30am every morning. Or earlier. It’s been rough. There have also been a few nights where she woke up at like 2am for no particular reason and was just…awake. Ready to party. We’ve never had to deal with this before and I have to say, I’m not a fan. Jameson had his rough patches where he’d wake up a few times a night, but he always went right back down. Nora on the other hand…Alex has literally taken her out to the living room and just let her play for an hour or so in the dead of night because she was just wide awake. I’m not really sure how to fix this. Mostly I’m just waiting and praying it’s a phase haha! But if it doesn’t resolve on its own soon, we’re going to have to take some drastic measures because we all need more sleep around here.
Eating: This has been the biggest change this month, I think. Nora LOVES food!!! It is so strange and joyous to have a child who actually enjoys eating. We haven’t found anything that she doesn’t like, besides bananas. Literally anything else we put in front of her she chows down on…all types of vegetables, super savory meats, and especially fruits. She will actually YELL at us if we don’t share what we have, or if we don’t give her more food instantly when she’s finished what’s in front of her. I still let her nurse whenever she wants to (usually right before naps) but she eats the rest of her meals with us, usually just sharing food from my plate or Jameson’s. Right now I’m trying to take advantage of her willingness to try a wide variety of things and give her plenty of healthy options!
Milestones: She can stand by herself for brief amounts of time now! Usually only if we stand her up and prompt her to, though. It’s sort of like how she was with rolling and crawling…I knew she could do it before she actually gave it a shot. I think she just likes to be a little more confident before she tries things on her own. She can also cruise around the furniture, crawls super fast, and climbs up stairs. She’s getting really good with her fine motor skills (she’s especially good at finding minuscule items off the floor to shove in her mouth), and…drumroll please…SHE HAS TEETH! Her two little bottom ones popped through this month, finally! Her smile already looks so different with those little chompers and I’m excited for her to get more. Although…not excited about all the side effects of teething, heh.
Communication: She claps, waves, gives kisses, and responds with gestures to certain things (“How big is Nora?” she lifts her arms up for “soooo big!”). She babbles (and shouts) all the time; she’s really so. dang. loud. Even when she’s happy haha! She’s starting to understand a lot of what we say, and I’ve been working somewhat consistently on showing her some Sign Language. Simple stuff like “more” and “all done” and “milk” for now. I’m hoping she’ll pick up on some of them soon so she can quit yelling at us about food hahah.
Loves: Food and her sippy cup, bath time, her family, reading books (especially “Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See”), music, playing with my wallet, climbing stairs, going swimming, playing with things she’s not supposed to touch, trying to climb into the dishwasher, flipping through our paperback books, riding in the laundry basket when I pull her and Jameson around, playing in our DVDs, and whatever toy/book/literally any item at all that Jameson is currently holding.
Hates: When I’m not holding her, when you take away contraband items, sleeping in past 5:30am.
Things I want to remember: How you drink from your sippy cup like a little hamster, how you peek over the side of your carseat and giggle at Jameson in the car, how you crawl to my feet and then just sit there waiting for me to pick you up, how you swing your head around wildly looking for Jameson when I take you out of your room after a nap, the way you crawl all over the big bed with excitement and then shriek with glee when I grab your leg and pull you back towards me, and how you lift one arm to me in a wave and smile your cheesiest smile whenever you do something you’re sure is really cool. 🙂
We adore you, sweet girl! You’re even cute when you wake up at 5am. But let’s work on that this next month. 😉
Milk with a Meal 