10 Months

Sweet, sweet Elizabeth,

We fall more in love with you with each month, milestone, and moment that passes. I can hardly imagine my life before you. We all LOVE you so much.

You have changed so much this past month. The biggest change is that you are now crawling. CRAWLING.ALL.OVER.THE.PLACE!!!! Girl, you try to get into everything!! We really had to start trying to teach you the "No" concept. We've had to start occasionally giving you a hand pop. It's necessary, but oh so sad. With only the slightest little pop on your hand, your little lip rolls out, begins to quiver, and you cry big crocodile tears. Sometimes we get this same reaction when we simply say no in a firm voice. You are quite sensitive when it comes to discipline.

You love to "talk" and you say "Dada", "Mama" (even though you are a Mama's girl you say "mama" far less often - I totally think you do this just to tease me! *smile*). You also say "Bubba", "Nana", "Bye-bye", and "Nah nah" while shaking your head for "No No". You imitate many words we are say quite well. For example, we can say, "Elizabeth, jump, jump, jump." You will attempt to repeat us. It's usually at least recognizable.

In addition to imitating things we say, we like to play with you by getting you to imitate many things we do. Example: If we drum on the table, you will drum on the table. If we shake our head no, then you will shake your head no.

There's no doubt that you understand and even comprehend so much of what we say and do. Another example: I can tell you not to drop food off your high chair tray and as long as I am looking at you, you will not drop food off your high chair tray. BUT, if I turn my head you will sometimes pick up a piece of food slowly, studying me to see if I'm looking, and when you think I'm not, you will drop the food off the tray. Yep! Time to get serious with the training!

Speaking of eating, you are eating more and more of what we are eating. Unfortunately this includes the rare fast food meal. You've discovered french fries and you LOVE them! Who can blame you?! I may me guilty of introducing some junk food to early, but I have been very diligent to avoid any sweets except fruit. Just today Grace ask if you were going to get to eat cake on your birthday. Sorry, sweet girl. But you are sweet enough without the added sugar. Your big sister Bella Peace has been our pickiest eater, and she is a sweet-o-holic. I think she got introduced to sweets to early. On the other had, we withheld sweets from Luke for a much longer time and he's our best eater and craves sweets less than anyone else. Maybe we will offer you some kind of healthy muffin in a cupcake liner. :) The only other change with your eating habits since your 9 month update is that we've replaced one of your afternoon bottles with a snack instead.

You are also wearing the same size clothes and diapers - size 4 diapers and 9-12 or 12 months clothes. Sometimes in smocked church dresses or hand me downs you can fit nicely into an even bigger size. A sweet friend of mine gave us some fancy one size fits all washable snap diapers that we use sometimes just around the house.

Unfortunately, you've decided to give me trouble with your naps again, but I'm pretty sure that is related to the fact that you are trying to cut several new teeth. As of this moment you still just have the 2 teeth on bottom, but I'm expecting news ones any moment. At least you are still sleeping very well at night. So long as we are home. You still don't sleep as good away from home. You are definitely a home body!

Your big brother and big sisters are as crazy about you as ever. They are still very helpful too. Occasionally Luke, Grace, or Mary Ruth will help me by feeding you a bottle. BUT, you do not accept their help as readily as you use to. I think that often times you already think you are as big as them so you don't take fondly to being held or carried around by one of them. Sometimes one of the big kiddos will offer up their arms to you in an effort to see if you will come to them, but you usually shake your head no and say, "nah, nah, nah".

We've been so blessed to be able to spend more time with grandparents in the last couple of months, and you've definitely noticed that there's something very special about grandparents. You might not call anyone other than "Nana" by name, but you definitely recognize and get excited about all your grandparents. I love that there's a unique bond and trust in spite of the distance that separates us.

You've started clapping and waving. Too cute!

We are working hard to teach you to blow kisses. You don't do that yet, but you still give kisses with a slobbery wet mouth wide open against our cheeks. You've also added a smacking noise when you kiss us.
Another cute thing you do is that you often hug and pat me or your Daddy on the back when we pick you up. Guess that's what we do to you! It's so sweet to get you up in the morning or at night from your crib. When we walk into your room, you are almost always sitting up on your bottom in your crib waiting for us. You instantly light up and lift you hands up to us when we walk in. I LOVE for you to lift your hands out for me to pick you up. I can never resist?!!

You LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being outside. Now that you can crawl, you like to crawl over to the doors and look out. You often look out with such longing eyes - well at least until Gina the puppy runs over to the door and entertains you from the other side. You love animals and squeal with delight when you see just about any kind of animal.

It's so hard to believe it's been 10 months since you graced our lives. You are truly a gift from God!!