Ten Months

Wow, in two more days I'll be double-digits in age. It's weird to think about -- but then again, I guess I have made a lot of progress from lying motionless on my back, after all.

Last weekend, my grandma and grandpa Harrison came to visit. I always love having family to see me, and we had a good time playing. Along with visiting, eating and shopping, they came to watch me in my gymnastics class, which I just realized I haven't talked about. It's basically a fun and somewhat organized way to make us little ones who are just learning to move around by ourselves a bit more aware of what our bodies can do. We sing songs, we walk and run, we play with a parachute, we practice all sorts of gymnastics skills like tumbling and supporting our weight on our arms. Mom used to teach a class like this when she was in college, and she says that my teacher, Miss Staci, is really great, so that means something. (I like Miss Staci too, because she's nice and helpful.)

Dad finally got his new car over the weekend, too. It's a Chrysler PT Cruiser, which is a lot bigger than the old one. Well, it's bigger inside -- Dad says it doesn't feel a lot bigger on the outside than the Sentra, and it's actually only as long as Mom's two-door Civic. But now I'm less likely to bump my head getting into my car seat, and the sun doesn't get in my eyes as easily because of the shape of the windows. I am still getting used to it, of course ... it looks different, so sometimes I get upset if we're in the car a little too long.

Otherwise, it's just the same old progress. Crawling is still fun, and becoming moreso as I get better and faster, but I'm cruising and walking assisted better than ever -- in fact, a lot of the time I'll go over to Dad, pull up on his legs, take his hands, and make him help me walk across the room or around the kitchen. I've got two more teeth threatening to poke out on the top right, and am biting harder than ever (Mom was surprised at the indentations I left in her finger the other day). I'm also using these teeth to my advantage to tear shreds off my books ... or magazines, or video cassette cases, or anything else paper that I can figure out how to get into my mouth.

That's all for this time, I think. See you next week!

Growth Tabulated

This is just gonna be a quick one, everybody. I've been keeping Mom and Dad busy, so we're all wiped.

I came out of my doctor's appointment with flying colors. The new stats, for those of you keeping score: 28 1/2 inches tall, 20 lbs 14 oz. So I didn't quite outgrow the car seat like Mom and Dad expected, but all the same it's safer to get a new one anyway after the old one was in the accident. (I did, by the way, last week.) I'm still in the 75-90% range for my growth, and the doctor was pleased with how I'm progressing with everything. Plus this time I only had to get two shots, which is still not awesome but better than four or five.

I have three teeth now and a fourth is threatening. Bad news for Mom, since I'm still nursing (we're trying to make it to a year, since that's what they say is optimum for my immune system). Bad for Dad, too; I still want to bite his nose and fingers and toes, and now it hurts him. And I guess it's bad for me, since I'm starting to learn not to bite my own fingers. But on the bright side, I can enjoy crunchy things like baby crackers and Cheerios now. (Dad was planning to hold out a couple more months before introducing me to wheat. He found cornmeal apple crackers and generic organic Cheerios that don't have wheat flour. But then Dr. B mentioned Cheerios, and he saw in our baby food book that eight months was usually the milestone, so we're less adamant now.)

Nona was here over the weekend. We had fun as always, playing and going for walks. I think I impressed her with how mobile I am now, because last time I saw her I was just sitting up on my own. This weekend my grandma and grandpa Harrison are coming again, and I'm prepared to awe them as well.

What else has been going on? Not much -- just continuing to explore my boundaries. I'm spending more time in the kitchen with the 'rents as they make food and clean up, and those dog bowls are pretty fun to splash in (except Mom and Dad always take me away too fast). I've also figured out that I can see the backyard if I push the dog flap aside -- I'm not ready to go through it myself, but it's cool to swing it.

I guess that's enough for this time. Good night, everybody!

Eventual Post

Well, ten days again. Not two weeks, though, just like I promised.

It's been an eventful ten days, too. I'm practicing my crawling and getting a lot faster at it, going from wobbly insecurity to doing speed laps around the kitchen and living room while yelling with excitement. Mom and Dad are now forever chasing me to make sure I don't eat leaves or steal the dogs' toys. No more breaks, guys! In the last couple of days, too, I've figured out cruising. I can go left to right along the couch with no problem (right to left is a little trickier), and this evening I even walked along behind the car/walker toy Auntie Coop got me for Christmas. (It still goes a little too fast for me, so I ended up on my knees a few times.) Mom got some video, and Dad will help me put it up before next Wednesday.

She was here, too, Auntie Coop. She got here last Thursday and left on Monday afternoon. We had a lot of fun hanging around the house playing, me showing her all the new stuff I've learned since last August. We went shopping with Dad on Thursday, too, but not to buy anything, just sort of looking around. (He wanted to buy a scanner, but I say what do you need that for when you have a digital camera and no film pictures of me anyway? The store that was supposed to have the huge deals didn't anyway.) She also came with me and Mom to the gymnastics class I started on Saturday, which I'll tell you more about next week. (Teaser opener: it's fun and I like it.) We were going to do some other stuff, but mostly ended up at home because someone was cranky (not always me).

We did have kind of a hectic day today, though. It didn't start out that way. Dad and I took his car to the brake shop, and then we went to the park where I napped in the stroller and he read a book in the sun. Then we went to the library, and I squiggled around the kids' room. It was awesome, because I've never seen so many things to take off shelves before. But then the brake people called and told us our car got in an accident. It was really broken -- seriously, it looked lopsided when we went to get my car seat out of it. Don't worry, though; I'm going to get a new car seat within a week, and Dad should have a new car before too long. (He wants a bigger one, because he says I'm getting too big for him to squeeze into the back and help get me into my seat.)

I guess that's it. I know, it's way past my bedtime, and Dad's too even, so we'd better go to sleep.