We interrupt your regularly scheduled vacation photos...

For a ten month update!

The kiddo is ten months today, and I know actual writing on this blog has mostly given way to photos, but I'm still trying to do a monthly update on Julia.

She is so big! And she's on the move. She's getting better at walking every day. She'll careen all around our house, although she's quite a bit more timid when we're out and about. Today she was standing, bent down to pick up something off the ground (trash, of course), and stood up again all without using anything else for support - I didn't even realize that was a milestone until I saw it on a list at the doctor's office. She's also getting better at falling and catching herself when she does lose her balance. I still can't be too far away but she's almost to the point where I just need to be in the room to keep an eye on her instead of following her around in case she takes a spill.

She's still sleeping through the night pretty well. Thankfully - with the exception of the week we were on vacation - that's been a consistent blessing. Her naps used to be pretty regular, at 9:30 and 2:00, but these last few days she's been protesting them mightily so I'm not sure where that's going at the moment. She's eating a solid foods breakfast, lunch, and dinner, taking two bottles of formula, and nursing three times a day. I think she's getting ready to drop a nursing session but I'm starting to worry about supply issues so I'm not going to push that. I'll let her do that when she's ready.

Otherwise, as long as she's not sick or teething (seven teeth now), she's delightful! She smiles and laughs and plays games with us. She loves investigating everything and getting her hands on and in everything. She basically just wants to explore and be loved all day.

Which is great and all, but she's also getting to be bossy and starting to try to exert her will on things. So, she's delightful as long as she's getting her way. My goal for the next month is to gently teach her that no one gets their way all the time, and sometimes you're not perfectly 100% happy and that's okay. Without it becoming a power struggle. Good luck with that, huh?

Other little things - she's very focused right now on turning pages of books, and she loves books with flaps or things to touch. She knows that the remote controls the television and can somehow tell the difference between the "real" one and the (identical!) broken one without batteries that we let her play with. She's big into eyeballs right now, and shoving her fingers in her nose and ears. (I had a dream last night that I pulled a whole string cheese out of her nose and honestly that's probably not that unrealistic.) She still seems to prefer me but playing games with R can keep her attention when nothing I do can. She giggles like crazy when we get down on the floor and crawl after her really loudly and "get" her tummy with kisses. And she always gives herself away during hide-and-seek because I can't say "Where's Julia?" without her giggling or shrieking.

We don't have a special photoshoot for this update, but we went to the park this morning and got a few cute shots.

She also loves wheels that she can spin.

Dislikes hats. I know the strap isn't the cutest thing ever but it's necessary.

This expression cracks me up. I think we have a 6-weeks-old photo with this same expression.

Do you know how hard it is to get a photo, in focus, with a smile, while a baby's on a swing?

Focus isn't great here, which is a shame. She LOVES the swings. She giggles and giggles.

This looks like I photoshopped Baby on a Swing onto a park background, doesn't it?

Loves sticks and rocks.

Laughing at me because I don't want her to put it in her mouth - "Oh Mom, you're not the boss of me, remember?"

"Fine then. You're boring Mom. I'm outta here."

Watching the big kids play.

Looking for doggies.

And she's sick of sitting around. Let's go!