10 months

Time is going by too fast!  We are seeing more and more of Delaney going from a baby to a toddler.  She grows and changes significantly every week. 

At 10 months Delaney is:

-          Refusing the bottle.  Bottle feeding has given us grief from Day 1, and now her abilities to refuse combined with her strong will have  made bottle feeding impossible/extremely difficult.  Since milk is their primary source of nutrition for the first year and she should be having a minimum of 20 oz a day, her refusal has been quite stressful.   She is still nursing well (knock on wood) so I’ve continued to breastfeed at least 2 feeds a day and the rest of the time we try our hardest between multiple people, cups and techniques to increase her milk intake.   We are starting some process of weaning from the bottle to a straw cup, which is typically a difficult transition, but for all of us, will be a happy day. 

-          Drinking from a straw cup, which is great news.  We’ve been practicing with sippy cups since about 6 months, but the straw sippy is what we’ve had the most success with since it does not require her to lift up and tilt back.  She can also drink from a normal cup with help.  She just isn’t drinking very MUCH. 

-          Eating solids well.  She now feeds herself 100% of her meals since she won’t let us get near her with a spoon anymore.  The amount of time I spend cooking and menu planning for her is ridiculous.  For breakfast she usually has:  banana pancakes, scrambled egg yolk with spinach or toast with fruit spread and/or bananas.  For lunch and dinner she has: quinoa cakes, zucchini and rice balls, matzoh balls, pasta with olive oil and parmesan cheese, meatloaf, butternut squash cubes, sweet potato sticks, veggie burger, tofu, lentil balls, green beans, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, squash cubes, avocado, etc. 

-          Waving “bye bye,” pointing and babbling a LOT.  We can tell that she is trying to say some words but it’s mostly just babble now.    

-          Mimicking us all the time, including blinking and sighing, our favorites. 

-          LOVING the park.  She likes to go on the swing, climb UP the slide, watch all of the other kids, look for airplanes, but her favorite thing is to crawl around in the sand.  She can finally play with her bucket and shovel which were bigger than her when Erin first got them for her!  She goes to the park at least 3 or 4 times a week. 

-          Playing and playing hard!  She could skip eating and sleeping altogether and play all day long if we let her.  She loves her toys (and her non-toys).  She is curious about everything.  

-          Knows her name.  She looks up when we say it. 

-          Knows other names- Mama, Dada, Baba, Dakota, Ilma, Poppie.  When we say, “Where is Dakota?”, she will look around until she sees her. 

-          Teething- her 3^rd tooth just came in.  She now has 2 on bottom and 1 on top.    

-          Understanding more and more of what’s going on around her.  It’s impossible to know how much she understands, but we see her comprehension improving daily.  She can do every command in the Pat the Bunny book, if she hears an airplane and is inside, she will try to go a window so she can look out, when she sees an airplane outside she points at it, she can catch a ball and throw it when we ask her to, if we tell her we are going to go upstairs she will head toward the stairs.  

-          Climbing up the stairs quickly. 

-          LOVES animal books, pictures and sounds.   She actually loves reading in general which I am so thrilled about.  It is one of the few times a day that she will sit still in my lap.  Of course, if the book isn’t compelling enough she will squirm until I pick out one that suits her better. 

-          LOVES her Peter Rabbit that she got for Christmas.  She has shown a clear preference for him and always smiles, laughs and hugs him.  So cute. 

-          Sleeping 13 hours at night, but naps have gone down to about 2 hours total on average. 

-          Has an extremely active social calendar:  Mondays she goes to Storytime class at the library, Tuesdays she goes to a music class, Wednesdays she has her PRIVATE music class, Thursdays we take her to Jackie’s Class/Mommy and Me, Fridays we take her out to lunch, Saturdays and Sundays we always have a lot planned for her including going out to breakfast, visiting friends, going to new parks, going on hikes, going to the Farmers Market, hosting playdates, etc.  She likes being out and about, exploring new environments, being amongst people, and going on adventures.  We are having so much fun exposing her to the world!