I accidentally ruined Caroline’s 10 month photoshoot today. Instead of taking pictures during the middle of the afternoon when the light in the family room is best, I let her fall asleep in my lap while she was nursing and spent two hours petting her hair, sniffing the top of her head, listening to her tiny baby noises and watching her twitch as she dreamed.

So maybe “ruined” is the wrong word. Maybe “soaked up two magical hours worth of baby moments that hardly ever seem to happen anymore because she is growing up so fast” is more accurate. I love her bunches and bunches. It’s sort of disgusting.

I had to look back at the 9 month update to see if I was remembering things wrong or if she really has changed SO MUCH in just four weeks. In those pictures, you can just barely see one top tooth peeking through. Now she’s got two great big giant chompers on top plus two on the bottom and a handful more threatening to pop through any minute. Isn’t it crazy how much older babies look with teeth? SO MUCH OLDER!

She’s also walking, without encouragement, on almost any surface. She ran away from me during Stroller Strides this week and I had a “oh no, I lost the baby” moment. She was only 5 feet away behind a mom doing sit ups, but she’s so little she’s easy to lose. I’m going to have to work on the constant vigilance.

I’ve given up on super cute outfits, because between the crawling/walking, the drooling/teething and the constant shoving of food into her mouth she’s a mess. I change her shirt at least 3 times a day. And before you call me an idiot and suggest I use one of the five bazillion bibs I keep in the kitchen drawer I’ll tell you she feels about bibs the way Dora feels about using her inside voice. NOT GONNA HAPPEN. It’s easier to just buy stain remover in bulk.

There is not one thing about her I would change. I TOLD you it was disgusting.

Likes include her blankies (any of them), iPhones, popcorn, apples, boobs, her brother’s sippy cup, dancing, walking, smiling, blowing raspberries, peek-a-boo, books, baths, her mama and putting gross things in her mouth.

Dislikes include teething, hoods, falling on her face, being cold, missing naps, strange dogs and having her nails trimmed.

Milestones plus video proof of the walking/weird crawling below the epic number of underexposed pictures.

I see you

raspberries

This is a crap ton of orange, Mom

tippy toes

Happy 10 Months Baby Girl

P.S. Yes I am wearing leggings as pants in the video. In my defense…ah screw it. I have no defense. They’re SO COMFORTABLE.
10 Month Milestones (from BabyCenter, as usual)

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
Waves goodbye – Yes. And hello. And loves to clap. And plays peek-a-boo and “how big is the baby?” and understands what I think is a surprising number of words. But I’m her mom so I have to think she’s a genius.
Picks things up with pincer grasp – As long as it’s food. Or trash.
Crawls well, with belly off the ground – She’s actually terrible at that. She crawls sideways on one leg. But since she’s, you know, WALKING I don’t think she’s actually missing this milestone.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
Says “mama” or “dada” to the correct parent – She has said “mama” to me exactly twice, but not regularly, and I’ve never heard her say “dada”.
Indicates wants with gestures – Gestures, screeching, grabbing things. She has a lot of wants.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
Stands alone for a couple of seconds – For a couple minutes.
Puts objects into a container – Does “food into her mouth” count? Because she’s good at that. Mostly she’s good at taking objects OUT of containers to make the biggest mess possible.

If you watch this video you will see/hear:

– My super messy kitchen
– My husband’s less than superior iPhone video skills
– My dog eating Goldfish crackers off the floor
– My naked, dirty, just-before-bathtime baby
– My toddler screeching and narrating in the background
– My 8 month old standing
– My dress hiked up rather inappropriately as I sit on the floor
– My goofy, high pitched, talking to a baby voice

AND

– Caroline taking one tiny independent step

The slave driver amazing mom who leads my daily torture Stroller Strides class signed our local chapter up for the March of Dimes March for Babies happening on April 25th and asked for volunteers to walk with her. Now, I love babies (good thing, since this little ginger one seems to hang around me a LOT) but walking? Not so much. Walking in the dirt? Even less. Walking three miles up and down big hills in the dirt? I’d rather have a tooth extracted. Without Novocaine. And yet for some reason I signed up anyways. I think it’s because my desire to help save babies is a lot stronger than my incredibly laziness. I mean, come on, no one DOESN’T want to save babies. What are you, some kind of monster? Do you kick puppies too? If loving babies isn’t enough, check out this picture:

Awwwwwwwww! So cute! Plus like, RESEARCH and SCIENCE and MEDICAL STUFF. The whole point of walking is to raise money for the March of Dimes so this is the part where I ask you for $5 or $10 or $20 or whatever it is you were going to spend on Starbucks tomorrow. My team’s goal is $3000 but I figured if everyone who reads here on a regular basis could give $5 (I CAN SEE YOU, YOU KNOW) I could raise $1000 all by myself and really impress my Stroller Strides class.

You can donate to my walk by clicking on that giant purple widget to the right. Go on, you know you want to. It’s for the children. Such as.

I feel like this month’s birthday is going to be mostly overlooked because next month’s is SO HUGE. In just two weeks, when people ask “How old is he?” I’m going to have to start saying “almost a year old.” When you think about a year’s worth of anything it seems like a really long time. No chocolate for a year, no internet for a year, no drinking for a year, no driving for a year, no shopping for a year all sound really really hard, but when you’re actually living that year day by day it passes pretty fast. Not getting a full night’s sleep for a year sounds TERRIBLE, but I’ve almost done it. And I’ll probably do it again. Look at me already writing the 12 month post when this is the 11 month milestone. I’m going to skip right to the BabyCenter chart to save you from any more blubbering about my baby growing up sooooo faaaaaaast.

11 Month Milestones from BabyCenter

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Says “mama” and “dada” to the correct parent – Uh, no. He says “mama” a LOT more than he used to but he doesn’t say “dada” very often. He does say “ba! ba! ba ba ba ba!!!” all day long.
• Plays patty-cake and peek-a-boo – He loves peek-a-boo and will play behind anything: my computer screen, the dog, the chair, a blanket, but he’s not very good with clapping yet so patty-cake is sort of pathetic.
• Stands alone for a couple of seconds – WALKS
• Cruises – WALKS

Emerging skills (half of kids can do)
• Understands “no” and simple instructions – Understands “no”, yes. LISTENS to “no”, not even a little. But he does follow simple instructions, like “bring that toy over here.” When he feels like it.
• Puts objects into a container – Puts them in, takes them out, puts them in. As long as the container is pretty big. This morning he threw his shoe in the trash and put the trash in his toy box.

Advanced skills (a few kids can do)
• Says one word besides “mama” and “dada” – See “babababa”. But he can sign “milk” and I think I saw him sign “more” and “dog”.
• Stoops from standing position – Definitely yes, he can squat without holding on to anything and stand up again. He likes doing it when he’s pooping.

So my kid really excels when it comes to physical development but is a little behind with the talking, which is the kind of thing a more high-strung mom might freak out about. If I start thinking about it too much even I get a little worried, but it’s more of a general annoyance that he doesn’t love me enough to call me Mama than a genuine concern he might be developmentally delayed in some way.

Baby Evan also has seven whole teeth with at least three more lurking just under his gums and yesterday he ate a couple of Beechnut animal crackers and part of a carrot stick. I feel like he’s right on the edge of discovering food is meant to be swallowed and one day he’ll just wake up and demand a cheeseburger and fries something really healthy and nutritious. I’m still loving baby-led weaning and highly recommend it especially if you’re as lazy as I am.

The past 11 months have been more fun, more work, more stressful and more enjoyable than any of my pre-baby life. I can’t wait to see what comes next. I apologize if the following photos hurt your uterus.

And now back to your regularly scheduled update.

10 Month Milestone Chart from BabyCenter

Mastered Skills (most kids can do)
• Waves goodbye – he waves all the time, but I’m not sure he means “byebye”
• Picks things up with pincer grasp – Yes
• Crawls well, with belly off the ground – Yes, at a speed that can only be described as wicked fast.

Emerging Skills (half of kids can do)
• Says “mama” and “dada” to the correct parent – He’s definitely called me mama, but he’s also called the dog and a water bottle mama. And sometimes he calls me “baba”. I haven’t heard him get dada right yet, although if I tell him “Dada’s home!” he crawls to the door.
• Indicates wants with gestures – He knows the sign for “milk” and reaches for things, but no pointing.

Advanced Skills (a few kids can do)
• Stands alone for a couple of seconds – Stands all the time. Cruises constantly. Walks 10-12 independent steps several times an hour, although he only really started that in the past two days.
• Puts objects into a container – He put his new Sophie in a pot yesterday. I think he wanted some giraffe soup. Which I would totally give him if I knew where to get some giraffe.

So to sum up, motor skills and physical development are great and a little ahead of the curve. Mental and verbal development are decidedly average. Personality is still very happy and easy going 90% of the time and angry hell-demon the other 10%, but I still think he’s the best baby in the world.