Elizabeth is feeling much better today! Teething monster gone (for now). We had so much fun this evening after school. First the big girl figured out how to pull tupperware out of the cabinet (although I opened it for her and showed her how).
Smiles!
Poor baby girl had herself a rough weekend (so Mommy's and Daddy's weekend was a little rough too.) This silly fourth tooth is causing her so much misery. It is definetly the worst tooth so far. Baby Motrin, oralgel, and teething tablets help take the edge off, but she's just uncomfortable all the time right now! And one thing we've learned about Miss Elizabeth in these last 10 months is that she will let you know how she's feeling! This picture says a lot: she's got the pacifier that she usually just uses to fall asleep and her bunny (the upside down shiny pink thing). Until recently bunny stayed in the bed (one at home and one at school). But the past couple of weeks, she has been dragging it around a little when she's tired or unhappy. Today was one of those days. It's super cute the way she won't let bunny out of her hands (which makes crawling a little challenging), but we are trying to limit bunny for when we really need him. I don't know why, but I seem to have decided bunny is a boy. Even though he's pink. No stereotypical gender roles here!
We did have fun today going to play with Cousin Alec and Cousin Isaac. We got to see the cool fort at their house and then went and met Mimi and Pa-Paw for lunch. Here's Aunt Mique and Cousin Isaac. He's trying to decide what to order.
And Daddy was there too! Here we're chewing on the sippy cup. Poor baby mouth.
Hopefully this tooth will show up soon and give E some relief! Elizabeth is 10 months old today! How can that be???? I took a bunch of pictures of her this evening, but our fourth tooth is causing us all kinds of distress, so she wasn't much for smiling. I did get this one though.
So what is Little E up to at 10 months? Well, she's crawling all over the place and pulling up on everything. Today she let go of the toy she was using to hold herself up and actually stood by herself for about a second. She's using her push-cart lion to "walk" all over. She usually ends up on her knees after a few steps, but then gets right back up.
She's sleeping through the night most nights - 7:00pm to around 6:00am. A lot of mornings I go in to wake her up to find she's already awake and happily playing quietly in her crib. She sleeps with her bunny (we've got three of them - one at home, one at school and a back up) and sleeps in her sleepsack. Once she's had her bath and gets in her sleepsack with her bunny, she knows its time for bed and usually goes right down.
After months of saying "dadadada" she's finally added "mamamama" to her vocabulary. She still loves to blow raspberries and make all kinds of noises that involve spit. Her daddy encourages this, so I don't expect her to give up these "words" any time soon.
She's pretty good at feeding herself some things - graham crackers, cheerios, macaroni and cheese, and tonight pieces of a peanut butter sandwich (no allergic reaction there - yay!). She loves yobaby yogurt and has it everyday for her 3:00 snack. She's still eating a couple jars of baby food everyday - an oatmeal and fruit mixture for breakfast and some veggie for lunch. But she's also trying a few bites of most of the big girl food at school.
She's great at using her sippy cup. She doesn't love it for her formula and we aren't pushing that too hard yet. But she usually has quite a bit of water from it when she sits in her high chair and eats.
This past week she has shown us she can hold her own bottle. She usually would prefer we do it, but occasionally she says no thank you.
She's taking a bath in the big girl bath tub (the regular tub). She seems to really prefer it - more room for toys and moving around. We have to continually remind her that we don't stand in the tub, though.
Her teachers have nicknamed her "the observer" because she sits back and watches another baby do something and then goes and does it herself. Genius baby.
She had her tear ducts "probed" last week and the procedure seems to have worked perfectly for her left eye and not so much for her right. I talked to the eye doctor's office today though and they said it could take another week to clear up. So hopefully that's the case. If not we'll have to go through the procedure again. We all survived the first time, but not much fun. But it is amazing the difference in the good eye now. So we will do what we need to in order to get them both working properly.
A few more pictures from tonight - no smiles, but oh well.
I love this one - she's watching one of her kitties, but she looks like she's just chillin. And her hair looks so pretty here!
What a great ten months we've had!
Then she blinked.
There's a smile!
Can we try one sitting on the step? Nooooo!
But we can stick out our tongues!
Well today was a day. Elizabeth has had clogged tear ducts since she was born. This is a common affliction, although most babies outgrow it on their own within a few months. Elizabeth never did and at our 9 month appoitment, Dr. D suggested we go ahead and get the tear ducts "probed." She referred us to a pediatric opthamologist. When I called, I asked lots of questions and learned that at E's age it is a simple, quick, painfree procedure done in the office. The worst part would be strapping her to the "papoose board" so she was immobilized. Today was the day. We got to the office and the very sweet nurse put drops in E's eyes that would confirm whether the ducts were clogged. They were. Then the doctor took E into the room where the procedure would take place. Eric went with her and I stayed in the other room. They were only gone about 5 minutes (although Eric said it felt like a lot longer) but I could hear her crying the whole time. Dr. B apologized that the rooms weren't sound proof. Anyway, once it was over and E was back in my arms with her bunny and her pacifier, she calmed down very quickly and fell asleep on the way home. She has been perfectly happy and fun all afternoon, so it really was as easy as they said. Just not for Mommy and Daddy. Anyway, hopefully the probing worked - in about 5% of the cases it needs to be redone. We are looking forward to not having to clean goopy eyes every morning and explain to people that E is not crying all the time.
Anyway, other than that, we are having a lot of fun. Here are some pictures to prove it!
Eric turned 29 last Friday. Elizabeth and I had a little party for him after work and then Eric and I went out for a lovely dinner at Papas Bros. Steakhouse on Saturday. (Her shirt says "I heart daddy")
Yep...that's one of those party noise maker things - she's so smart!
We've also moved up to the big tub! She's having way more fun with all the room - for more toys!
Jungle friends.
Farm friends.
Learning to Walk!
Although we've had a rough time the last week with a nasty stomach virus at our house, we did squeeze in some fun this weekend (between Elizabeth's affliction and her mommy's).
First we had some of our dearest friends over on Saturday for a bar-b-q. This was the first time we've had a big group over since E's been in our lives.
Juliette came! (With her mommy and daddy.)
E and Juliette played with the rainforest monkey toy thing.
And read books!
(Or steal pacifiers)
Eight-week old Leah Claire came too! (This is the only picture of her parents I got.)
But here's a picture with Miss Leah and Juliette's momma, Jess.
