Addison the 10-Month Old

Wow, 10-Months Old! She sure is creeping up to that one-year mark real fast! Every day, she is becoming much less a baby, more and more a toddler! Here’s a snapshot of Addison’s world the past month…

Sleeping



Her bedtime is still 8pm sharp, and boy is she strict about her bedtime routine! She gets a bath every few days that we always do right before her bedtime. We let her play in the bath, then dry her off and lotion her up real good while giving her a massage. Then we read a story and she nurses/has a bottle, then down in her crib. There have been a few instances where around 7 she has a dirty diaper, but instead of changing her, we decide to just give her a bath right away. Then we’ll get her in a PJ’s and bring her back out to the living room to play and she just WILL NOT have it. You can just see the confusion in her face. So yes, humans truly are creatures of habit right from infancy!


Addison has been doing very well at sleeping through the night – until about 7am usually. In this month there were a couple nights where teething woke her up and we had to give her the “tour of soothing” – orajel, bottle/nursing, frozen teething rings, Tylenol/Motrin and of course, cuddles!


She is very good at taking naps at well. Her morning nap is around 9:30am for about an hour. Her afternoon nap is a little after 1pm for at least an hour, but sometimes over 2hrs! She has been on this routine since October.


Eating



The Gerber Diet is coming to an end for Addie. From 6mos-9mos she ate the full-range of Gerber fruits and vegetables, then meats starting around 9mos. The meats went over really well, but around the same time she lost interest in the Gerber fruits and vegetables. She would simply turn her head when the spoon was offered to her and sometimes would even push it away and cry! We just weren’t sure what was upsetting her.


Until one day, over at Auntie Lorie’s –she was refusing Gerber food, but was wanting to leap out of the high chair to get cousin Bianca’s pancake! So Auntie Lorie gave her a pancake, and low and behold – Addison was as happy as can be! So, enter real food for Addie!


So now, her typical daily meals are as follows:


Breakfast: Bottle, Gerber Puffs or Cheerios, Pancake, cut-up fruit (melon, grapefruit, banana, pear)


Lunch: Bottle, Gerber Puffs or Cheerios, jar of Gerber meat or chunks of real meat, cut-up fruit


Dinner: Bottle, Gerber Puffs or Cheerios, jar of Gerber meat/dinner, cut-up fruit and a sampling of our dinners which has included the following:


• French fries, Mashed potatoes, cut up potatoes


• Turkey sausage, chicken, ham


• Corn, peas, green beans


• Mac ‘n cheese, pasta, rice


• Corn bread, garlic bread, pizza crust


On the Move


Addison is certainly a baby-on-the-move! Long gone are the days of just plopping her in her room while I got ready for work. Those days were short-lived, but certainly the easiest. She could sit up independently so I didn’t have to hook her up in the Bumpo, or prop her up in the Boppy or Bouncer (enough B’s for everyone?). But her only mode of transportation was rolling and that was easy to manage and watch from the bathroom.


At the end of February, Addison began to crawl. It began as 3 or 4 crawls at a time – to now all out “running” crawls! So getting ready in the morning has gotten a bit more interesting. Now, Addison likes to crawl into the bathroom with me and sit in between my feet while I’m blow-drying my hair, trying to dump over the trash can, or tooling off into the kitchen or down the hall to the living room – screaming in excitement the whole way. So, yes – it’s entertaining and fun, just not as much when my hair’s half wet and I’m chasing a silly baby down, trying to finish getting ready. Usually, however, she sleeps til 7am, which by that point I’m done getting ready so it’s 100% attention on her!


Standing


Addison is able to stand up against things if we set her up that way – such as against the ottoman or her Leap Frog keyboard. In this month, she has also progressed to waving while she is standing up against something!


She pulls herself up to kneeling often, and is very functional and balanced in this position, and has also graduated to kneeling upright without having to hold onto anything for support!


Addison has pulled herself to stand only ONE time last weekend against our ottoman. She has not attempted this at Auntie Lorie’s yet. A couple times at home it looked like she was trying again, but her foot would slip a little and she would simply give up and move on to something else. However, just last night, she did nearly pull herself up to standing in the bath tub of all places! So that’s quite a feat as I’m not so sure I wouldn’t slip and fall if I attempted that myself 


Talking


Addison’s vocabulary hasn’t progressed too much in the past month. No new official first words yet. However, her little personality has come shining through in the new way she likes to say “mom” – she’ll say it very short and clipped, and stick her bottom lip out when she’s done. And she knows it’s cute!!! She continues to mimic the “k” sound when she sees the kitties walk by. “Da” has become the word I believe she is using to say “here, there, this, that”, etc when she is handing us something, showing us something or wanting to grab something. “Dada” is also highly used.


Playing


Our little Addison is quite the happy baby – and of course, very silly! She is very active and always playing. She really enjoys when we stand her up against her LeapFrog keyboard as well as any of the footrests or our couch. She stands there happily banging on the top! She also likes bringing toys around with her when she crawls, sometimes this involves her carrying a toy in her mouth like a doggy or kicking it with her knees as she crawls! Quite the multi-tasker! Now that she is so mobile and knows she can find us when she wants to, whenever we are in the kitchen cooking, etc. she is out there immediately pulling the little instruction manuals we have for various kitchen devices off of the microwave stand and waving them all around. We’ve decided this means she will be an avid reader 


She has also recently discovered the joys of placing a toy in a bucket/basket/cup and shaking it all around until it pops out, then placing the toy back inside and repeat! Her other new favorite game is a manners game! Yes, she has learned to “share” and passes toys back and forth. She can do this for upwards of 10min or more! However, you have to keep up with her, if you hold onto that toy too long without passing it back to her, she will let you know that she doesn’t like it!


Events

Addison just had a busy Easter weekend along with her cousin Bianca’s 2nd birthday party. Starting next weekend, Addison and I will be taking a “Mommy & Tot” swim class at the Park District on Saturday mornings, 8:15am! Then, for her birthday Mommy & Daddy are taking Addison to her first Cubs game! The next day, May 29th, is her birthday party at the Schaumburg Park District. A busy spring ahead for the O’Neills!