10 Months Old

Dear Emily,

Life with you is full of joy. Every day I am so grateful that you came to our family.

You are as serious as ever when it comes to learning about the world. A few days ago you found a fuzz ball on the floor and spent ten minutes holding it and grabbing the little strands with your fingers. You were so focused and were oblivious of everything else around you. This laser-like focus also appeared when we went out to lunch on Wednesday with dad’s cousins. The restaurant had a number of large TVs with sports center on and you were fixated on the screen, which only confirmed to us it is a really good idea to not give you much screen time yet.

One of your favorite new activities is laughing. It first started about a week ago when you and I were eating dinner. You let out a very cute, forced laugh, which got me laughing, and you really laughing. Anytime I stopped laughing you started trying to laugh some more until I laughed again. Now this is a frequent mealtime activity, and as of yesterday, a road trip activity. Another mealtime discovery is how to shake your head back and forth.  You like it when I shake my head back and we have a good laugh.

You crawl at lightning speed now.  I am so surprised to see you just appear all over.  You also pull yourself up along furniture and walk along without even thinking.  You are becoming quite adept at grabbing someone’s hands and walking where ever you like to go.

You are starting to sign with us, which is really exciting. You clap and make a little shout for “more”.  Sometimes you wave your hands for “all-done” after we do it.  We do lots of signing with you so hopefully you will pick up on more soon.  You love grapes, strawberries, blueberries, pears, tortillas, green beans, peas, and chicken.  Actually you really like everything we put in front of you, but you do have some things that you prefer and you sort out your favorites to eat first.

Currently you are sleeping through the night and taking two 45 minute naps a day.  This is a perfect schedule for however long it lasts. You have been an extremely patient girl with all of our moving and crazy summer schedules.

A little glimpse at one of your laughs.

You love dogs and are very quick to discover them in any form; pictures, statues, stuffed animals, and live ones. You say “dog, dog” and notify everyone of your find.

Cute face.

You play peek-a-boo with anything big enough to cover your face, usually towels and clothes.  I asked you to show me your dog and did peek-a-boo with it too.

You crawled right off as soon as I snapped one picture.

We love you Emily!