10 Months Old - A Jackson Family

Dear Laura,

You are learning so many new things right now. Every day it is fun to be surprised by what you can do!

Currently you crawl anywhere and everywhere – fast. We are all surprised to turn around and have you right there with us. One of your favorite hang-out spots is the bottom of the stairs. You aren’t pulling yourself all the way up to standing yet but you do get up to your knees. When you want one of us you come to us. If I’m walking around trying to take care of the other kids you will follow me around until I pick you up.

We’ve been pulling out the pickler triangle recently and you like crawling up the board to a rung to rock back and forth or sliding down the slide with Emily.

You love drumming on surfaces and the louder the noise the better. The microwave cart by the door is the perfect height for you to sit and bang on enthusiastically. The table while you are waiting for food is another favorite choice.

You like to swing your head up and down really fast. When I’m nursing you, you often jump up and grab onto the side of your crib and rock up and down until you are so dizzy you fall back down into my lap. In the last day or two you’ve started shaking your head back and forth too. You do this with a big smile on your face.

Laura, you love hair. A lot. You twirl your own hair when you are going to bed or nursing. You grab Emily’s hair every chance you get. When Nathan’s on the ground you rub your hand through his hair. You are happy to be held by ANYONE as long as their hair is accessible for you to touch.

Your “talking” voice is coming through while you babble and chat with us. When you first wake up and when you are getting ready for bed you have a lot to say. When you’re nursing you often sit up to tell me one more thing. You also yell/enthusiastically exclaim and add lots of volume to our home. Usually you are blowing bubbles or buzzing and smacking your lips or clicking your tongue.

When you are with Emily and Nathan at the table you like to get everyone laughing if they aren’t already. I sat you in your chair and you made eye contact with Nathan and started laughing until he joined, then Emily joined.

Laura you are very patient with your older siblings ideas of how to play with you. You are often getting picked up and taken somewhere. One of your favorite things is when Emily picks you up and takes you to the piano to play and pound on the keys.

You love the bath. First you love being able to stand up along the edge of the tub. Then you love splashing in the water. You really love putting the wash cloth in your mouth to drink the water (I bring two – one for you and one for me!). Being cozied up in a towel and snuggling is also a huge hit. When its hot outside you’ve also loved going into the little pool we have and splashing with your legs and hands and crawling around. You love water!

There is a chance that dad is your favorite person. When he walks in the back door your whole body exudes excitement and joy and you yell out for him. Your eyes/head stayed glued to him and follow him all around until he comes over to you and picks you up – even if you are eating. If he goes out of sight you start crying until he returns.

You have two bottom teeth. This is making eating harder because you can get bigger pieces off of foods but you can’t get them any smaller. You choke a lot because of this but we just stay close to you when you’re eating to help you out. But you LOVE food. All food. If someone is eating something then you absolutely want some too. When your tray is empty or you want water you grab onto my arm and pull me into you until I give you more food. We’ve been trying to teach you to sign more which is going pretty well. Now you clap before every bite but I think you are celebrating about eating and not so much letting us know you want more food.

About half the week you sleep through the night, going to bed between 6-7pm and always waking up around 6:30am, and playing in your bed until close to 7am. Your take one nap in the morning between 8-9am and another between 12-1pm. When you are tired you want to be in your crib, flinging yourself back until I lay you down and then you roll right over to your stomach. I hear you talking to yourself a bit before you go to sleep and I think you like the alone time.

Laura we all love you so much! We are so grateful you are in our family.