10 months old!

Health and Growth

Elsie now weighs 16lbs, 8oz (8%) and stretches to 27.5 inches (35%).

The biggest news this month is that she is officially sleeping through the night, a feat that makes her Daddy and me shout for joy (thanks for the sleep training, Grandma RJ!). She generally goes to bed about 7, wakes up about 5 for a feeding, then goes back to sleep for another hour. She seems to have decided that one nap a day is perfectly sufficient, and it usually lasting about 2 hours.

This is what I wrote last month about Elsie's teething:
"Her first tooth came in shortly after her 7-month birthday, and in the last few days she has sprouted one more on top and another on the bottom. We're hoping that the teething is over for now, and her sleep might improve even more!"
Strangely enough, the other middle bottom tooth that we could see back then still hasn't cut through the gum, but she pushed out another top tooth instead. For those keeping track, she now has three teeth, all on the left side of her mouth. Sadly, her adorable lopsided smile will be changing again soon, as we can now see three more teeth about the pop through (the matching pairs for the three she already has).

Communication

Signs Elsie does: milk, good-bye and hello (waving), no (shaking head)
Signs and words Elsie recognizes: all done, more, kitty, duck, bird, cow, horse, diaper change, poop, food, water

We are still working with Elsie on animal noises and other simple words like kitty, Daddy, Mama, Pongo, milk, bath, food, water and nap. She gets excited when we say them, but hasn't tried to reproduce any of the sounds yet. Her favorite word recently is "clap"...she will clap on demand, or anytime she sees someone else clapping. She even claps when she hears applause on tv!

This month we tried to work teaching Elsie to blow kisses...it's still a work in progress!

Activities

Elsie is working hard at walking. She consistently takes 4 or 5 steps on her own, and has turned into a speedy "army crawler" in the last few weeks. She can stand for over a minute by herself when she wants to- and when Daddy or I try to time her standing and she DOESN'T want to, she sits down on her own and grins at us.

Elsie is thrilled to have a new kitty in the house to play with- Isiah, our foster kitty. He loves to cuddle and be held, and submits to Elsie's "petting" very nicely. She also loves the toy he brought with him- she will crawl across the room to play with his "ball stuck in a round tube" toy.

Watch Elsie Grow! Comparison Photos:
One Week


One Month


Two Months


Three Months


Four Months


Five Months


Six Months


Seven Months


Eight Months


Nine Months


Ten Months