Eloise at Ten Months

CLOTHES SIZE: 3-6 months, 6-9 months
DIAPER SIZE: Three

LIKES:
 - Playing in any sort of water
 - Singing (especially Wheels on the Bus, Moana, Zoom Zoom Zoom, etc.)
 - Dad's Mickey voice
 - Being tossed in the air
 - Knocking down block/cup towers
 - Crawling and standing on everything
 - Sneezing
 - Leaves and grass (and trying to eat them)
 - Rolling around balls
 - Playing on the couch
 - Being chased (though doesn't always remember to run away yet, haha)
 - Swings
 - Fruit (especially peaches, bananas, mangoes, and pears)
 - Playing peek-a-boo
 - Springy door stoppers
 - The toilet (WHY)
 - Bathtime
 - Crawling up stairs

DISLIKES:
 - Getting her diaper changed
 - Getting her clothes changed
 - Really coarse/hard food
 - Sitting in her highchair for too long
 - Vegetables in all forms
 - Getting her hands and face wiped after eating
 - Being woken up early from naps

FIRSTS/MILESTONES:
 - Front tooth (40 weeks)
 - Standing for a five or more seconds independently (41 weeks)
 - Mimicking sounds (41 weeks)
 - Fake laughing (41 weeks)
 - Crawling up stairs (41 weeks)
 - Playing peek-a-boo (42 weeks)
 - Holding her own bottle consistently (42 weeks)

RANDOM NOTES:
 - More of a mama's girl this month, and more clingy.
 - Really prefers eating foods that are very soft/mushy/slimy like purees, yogurt, soft fruits and veggies, etc. and will most often refuse other more coarse food like cheerios, bread, meat, etc.
 - Somehow is a total pro at picking up small leaves and eating them, but can't do the same with food, haha. She is improving, but I wouldn't say she has the pincer grasp down yet.
 - Always wants to be where everyone else is! She follows me around all day.
 - Still babbles mama, dada, and other sounds, but doesn't seem to know what anything means yet.
 - Maybe is starting to sign back? Possibly? (We've been signing "milk" and "drink" for months, and we're just starting to introduce "more").
 - Still sleeping through the night for us! No sleep regressions yet, other than a few bad naps this month. Occasionally for some naps and once in the middle of the night, Eloise needed to be rocked to sleep, which was very abnormal for her.
 - Will give us sneaky little smiles when she is doing something she knows she shouldn't (like crawling into the bathroom, basically her favorite place, gross).
 - We took Eloise camping again this month... This time, I will not be bragging about her, haha. Let's just say none of us slept much that night.

Eloise is down to two naps a day! And it went well, even though I was all worried about the transition beforehand. I had been planning on moving Lou to two naps later in the month after a bunch of family left town, but she suddenly wanted to be awake much longer between naps, so there was no way we could even fit three decent length naps in if we wanted. Her naps still aren't very consistent (they could be 45 minutes or two hours, who knows) but I think they are improving still. I hope. Here is her current schedule (plus or minus about 30 minutes on all the times):
8:00 am - Wake up, 6 oz bottle
10:00 am - Breakfast
10:30 am - Nap
1:00 pm - Lunch
3:00 pm - 6-7 oz bottle
3:15 pm - Nap
6:00 pm - Dinner
8:30 pm - 6 oz bottle, bath if needed, bedtime routine, down for the night

Food has been a bit of a fun challenge this month. At the beginning on the month, Eloise started to boycott most foods, even purees that she normally liked. She had never been very good with solids to begin with. We had to give her more bottles than normal because we just couldn't get her to eat much. Then, after a couple weeks of fighting the food, she suddenly was a better eater than ever! She started holding her own bottle and drinking the whole thing at once again. For meals, she actually started eating a good amount of solids--usually around 10 to 15 little pieces of food (though we have to feed half of them to her still). We have a hard time getting her to eat anything coarse, like cheerios, bread, crackers, etc. She would eat only fruit and yogurt forever if you let her. So we're pretty good at getting enough fruit and dairy and sometimes grains (but only via baby cereal mixed in with purees) in her diet, but vegetables and protein are a struggle we're working on. For a typical meal, Eloise eats little pieces of food (usually half fruit, half vegetable/grain/cheese mix), and around one can of baby food with cereal in it, and some yogurt at lunch. It's working for us so far. I can't wait until she eats more solids though, and can eat them better on her own!

Movement hasn't changed much from last month, other than Eloise now can stand for small amounts of time on her own (her record is about 30 seconds). She is faster at crawling and pulling up on furniture, but no couch surfing, walking, etc. yet. I don't mind! She is getting into everything as it is, haha. Right now, she is absolutely terrible to hold. She just wants to be moving and be on the ground. though she is so good in the stroller or in the car. Also, church has become more of an adventure. We basically take turns having hall church since she loves her own voice so much and wants to be moving. Her favorite thing to do in the hall is find the stairs and crawl up them over and over again.

I feel like Eloise has really developed cognitively this month. She has started to understand games, such as peek-a-boo and chasing games and will participate in them. Also, I've been really impressed with how Eloise know exactly what certain sounds mean. For example, when I sing Patty Cake, Lou will clap her hands. When she hears the tub filling, she gets super excited and will crawl to the bathroom. When she hears me shaking a bottle over the sink, she'll immediately start fussing and crawling toward me. It is so cool to see her learning and making connections. Basically, I think she's a genius ;) Also, is it normal to think your child is hilarious even when they can't talk? Because Lou is totally funny.

We love our sweet girl! And how is she so close to be ONE YEAR OLD?! I'm in shock.