So yesterday was Alethea’s 10 month birthday. Some of you may have logged on to view her 10 month update and were shocked at my tardiness. My grand excuse: Peter and I both came down with the stomach flu. Ugggg. One small blessing though, Alethea has thus far escaped the illness and we are hoping it stays that way.
Last night Alethea’s second top tooth came in. She now has all four of her center teeth. I’m hoping that this means we are done teething for a bit and can get back to sleeping through the night. That would definitely be an upside.
On the downside… Alethea has been grinding her teeth all morning long and it is a truly horrible sound.
Anyone know how to cure a 9 month old of teeth grinding?
Lately Alethea has been doing the “go completely limp when I don’t want to do what you want me to do” maneuver. How is it that all kids know that one? Is just instinctual or should I be looking for a copy of Manipulation 101: How to Get Your Parents to Cave Every Time under Alethea’s mattress?
Grandma Debbie helped me get a video of Alethea walking. Turns out the bumps to her head haven’t deterred her progress. I know in the video it sounds like I’ve taken a couple bumps to the head. What is it about having a kid that makes me talk in such a high pitched voice? Well, anyway, here’s the video…
It’s official: yesterday Alethea took one step without holding on to get from Peter to me and then later she took two steps to get from the kitchen cupboards to Peter. She’s walking!
She also wiped out pretty badly once yesterday and then twice again today, so I’m thinking she may be feeling not so daring for a while and it may be a bit before she tries the walking thing again, but we’ll see!
On Monday Peter and I cleaned out our Laundry/Mud Room and organized the closet. Here’s the before pic:
And here is the closet post organization:
Sorry to everyone who reads this blog strictly for cute baby pictures, but I had to post about this because not only do I now have an ironing station, a place to put dirty kitchen towels and a spot for empty laundry baskets, but this is also the first time since we moved in that the entire first floor of our house has been clean and organized. I am feeling tired, but triumphant!
Lately it’s been surprising to me how quickly Alethea is changing. She gets around so easily, I feel like I can’t let her out of might sight for a second, especially now that she has started to climb stairs. Oh, and as an added bonus, if I do catch her going towards something she’s not supposed to have and say in my best mommy voice, “Alethea, don’t touch that,” she just speeds up to try and beat me to the things she’s not allowed to have! She must think I’m such a killjoy.
A more pleasant development is Alethea’s expanding vocabulary. She now says three colors: green (clearly), yellow (“eh-woh”) and blue (“boo”), although I’m still pretty sure she has no concept of their meanings. She also says, “All Done” (sounds like “ah-dah”), which she generally uses when she’s done eating and also throughout her diaper changes, like she’s trying to convince me to let her run around the house without a diaper. Fat chance.
She continues to say “hi” and “Dada” both in correct contexts and incorrect ones, so jury is still out on whether she knows they are real words, although the other day, Peter walked into the room, she looked right at him and said, “Hi, Dada,” so maybe…
But her favorite word by far is “Uh-oh!” She uses it when she drops things, when she wants attention (she seems to know that I’ll always look up when she says it) and just generally throughout the day whenever she thinks it fits. It’s kind of funny.
I guess that means her word count at 41 weeks is 5-7 words.
Today I’m trying to get her to say, “Happy Birthday, Grandpa John!” So far, no luck.
The other day Alethea and I went over to play with our neighbor Jo’s (hi Jo!) puppies Dillon and Ginger. Alethea thought they were pretty cool except for the licking part. I did get some cute pics though…
Alethea and Dillon wait for the squeeky ball to drop
Alethea meets Ginger
Dillon was very nice and let Alethea play with his ball too