Isolde at 10 Months Old

Our 10-month old:

• has two teeth.  The second one appeared our first days in the States and we completely missed it coming through so it must not have hurt as much as last time (which wasn't that bad either but she was evidently cranky then), maybe because it's next to the other one and the gums are already soft.
• is now a hands-and-knee crawler but still tummy crawls when she wants to get somewhere fast.
• can sit up herself, i.e. pull herself to sitting (she's been sitting since she was 4½ months).  Before she had to pull herself up, first to her knees and then to standing, and then sit down. Now she quickly moves between lying down on her back or tummy, crawling, on knees or any position, to sitting.
• sits and play sometimes but mostly stands and walks along furniture or anything she can find, as well as with her toddler wobbler.  About a month ago we had to constantly watch her* but now she can move around the living room without us following her around.  She tries to climb the sofa as well so when she's in that mood you need to watch her carefully.

• is basically never still!
• has much more hair than before we went on holiday.  It seems to grow in spurts.  A bit like development leaps.
• has in the last few days started talking more - more "words" and with more melody in the language.  Says "mamamama" and sometimes "pampampampa" (for pappa) but it's more like she's practicing the words rather than saying it to us or calling for us.
• is becoming a little bit interested in what we eat but still doesn't care that much and is happy being fed and is not interested in holding the spoon or trying to feed herself yet (except some finger food).
• likes bread and especially sourdough - think it grew on her in the States where she ate a fair share of it as a compensation for - in her view - the lack of tasty baby food.  She probably didn't need to eat as much food while we were in warm Florida, and fruit and smoothies provide plenty of nourishment too, but it was quite a relief to come home and see her want to eat cooked food again.  One of the brands of baby food that she did eat was Happy Baby (and to some extent, Earth's Best).
• continues to be super-social and easy-going and it was in many ways very easy to travel with her, especially in child-friendly US (where people would come from the other side of the room to talk to her).  She can sit for quite a while in a high-chair in a restaurant as long as you have a supply of toys and some bread.  That said, it was quite nice to come home and get some routines back in her and our lives, especially when it comes to food and sleep.
• has still not shown any separation anxiety but at night only mummy will do, which is kind of interesting because in the last few weeks she's been quite "want-to-be-with-daddy-all-the-time" (pappig) during the day.  If Peter is at home that is; she doesn't seem to miss him when he's at work.  Or maybe the realises that she has missed him because she's so happy when he comes through the door.  It will be interesting to see how it will be next week when we switch roles and I go back to work.

• started sleeping a bit irregularly before we went on holiday - from sleeping 8-5 to waking up at 3 or 4 and wanting to breast-feed - and the first week back suffered from jetlag, which wasn't helped by her parents dragging her to dinners with friends and the like, and is not back to "good" nights yet.  Initially I planned to stop nursing her when I went back to work but I have decided to continue as long as it works for me sleep-wise.  So most nights I nurse her before bedtime (she eats oat cereal earlier) and in the mornings (partly to get her to sleep longer).  I try to get her to go back to sleep without feeding if she wakes up before 5am (as a 10-month old doesn't need to eat at night) but sometimes I cave in... I guess it might get "worse" when I start work, as she might want to "make up" for not seeing me as much during the day. We'll see.
• often sleeps on her tummy now and rotates 360' several times a night.  It's sometimes difficult to put her to sleep because she has so much energy and can't always unwind.  Sometimes we have to hold her little leg and arms so that she can come to rest.  Sometimes when she's falling asleep she's sort of whining.  She can go on for half-an-hour and she's half-asleep, half-awake.  Sometimes she wakes up and grinds on for a while before going back to sleep.
• when she wakes up, sits up in her bed and chats away by herself or calls for us - but she's almost always Little Miss Sunshine when she wakes. If she's still tired she sucks her thumb and looks at us with her big eyes.
• is very interested in small(er) babies and tries to "talk" to them - she gets so excited and it's very cute.  She has also shown interest in dogs and cats even though she hasn't met many - the first dog she met for real was our friends Suvi & Nick's dog Bramble (then she was more interested in Bramble than their newborn son actually) and my American host family's cat Sammy.  She was a bit afraid of Bramble at first while she tried to crawl after Sammy almost right away - probably meeting Bramble earlier had helped, as she probably can't distinguish between a dog and a cat.

• plays more and more with us and shrieks of laughter if we tickle her or play imitation games.  She loves playing peekaboo in different ways, even the "simple" ones are fun: looking away and then turning your head quickly towards her (and sometimes making a face).
• can be quite rough when she plays with you.  She pulls and pokes at our noses and eyes (and my hair) and thinks it's fun and obviously doesn't realise it hurts.  We try to teach her to "be nice" but at the moment she thinks it's a game.  It's probably also a way to show affection but she cannot control all her movements completely.  At night she can lie still and just twist my hair softly though so she knows how, really.  By the way, she has started picking her own nose.  She has picked ours for a whole, or stuck up her finger in our nose rather, but now she's "discovered" her own :)
• doesn't always want to ride in the pushchair anymore.  Either it's a phase or she got used to being carried in the BabyBjörn or just in our arms on holiday.  Peter is not used to as much complaining so he lets her "escape" much earlier than I usually do.  I.e. he spoiled her and it will be interesting to see if he's going to have to carry her throughout his paternity leave?! :)  This week she's better than last though, even though the trick is often to let her ride forward-sitting.
• learned how to clap her hands properly while we were in the US.  Before that she did it very softly and not very often but now her hands make a real clapping sound and she claps a lot.  She also "claps" with two toys (or whatever she can find).
• is probably approaching 8 kilos (will find out next week) and wears more and more size 74 but can still fit in 68.

Earlier posts at 9 months and 8 months.

* As a parent you're on a constant watch of course but you know what I mean, you don't have to be there ready with the parachute.