Dear Maya,
My energizer infant, my sweet squawk box, my screeching baby pterodactyl, my beautiful girl,
Today you are ten months old. 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10! Unreal. This has been a tremendous month for you developmentally, socially, physically… everything! I look back at photos of you from just 2 or 3 months ago and I realize how much you've changed.
Your hair has really grown in. And it’s getting curly! At bath time, I wash your hair and it bounces up into the cutest little ringlets in the back. You may have your daddy’s complexion, eye and hair color… but I think you have my curls. You also have a second tooth. You (understandably) were not very happy with this addition to your mouth; your poor gums ached and you spent several days working on Sophie’s ears and your blue teething ring. You seem to be much better…for now. I’m sure more chompers are on their way.
You crawl so fast! You love moving around and exploring different rooms of the house. One of your favorite discoveries is the door stopper. You long to hear it go boooooooiiinnngggg. You’ve also found the puzzle stool that has been in your room since birth, the windowsill and the air vents.
You are fascinated by the vacuum. Whenever I vacuum the house, you love to crawl up to it. If you are sitting in your high chair or playpen, you sit and follow it all over the room with your eyes. You never sit still, even when we pick you up, you do this mid-air runningman dance. But you will sit in your playpen mesmerized by the thing.
You cannot get enough of Jerry. You will be playing with a toy in one spot and then he walks into the room. Zoom! You are off crawling towards the cat. You adore him. You love to feel his soft fur and sandpaper kisses. Sometimes you try to pull his tail and sometimes you like to lay your head on his side. It’s so sweet. Even when you grab a big handful of fur and pull, he never gets angry with you.You are curious. You want to touch everything. Especially the remote, the phone and the camera. Sometimes its hard to get a picture of you because you are reaching for the lens.
You are beginning to pull yourself up to stand! This began just last weekend here and there. It was a struggle at first, but you quickly got the hang of it. Now you are able to stand up in your crib and let us of know when you are done napping. You love to stand at your music table, holding on with one hand and hitting the colored shapes, flipping the pages on the book and sliding the whammy bar on the guitar with your other hand. You pull yourself up to the ottoman and slap the top of it over and over.
At daycare, you crawl up to the cubbies and pull yourself up to get the toys off of the shelf. You see Nanda or Addison in the minnows room and stand at the gate talking to them. You like make this high pitched AAH! AAH!
Speaking of your friends, you had a very full social calendar this month! You went on a hayride with Colin, Josh and Graciela, you went to Ryan’s First Birthday(!) party in DC, Jodi came to visit, you wore your ladybug costume to the mall for an afternoon with friends, you had an early morning pajama party with Nathan, a Halloween pajama photo shoot with Josh and a playdate with Riley at her house.
Every day, Daddy and I pick you up from daycare and go home. While he makes dinner, you and I play in the bedroom with Jerry and watch The Goodnight Show on Sprout. We sing ‘Twinkle Twinkle Little Star’ with Nina and the ‘Happy Happy Birthday’ song with Chica. Then it’s time for dinner and your bath. Your love bath time and so do I. I actually look forward to this time with you all day. You could sit and play with your rinse cup and toys forever; and I could sit there and watch you the whole time. I used to have to hand you toys, but now you reach for your blue whale or yellow puffer fish. You even pick up your wash cloth from the bottom of the tub.
You have so much energy.. until you don’t. You play and crawl and laugh and go-go-go until you poop out. You get this look on your face and it’s time for a nap. Most of the time we can put you into your crib and you roll onto your tummy and go right to sleep (I said you were pooped) but other times you will play in your crib for 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 30 minutes amused by the monkeys on your wall, the shadows the curtains make on the floor, the bars on the crib, anything and everything. Eventually you plop down and face plant into the mattress.
This month you had a visit from Bubbie and Grandpa. We had so much fun! We went pumpkin picking and to a fall festival. Boy did you love the animals!
Also, Bubbie and Grandpa got your first pair of shoes! OK, they are really still just baby shoes, more like slippers than real shoes but you look like such a big girl!You like to pull them off as well as your socks, I hope we can keep your little feet warm this winter!
Your first Halloween was quite a celebration. First we got into the spirit of the season by going to a Fall Festival with pumpkin picking and a hayride. Then on Friday, you were in a parade and attended a party at your daycare. On Sunday we went to the neighborhood block party as well as the mall for trick or treating around the stores where you got your first piece of Halloween candy (Godiva of course)! Finally on Monday (which was actually Halloween) you joined a couple of the neighborhood kids and went door to door.
You are a ham. A jokester. A ball of giggles. You love to play. You will initiate peekaboo by pulling a blanket up over your face. We say "Where's Maya?" Then you pulls it down and smile that gummy sweet grin as we yell "There she is!" This goes on and on, you never get tired of it. Similarly, you also love it when I hide around a corner or behind a door. I peek out and say “Hi!!!!” and you laugh and laugh. We do this in the bathtub, in the hallway, in the car…. You love it!
You say ma ma ma and da da da – I know you are just parroting what you hear but I love to hear you say it. My heart actually swells up when I hear you babble softly to yourself, ma ma ma as you play or when you see me. You have this soft, gravelly voice. I look forward to hearing what you say next. You eat black beans and raspberries now (but not together), you like tofu but not beef and you love quinoa. You are able to give yourself a bottle (when we aren’t looking- otherwise you pretend you cant so we will do it for you) and you are using your sippy cup very well.
I recently read that “If you take a toy away from her, your increasingly assertive baby is likely to object.” Oh. Hells. Yes. This is you. You hate giving up an instrument at the end of a song in music class. That said, you continue to love music class. You love banging the drums and crawling to the middle of the circle grinning ear to ear while kicking /stomping your feet. You shake the eggs and maracas, you follow the scarves as we wave them all around. I am definitely going to enroll you in this class again over the winter.
My sweet, you surprise me in the best ways. The other morning, you and I were cuddling in bed watching Sesame Street. Elmo came on and you laughed, dropping your pacifier. It rolled away a bit from where we were snuggled and you reached for it, picked it up, turned it over and placed it back into your mouth before laying back onto the pillow. There I lay, watching you. When did you learn to do that? It’s these everyday little moments that totally amaze me. A few weeks later you were at a party and there were some stacking cups on the floor. You crawled up to some and put a small one inside a bigger one! Again- when did you learn how to do this? I remember when we first started at daycare, all of the older babies in the room seemed so grown up. Now YOU are the oldest baby in the room. In a few weeks, you will begin to transition from the infant Guppy room to the Tadpoles room with the rest of the mobile babies. You and Addison will join your old friends Elliott, LuLu and Emily. And of course Riley!
I have always loved the fall- but I have especially enjoyed it this year because of you. Watching you play and examine a crimson leaf, hearing the crunch as it crumbles in your hands… now more than ever, you bring wonder and joy to my life. Thank you for your smile and your laughter. You are so good natured and I love you more and more each day.
Love,
Mommy
