10 Months!

We finally got a new camera, therefore there will be a lot of photos in these posts!!  YAY!  It was a long time coming, but the desire for better photos of Kiera growing up, the ability to snap a picture when I actually want to rather than waiting 12 seconds (important with a little one!), and the hope to someday learn to take great photos finally pushed us over the edge.  After much deliberation we finally decided on the Canon 60D and so far we love it!  I sadly haven't had the time to learn a whole lot anything about it yet, but apparently even a dummy can use it on the auto setting and take much better pictures than the point and shoot.  : )

Kiera is all over the place!  Between her speedy crawling these days and her short stints of walking, she is definitely keeping us on our toes.  Here is what she's up to at 10 months:

- For the first time she protested her monthly photos in the chair!  She is on the go and doesn't really want to sit still for anything, including photos.  She has learned how to get out of your arms by straightening up her body and sliding down... makes things a little challenging!

- She is officially walking!  She is definitely at the age where she is injury prone but is pretty good at walking around and just falling on her butt or catching herself with her hands when she loses her balance.  When she takes a lot of steps, she often turns around once she has reached her destination and looks back at you with this big smile and just waits for you to praise her for her walking skills.  : )

- We had to install a gate at the bottom of the stairs (only our bedroom is upstairs now so she doesn't really go up there) as she can now climb the stairs.  I went up behind her to see and she made it all the way to the top.

- She says lots of words, or tries!  Lots of babbling and she definitely says momma, dada, more (this was probably the first word other than mama and dada... fitting for her!) when she wants more to eat, bye bye, baaaaa (bath) , nanana (mimicking me when I say no no no), yah yah yah (ok that may not really be a word, but she likes to say it), nanna (banana), nigh nigh (night night).

- She is loving her sippy cup with the straw and can pick it up and drink it by herself.  We only put water in it for now but will probably have her drink milk out of it soon since the plan is for her to drink her milk our of it at a year.

- She still loves reading books!  We got a new bookshelf to house her growing book collection which we love.  The drawer base is just the right height so she can stand at it and pull the books out.

- She is completely obsessed with waving.  She waves when we come into her room, waves at herself in the mirror, waves at dogs we see on the street, waves at anyone who will look, waves at the moon and birds, waves when she hears the front door open, and of course when saying bye bye!

- She loves eating anything with her fingers (actually hands now as she likes to shove fistfuls of food in her mouth).  She will still eat some baby food and rice cereal and oatmeal, but definitely prefers the finger food and has eaten everything she has tried so far.  She has tried too many things to list: peas, broccoli, carrots, chicken, ham, turkey, fish, wheat bread, cheerios, cheese, noodles, rice, bananas, pears, apples, avocado, beans, and even a sweet potato french fry the other night.  : )  Her 8 teeth are coming in very handy for all this eating!

- She is wearing a combination of 6-12 and 12-18 month clothes. Still wearing size 3 diapers.

- We went to the zoo and saw the pandas.  She is at the age where she can actually see the animals you point out to her so we hope to go more frequently.

- She is on the same sleeping schedule 8-7 or 7:30am with two 1.5 hr naps around 9:30 and 2:00 and the same eating schedule with milk at 7, 11, 3, and 7 (ish) with solids at 11 and 7 and an occasional snack in between.

- She loves opening the drawers in the bathroom and pulling things out.  We need to make another trip to babies r us for some drawer locks!  In the mornings she loves sitting on the bathroom floor with me in front of the mirror and playing with my makeup, combs, and brushes while I get ready.  Such a girl already!  : )

Look who's walking!

It's been a LONG time since I've posted a video of Miss Kiera... so here she is walking and talking!  Such a big girl now!  Love her : )

9 Months!

And another belated monthly post... oh well, better late than never I guess!  Kiera is definitely more of a handful now that she is mobile, but we just love it.  What a FUN age!  Joel and I literally say to each other about 10 times a day, "She's the best" and "I just love her SO much".  Being a mom is the best thing ever.  : ) 

Kiera had a 9-month doctor's visit so we have stats...

Weight: 19lb 7 oz (50-75th percentile)
Height: 27 inches long (25th percentile)
Head Circumference: 17 inches (25th percentile)

Here's what she's been up to...

She is still wearing size 3 diapers and a mix of 6-12 and 12-18 month clothes.

Kiera had her first taste of wasabi this month, NOT intentionally!  We went out for sushi and while we were chowing down on our dinner, Kiera decided that the bright green wasabi looked tasty so she stuck her finger in there to grab a taste.  Joel noticed right away and grabbed it and swept it out of her mouth and I'm pretty sure I scared her by jumping up and grabbing her more than the wasabi actually hurt her mouth.  Only a few moments of crying and she was over it.  Phew!

She is definitely crawling now!  She is ALL over the place and can crawl from room to room.  If we leave her in one room and go to the next she likes to follow us.   And she is so proud of herself.  : )

When she goes to sleep at night or down for a nap, she loves to open up the plantation shutters next to her crib and look out into the courtyard of the condo.  She will usually look outside for awhile before laying back down and going to sleep.  Joel commented the other day how hilarious it must look to the neighbors across the courtyard to see a baby standing there looking out.  haha  She still sleeps ~8pm-7am or so and takes two 1.5 hour naps.

She LOVES to talk and makes all sort of vocalizations.  She loves to imitate noises she hears like trains, coughing, clicking noises, animal noises (she can do a dog & a cow), and just babbling.  She still loves to say mama the most!  Along with the happy vocalizations she has started to vocalize when she's not a fan of something.

Her absolute favorite thing to do is walk around the house holding onto your hands.  She would do it all day if we let her.  She pulls herself up and is cruising around holding the furniture but much prefers holding your hands and exploring the place!

She has mastered drinking water out of straws and sippy cups.  We started with one of those straw cups where you can squeeze it to help make the liquid go up the straw, but she showed us within a day that she was capable of doing it herself and the normal straw sippys were just fine.

She is eating lots of finger foods.  She would prefer to eat anything with her fingers to eating baby food from a spoon.  And she still loves to pick up small things off the floor and try to eat them... requires frequent vacuuming!  She still uses both hands to eat, but we noticed that she often picks up food in both hands and then closes the right one into a fist, continues to use the left one and then at the end of the meal there is inevitably some food hiding in the right fist.  : )  She is on the same eating schedule with milk 4 times a day and 2 solid meals.

She likes to stand on her own for short periods of time.  Once she is stable next to her table or holding onto something she will let go and see how long she can stand alone. 

She started waving and clapping which is absolutely adorable (but can be hard to capture on film)!

She is really enjoying the touch and feel books, although she really likes to taste them!  So strange, but she likes to lick or bite the dog's fur, etc in the books!  What a goofball...

And finally, she cheered on the Green Bay Packers to a Super Bowl victory!  She got lots of use out of her cheerleader dress (it was her Halloween costume)!