10 Months Old

Today our sweet Annie Bananie is 10 months old. Our precious pumpkin. Our Anna-bug. Our Anna-boo. Our Geezer. Our Geezy. Our Anna-Geezy Squeezy.

She has been out of me longer than she was in me. That, my friends, is weird.

She's had a big month for her squishy self. Her hair has grown in a lot- everywhere but the front. Doesn't she realize it is my DREAM to put clips in there? To make it worse, she is also finally very aware of her constant headband sport-age, as well as desperate to rid herself of them. *Sniffle* She loves her friend Anna's mother Audrey so much that the other day at cub scouts she bawled for her until I asked Audrey to hold her, at which point she joyously quieted, and happily tried to poke Audrey in her eyeballs. She takes her baths in the regular tub (no more baby bath for her!) and stands and walks along furniture very reliably now, with few to no resulting crashes. She lowers herself slowly from a standing position now so that when she wants to sit she doesn't just crash to the ground. She waves hello (especially to herself in the mirror) and grips on like a monkey if she doesn't want to be put down. I put her in front of a flight of stairs a few weeks back to see what she would do and she scaled right up them! She now beelines right for them if ever we encounter any. She can crawl like a regular baby but still prefers to get on her stomach and book it infantry-style when she wants to get somewhere fast. She drinks like a champ from her sippy cup, even holding the sippy for herself sometimes, and has learned to feed herself small things like Cheerios. She particularly enjoys pear yogurt, macaroni and cheese, and broccoli soup. What is most delightful though is the advent of, if not her first word, her first means of direct communication.

It started several weeks ago. She was interestedly watching me drink water from a cup- the opportunity to enjoy such a privilege herself being equivalent with such thrills as moving into Disneyland or having her body super-glued to Mommy's arms. As I brought the cup to her mouth she made a sound before she took the sip like she was loudly whispering "haaa". I didn't pay much attention and took another sip myself when she looked at me and extremely deliberately made the sound again.

"Haaa!"

I stared at her. She stared urgently at the cup and in a whisper-shout, hissed, "HAAAAAAAAAA!"

Oh my beautiful brilliant babe. I was so happy. My mind was blown that she was communicating like a real little person. I gave her the water as quickly as I could. She gratefully guzzled. From then on she has been able to be very clear when she is thirsty. Sometimes she will ask in a store and I'm so happy to be able to know what she needs. Sometimes she asks from the backseat when we are driving and I can't give it to her and it breaks my heart. "Haaa" means Drink Please and usually relates to the sippy cup or a cup we are drinking out of, but she also does it when she starts nursing if the milk doesn't come out fast enough. "Haaa?" when said by me with a questioning tone, can also be understood by her to mean Would You Like a Drink? Then, if she would, she will repeat it back. If she is not thirsty she will not respond back in kind. It truly feels like a miraculous connection. On very infrequent occasions "Haaa" has also meant Please Give Me My Binkie. This has only happened two or three times, the first of which was when she was riding alongside her friend Max in the backseat and from his carseat, he filched her Binkie right out of her mouth. From the front we heard her innocent "Haaa"-ing response.

She's such a little angel and such a little imp. I love her squeaky laugh. I love her chubby face. I love that her sense of humor is perfectly suited to our antics. I love her voice and her long babbling incomprehensible conversations. I love how social she is with other babies and bigger kids. I love that she loves songs and books and that an extremely loud (think: startlingly so) rendition of Patty Cake is the only thing that can calm her when I am attempting to ruin her life, i.e. change her clothes or diaper. Today she even barely fought me as I tried to clip her fingernails. I LOVE HER SO MUCH I CAN'T TAKE IT.