Allie's 10 Month Birthday
My goodness, I can't believe that is is already June. Allie was 10 months old on May 22nd, and yes, I know it is now June but here it is, Allie's 10-month birthday post. It's later than it usually is because the month of May has been very busy for our little family. So let's get to it. Allie is 10 months and 11 days old today! 45 weeks! She has been ex-utero longer now than she was in-utero. She sleeps through the night most nights and has a grand total of one tooth! Wheeeeee!
Can you see the tooth in the picture above?
Allie's personality is definitely becoming more and more defined. She is mostly easy-going and easy to please. She sits by herself to play often, and loves to be read to and sung to. She now stands (with help) and "dances" to the Bingo song, and recognizes it and laughs when I play it on the piano without singing the words. Old MacDonald's farm is populated by everything anyone can imagine. Bedtime is now a new set of short stories - we finished the 2004 Best American Short Stories anthology this past month and have now started on the 2005 collection. She claps her hands, giggles and babbles (still no "Mama" though). She rolls very strongly to where she wants to go, which is usually somewhere she shouldn't go! She just steamrolls over things except for table legs, chair legs, etc. She survived and thrived during a road trip to Connecticut and had some milestone separations from me while I had to be on site. She had some quality time with Papa. She's still very friendly and was carried around by hotel staff and waitstaff during the roadtrip, and also demanded to be carried around by all the visitors to our house (more on this later). She is still a huge fan of Jeopardy! and Alex Trebek.
Her palate seems to be fairly open and she hasn't been too picky about her food. At the 9-month mark she was last introduced to onions (in the form of onion, chicken & rice puree). We did not introduce anything new during the 6-day road trip in case she had any reactions, but she's had a full month of new stuff nonetheless. New foods and ratings include:
1. Sage + Onion/Chicken/Rice puree (thumbs up)
2. Barley cereal (thumbs up)
3. Leek & Garlic + Chicken/Rice puree (thumbs up)
4. Canteloupe (thumbs up)
5. Baked Butternut Squash + Apple puree (thumbs up)
6. Beef and Potato Kurma puree (thumbs up)
7. Blueberry puree (thumbs up)
8. Thyme + Leek/Garlic/Chicken/Rice puree (thumbs up)
We reintroduced yogurt to her with mixed results - thumbs up for the blueberry yogurt, thumbs down for the apple yogurt. She's starting to gum small pieces of ripe mango and plum, but only if we feed it to her with a spoon. She just squeezes the pieces in her hands and throws it overboard (everything else she puts in her mouth except for food!) and she refuses to take food from our hand. But put a spoon to her lips and woohoo! She eats it. She's been introduced to enough things now that we can mix and match - for instance, she got to try mango lassi at a restaurant (and loved it!) and she also loves blueberry-barley mixture. She eats a substantial lunch and dinner of solids, snacks a few times a day and still gets a full day's worth of breastmilk (breakfast is VERY milk-heavy). My goal of a minimum of 12 months of breastfeeding seems quite attainable - in fact I am going to try to stretch it out longer! We have not been successful at getting Allie to drink anything out of a sippy cup or a bottle though. But we will keep on trying. 
And now for the pictures of how Allie spent her first day as a 10 month old. As always, mouse over the pictures for captions. She started the day with a mini-photoshoot in her crib, showing off how she can stand and hold herself up using the crib rail.
Then she went outside to help Papa with yardwork:
She spent some time in the play pen (sunlight on her caused by the skylight in the roof):
(Note: Vin took all of these playpen/sunlight pictures. I just love the sunlit effect)
She ate a big lunch with blueberries for dessert:
She spent a lot of time rolling around on the floor, playing with her books and toys:
Finally, Allie sits in the crack between the sofa cushions and plays with a bottle:
And then it was bath and bedtime for little girls. All in all it has been a very eventful month, and we had so much fun with Allie. She is a happy, lively, mischievous child, and we are blessed to have her in our lives. Even Lily is grudgingly starting to think she might be OK. I can't wait to see how Allie will continue to grow and enrich our lives! She's wonderful and we are always constantly amazed by her. Happy 10-month birthday, baby!
And to close this entry, here is one of my favorite pictures of Allie and Papa, taken at a rest stop during our road trip (a few days before her actual birthday).
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