Ten Months

Aliyah, 

In honor of your 10-month birthday I created a Top Ten list of things I love about you most:

10.  Your features:  Just like your dad and brother you have long eyelashes.  Other people often seem to notice this along with your big bright eyes that help you take everything in around your world.  You also love to people watch.

9.  Your fascination with books:  You enjoy being read to for limited amounts of time before you decide you want to be on the go again.  Books with faces of babies and especially books with flaps are your favorites.  The "indestructible"-type books created just for babies who love to put everything in their mouths have gotten a lot of attention from you as well.  You also enjoy spending time exploring at the library.  

8.  Your smile/giggle:  Every morning you are ready to greet us from your crib with a great big smile to start the day.  You tend to reserve your smiles for family, but sometimes you will have a shy smile as you sort of tilt your head down and to the side for other people who want to talk to you.  We also love to hear your little giggle, and Eli seems to be able to make you laugh quite easily.  

7.  Your ability to keep yourself entertained:  While I try to keep the amount of time I am working while you are awake to a minimum, you are still able to keep yourself busy if I am on the computer.  You love to explore and will go from one toy to another.  

6.  You are an adventurous eater:  Since starting on the solid baby food you have tried and even seemed to enjoy each new food as it was introduced.  You stay satisfied in between mealtimes, and even as a newborn and throughout the infant stage you rarely cried for your bottle.  Rather, you would stay content until it was time for the next feeding.  

5.  Your sense of schedule:  As someone who likes to stick to a strict schedule, I attempted to get both you and your brother on a regular routine as soon as I could as infants.  You adapted smoothly to an eating and sleeping pattern early on and still continue to follow the same schedule each day.  

4.  Your sleeping habits:  You spent the majority of your newborn days sleeping, started sleeping through the night at 6 weeks like your brother, and continue to be a good little sleeper.  You are ready for bed at 8:00 at night after your last bottle of the day and wake up around 7:00 in the morning.  Your naps have now been extended from 1-1/2 to 2 hours each time in the morning and afternoon.  Early on you were put in your crib still awake when it was time to go to sleep, and you learned how to go to sleep on your own which you still continue to do.  

3.  You like to stay close to family members:  Eli didn't really seem to make strange as much when he was a baby, but you are more wary about strangers and tend to stay close to mom and dad.  You are much more cautious about letting other people hold you.  You seem to be both a mommy's and daddy's girl.

2.  Your little personality:  On quite a few different occasions other people - both family and strangers alike - have commented on how content you can be and even used the exact same word ("chill") to describe your personality.  You appear to have more of an easygoing temperament.  Even when Eli is not quite as careful and gentle as he could be in playing with you, you still take it in stride.  

1.  Your uniqueness:  There is only one you!  We have really enjoyed the first 10 months of your life and are looking forward to celebrating your upcoming first birthday.