And in the Tenth Month...

I decided that having a child makes time accelerate at least 23% faster than if you do not have a child. My professional observation comes through the facts that the last 10 months do not feel like that amount of time has elapsed; rather, it only feels like a little over seven months ago that Anika was born. Ergo, time has accelerated in my life because my attentions are so involved in another person that I do not notice how quickly time is passing.

My baby is getting closer to NOT being a baby anymore, which I cannot consider for too long at one moment or I become depressed. On the other hand, my little girl is growing and learning at such an exciting rate that I cannot wait until we can communicate better and play together even more than we do now.

Anika's milestones at TEN MONTHS:
* has gained 12 ounces since last month! Hooray! Now she weighs a whopping 17 pounds!
* has added a couple words to her vocabulary like banana or "nanana" and Jake or "dake"; the grand list of words is "mama" "dada" "all done" "kitty" "mih-mih" (milk)
* can drink out of a sippy cup all by herself
* understands questions like "where's ____?" and will look at the person; also knows how to respond to "can you splash?" "can you bang on that?" "can you dance?"
* has been able to hover-stand for a couple seconds without holding on to anything
* loves loves loves to dance
* loves to play the piano. she is tall enough now to reach the keys when she stands up so she likes to play the bottom notes to make louder sounds
* has fully embraced her nightly routine and rarely fusses to go to bed and sleeps a solid 10-12 hours every night. Bath time, play a little, nurse, brush teeth, read books, sing songs, pray and goodnight!
* has mastered going up AND down the little stairs
* continues to keep her gracious, sweet and mellow demeanor which I pray will stay with her above anything else.



We went on a recent trip to the zoo with Tante Rachelle (Garry's sister) who is visiting from California. Afterwards we went to Jones Bros. Cupcakes (yum) and Anika tasted some cake to start practicing for her first birthday in only two months.