ten months

I'm so much in denial about time slipping through my fingers that I labeled all of these pictures '9 months' before realizing my gross error.  We're now in the double digits, two months shy of a one-year-old.  She's a crawling maniac these days (even if she still does it in a funny, drag one leg behind her her sort of way), started standing a couple of weeks ago and now does it with ease.  She is constantly chattering, saying things like, 'dddaaaddda dada dada; mmmmamamma, mama, nnnnanana' which, of course, means nothing right now, but I do try to encourage her to say MA-MA. Next month, surely.

We got to the doctor today, and she is:

19 pounds 13 ounces // 67th percentile

 27 inches// 10th percentile

 and, drumroll, please:  98th percentile for head circumference! (I didn't write down her head size)

She continues to love pretty much all foods, though, I'm sorry to report, it seems avocado is NOT on that list.  I know, right?!  Obviously, we will be feeding her lots of avocado until she gets her act together.  I'm so thankful, though, that she enjoys food, and has no adverse reactions to it.  I usually just give her whatever we're eating and she scarfs it down.  I think she is already a better eater than Kyalo, and he, too, is a good eater!

Her absolute favorite thing right now is watermelon.

Kyalo's been doing swimming lessons at the (cold) Norway Lake.  Dexter was off one day, so we all hung out at the lake.  I put Malaikah in the water, but since it was cold, she was not a fan. She much preferred the watermelon options.

 gimme allllll the watermelon!!

 FEED ME

nom nom

It is possible that she ate her weight in watermelon that day.

We spent a lot of the last month in the car, showing Dexter's parents around New England.  This means I was relegated to the back row.  It wasn't so bad, because this was my view:

 happy little traveler.

I'm also grateful that she is a good traveler.  We logged a lot of hours and miles in the van this past month, and she rarely complained/mostly slept.  Next month we're going to Rhode Island - four hours from here - which will be our longest road trip yet.  We'll see how that goes.

proudly standing in her crib for the first time.
Also, she has since pulled that mobile down.

She is generally a good sleeper, but now that she's eating more 'real' food, it means she nurses less right before bed, and so often wakes once in the middle of the night, or 5 or so in the morning.  The above picture was on one of those days where she was up too early. I tried to still catch a bit of sleep, letting her play between Dexter and me.  Eventually we both fell back to sleep.  I woke up to this view.  Those lips! Those eyelashes!  I gush.

Here's one last picture:  

I took this to send to friends in Kenya who were a little alarmed by the thought of bathing your kids in a sink.  Maybe it is an American thing, but I have found it to be quite convenient.  We have a deep claw-foot tub, and I think bathing her in it will be a chore.  I'll be sad when she grows out of this sink!

So, all-in-all, another good month for our baby girl.  She is so sweet and easy going.  People constantly comment to me how she is 'contented.'  I always wonder what they see in the 10 seconds they're with her, but I'm not complaining, and I think they're right!