My girls are 10 months today and they are rapidly turning into little toddlers!  Their stout little legs support their weight as they lean against the coffee table and devour Cheerios.  Their capable little bodies chase me into the kitchen and ‘help’ me clean or cook.  They are starting to have very clear modes of communication.  They go nuts when daddy sings “Goosey Goosey Gander” or the “Grand Old Duke of York”.  Their little personalities are just shining so brightly.

Aeralind Grace

You are fearless.  You were the first to pull up and stand at the coffee table.  I thought for sure that I would have to help you get back down to a sitting position, but, oh, no.  You simply let go of the side of the coffee table and plop right down on your bum so hard I almost swear you bounce!  You crawl to the edge of our tall King bed and reach over the 3 foot drop to grab something off the nightstand.  Sometimes you’ll even hang your arms and head over the side of the bed as if to taunt the floor! You’ve even climbed 2 stairs before I could swoop you up for a diaper change. I’m constantly amazing at your adventurous spirit.

This month you’ve learned to pull up to stand, clap your hands at the table (I think you’re signing ‘more’… but I’m not sure), blow raspberries like your sister, steal food off your sister’s tray at mealtime, pull up to stand on objects that are flat (the oven and the back door are your favorites), and are captivated by your reflection (hence the obsession with pulling up to stand at the oven…).  You love to lick your reflection which I think is odd since you don’t lick your sister 😉  You also love tipping your head backwards as we lean you back over on our laps.  It makes you shriek with joy!

You’ve become a bit of a cuddle bug this month.  You’ll pull up to stand next to where someone is sitting and shriek until we pick you up.  Then you’ll snuggle up close.  Sometimes you pull hair, or explore what happens as you pick our noses, or attempt to poke out our eyes.  You just enjoy being near us.

I taught you to roar early last month.  I would get down on the floor and roar and attempt to chase you two (although you both chased me instead… you haven’t figured out how to run away!).  And suddenly one day you started mimicking my roar.  It cracks me up as you come flying at me howling.

You’ve become obsessed with the cardboard carseat boxes that we used to make a fort in.  In one of them your daddy carved a small square window and you love sticking your face out of that window.  You’ll get your sister’s attention from the window and suddenly the two of you will be collapsing in giggles as you try to lick/bite each others’ hands through the hole.  If you’re not playing at the window, then most likely you’re pulling up to stand in the box and peep over at me in the kitchen.

Bronwyn Hope

Bronwyn, this month your mischievous side has burst forth with reckless abandon. You’ve always loved moving objects larger than yourself and you just figured out you could move the carseat box fort from it’s post as ‘gate’ between the living room and the kitchen.  You delight in shoving the boxes out of the way and leading an exploratory expedition into the kitchen. One day I walked out of the room and when I came back I could not find you anywhere!  You had crawled behind my couch and were quietly chilling out in the space where the couches butt up against one another.

While you showed almost no interest in crawling or moving until your sister started crawling last month, you’ve quickly made up for it.  After you’d mastered the inch worm, you managed to sit up from your tummy.  Then one day you just suddenly gave up the inch worming (sadness… it was so cute!) and just started crawling better and faster than your sister.  You love getting into things.  You’re always dumping out toy crates, banging toys together, and moving on to the next thing as fast as possible. You’ve also learned that you can blow raspberries with food in your mouth, how to climb over just about anything, how to pull up and stand, and can to get to a Cheerio hidden anywhere 🙂

You are a sweet clumsy child. This month you’ve bonked your head on the fireplace, fallen into the coffee table, pulled up on a kitchen table chair and fallen into the kitchen table leg, and gotten your legs stuck in the crib slats (though you probably could have gotten out of that without my assistance).  You always have bumps on your poor little head.  Because of this, I think you’re more cautious than your sister.  You would pull up on the coffee table to eat your cheerios, but only to your knees for the longest time.  When you did pull up all the way to your feet, your method of sitting down is so dainty compared to your sister’s giant plop.

Bronwyn, you love books.  You love unearthing them from the pile in the corner of the room. You love opening them to a page and giving the room a running commentary on those pictures.  You love stealing them from your sister.  You love chewing on them.  And you love it when I read them to you too.  I hope that means you’re going to be an avid reader, but for right now I just think it’s amusing 🙂

Recently you’ve started to cause mischief at naptimes (okay… that’s not recent… :-p but this is a new form of it).  You crawl over to the corner and lure your sister over to talk to you.  Then you share your pacifier with her.  Well, really you throw it at her or just drop it out of your crib.  It’d kind of cute… except ofcourse when you’re not napping 😉

Oh, babies, I love you so much and I’m loving this age but I can’t wait to see what your spunky selves evolves into during your 11th month.