The Reed Read: Erica is 10 months

Erica is 10 months old and is suddenly not a baby anymore. She is constantly on the move, crawling (she's almost stopped the one-knee-scoot) and walking holding our fingers. She's quite proficient at walking holding only one hand as long as she has something in her other hand. It's amazing how similar and yet how different two sisters can be. I went back and watched videos of Amelia at this age and they make many of the same sounds and motions but Erica is much more independent and in to everything! We never had to move the cat food for Amelia, but now it's in the basement. We didn't have to lock any cabinets or really "baby proof" at all for our first born, now cabinets are locked and I constantly have to watch this mischievous little girl. She moves fast and, like most kids, has learned to be quiet when doing something she's not supposed to do. That way mom doesn't find out until she notices the red drool from the chalk in the mouth or hears the scream of a baby who tired to climb the latter to the slide.

Erica is playing much more, rather than just looking at and chewing on toys. She takes things out of buckets and puts them back in. She pulls toys and books off of shelves. She drops toys on purpose to see if we will pick them up. She loves the Little People animals from Noah's Arc and the various other animal habitats we have sprawled around the living room. She loves the magnets on the fridge (or rather OFF the fridge and all over the floor). The music table is still a favorite and now that she can pull up to stand at it, the possibilities are endless (well, they are actually finite as there are only 10 or so buttons to push, but she doesn't seem to get bored).

She babbles all the time. Mostly "dadadada" and "nanana" and "bababa" with a few "mamamamas" thrown in, usually when she is upset. Her voice has been heard around the neighborhood whenever she gets put down (or pushed down by her sister). Her shriek is amazingly loud and high pitched and physically hurts my hears. She must have amazing vocal chords to sustain that kind of trauma multiple times an hour.

She has started to 'roar' when we ask what anything says. Lions roar. Bears roar. Bunnies roar. Balls roar. Detached pieces of the floor roar. She is constantly holding something up and saying "ba". That's baby for "roar". She finds it quite humorous when we try to teach her other animal sounds. Amelia purposely tries to confuse her by showing her animals and saying the wrong sound. Poor second children.

Erica's favorite places are outside and the bathroom. If she is walking holding my fingers we are likely headed one of those places. She likes to stand on the stool and look at her self in the mirror (little narcissist) and bang on the sink. She tries to head to the toilet but since I am not the most OCD cleaner in town, I don't let her near it. Like her sister, outside is the preferred location. She loves walking through the grass barefoot and reaching down to pick (and eat) clover flowers. She enjoys the baby swing, mostly when Amelia tries to push her, but really wants to spend her time walking up the slide.

Erica is not a good sleeper. She is still up every 2 hours or so at night and just this week has been fighting going down for naps or bedtime. She wants to nurse all night long and we are not really sure what to do about it. I've tried to let her cry but her shriek is deafening and her cries are so sad I give in and go hold her. She's only going to be this young and want to snuggle for so long. I figure she isn't going to be waking up every two hours when she is 16 so sometime between now and then it has to stop, right?

Erica does like to eat, however. I've got one child who sleeps but won't eat and one who eats but won't sleep. Guess you can't have the best of both worlds. She eats just about anything I give her but especially loves bananas, yogurt, smoothies, graham crackers, and scrambled eggs. She eats cheerios but isn't quite the fiend that her sister was about them.

Erica is growing fast and already in 18-month clothes. She is wearing some of the same outfits that Amelia wore LAST summer and fall. She has already outgrown the sleepers that Amelia wore over the winter when she was 1 so although we have two girls, the size-season match isn't working out so well. How inconsiderate of them. It's too bad that I really hate buying clothes (ha).

That was a lot of words but I just read some posts like this I made about Amelia and was glad I included the details that I did.