Many steps!

The past 4 weeks Nadia has usually taken 1-2 steps about once a day on average (I am referring to steps taken without holding on to anything). Well that drastically changed yesterday when she was talking 1-4 steps at a time just about every time she was standing. I think she'll be walking very soon!! She's very proud of herself. :-) She also can crawl VERY quickly. She hasn't ventured in the direction of our stairs on her own, but if I put her on the stairs she can climb up the whole staircase. She hasn't learned how to come down (backwards) yet.

I never gave a general update on Nadia now that she's 10 months old. So I thought I'd do it today. She gained only 1/2 lb in the last month. The last several months she's gained 1 lb a month so this was less than usual. Some 9 month size clothing still fits, but mostly she is wearing size 12 month clothing. We've also promoted her to size 4 diapers all day and night.

As far as eating, she eats a solid meal plus some formula four times a day (usually at 6am, 10am, 2pm, and 5 or 6pm). If she sees Mommy or Daddy eating at any other time of day, she crawls over to us as fast as possible hoping that we'll share whatever we're eating with her. She eats baby cereal at 6am, but all the other meals are "table food" whether that's cottage cheese, a sandwich (grilled cheese, egg salad, or jelly), pasta, pizza, bananas, etc. She eats a million Cheerios a day (or so it seems anyhow). She feeds herself Cheerios and some of the other foods. Her absolute favorite thing to eat right now are red grapes. She actually starts panting with excitement if she sees some. I let her eat almost anything these days. The only things I haven't let her have yet are anything with nuts (including peanut butter), anything with chocolate, or anything I think would be a choking hazzard. I try to keep the amount of sugar she has to a minimum. Usually if she gets something with a lot of sugar it's when I just share a couple of bites with her of something I'm eating (like vanilla ice cream or butterscotch pudding).

In terms of sleeping, she usually has 2 naps a day, but every once in a while she still has 3 naps. Her naps are usually about 75 minutes long on average. The longest is usually 90 minutes although on Wednesday her 1st nap was 2 hours long when Paul's parents were here. Usually each nap is at least 60 minutes long. She usually wakes up between 5:15-6:00am, but I don't go get her until about 5:50 at the earliest. Her first nap is usually at 8am and her second nap usually begins around noon (although it sometimes starts as late as 1pm if she gets up later OR if her first nap is longer than usual). She goes to bed between 7 and 7:30 each night. She usually gets at least 10 hours of sleep at night. A few weeks ago I started letting her sleep with a blanket. She favors a soft green one my sister Wendy gave me 4 years ago (when we were hoping to adopt a baby). I plan to take that blanket with us to Antigua.

Although she used to say "hi" months ago, the only word she constistently says these days is "dada." I have told her that if she wants to give me a Mother's Day gift she could say "mama" for me. Probably just wishful thinking at this point. :-) She has learned how to say one sign - "milk" and she also shakes her head "no" when she means "no." She does that even if we're reading a book and the text says "no" - she shakes her head while I read the word "no." In fact in one book she actually shakes her head "no" once I turn to the page where it says "no, no you say that isn't right" before I say the words! You can tell she's very familiar with certain books as with the touch and feel ones she immeadietly puts her hand on the parts of each page which have something interesting to touch. I've tried to teach her the sign "all done," but shaking her head "no" does the trick in terms of letting me know she doesn't want to eat any more.

In terms of obeying when we use the term "no," she's getting better. I am by no means saying she listens 100% of the time, but she usually at least pauses, and many times she'll restrain herself from touching something she was just told not to touch. We'll keep working on that. :-)

She's getting a lot better at communicating her wishes in ways other than crying. For example if she wants to listen to one of her CD's, she sits down on the floor where we have the books that go with her CD's, opens up one of the books, and stares up at the mantle where the CD player is. She's done that for both Paul and I on separate occasions. Of course we immediately turn on the CD as she's requested. Another example would be on Wednesday she stood up and while facing Paul grabbed one of his hands. Then she turned herself around so her back was to him and lifted her arm and grabbed his other hand. That was her way of saying that she wanted to walk while holding his hands. Good job, Nadia!!

A few skills we are still working on include drinking from a sippy cup (still not going well), waving hi/goodbye, and clapping. I expect she'll be walking soon, and I am looking forward to hearing more new words and seeing more signs in the coming months.