Walking with the Cooks: Happy 10 months, Lydia!

I feel like I just wrote her 9 month post and here we are again, with a 10 month old this time. Just a year ago I was one month away from being full term and we were in final prep mode for our newest addition. Little did we know that it would be two months before we met her! Lydia is growing and changing and continuing to be a delight to our family. I feel like her addition made us more family centric than our previous two. There are enough of us under our roof to adequately celebrate anything and everything. We laugh with one another and seek to serve one another. We are thankful for our many blessings!

Weight: home scale says 24.5 lbs (ironically, this is exactly what the scale at the doctor gave us at her 9 month visit)

Diapers: size 5 and cloth
Clothing: 18 and 24 month, 2T

Likes: spoons, table food, chewing on toys/books, baths with the big kids, people watching, being greeted by the big kids in the morning or after a nap, being tickled, crawling on top of someone who stretched out on the floor (king of the mountain, she is)
Dislikes: not getting mom when she wants mom, not getting to chew on shoes as often as she would like (so gross!)

Schedule:
7:00am Awake for the day! Nurse and eat
8:30/9:00-11am Nap
11am Nurse and eat
12:30-3pm Nap
3pm Nurse and eat
5:00-6pm Nap (sometimes)
7pm Nurse and down for bed
9:30 or 10pm Dream feed and down for the night! (sometimes)

Sleep: Not her month for good sleep! Ever since her last two teeth came through and she stopped sucking her thumb Lydia has had a really difficult time soothing herself back to sleep during the night. We have starting giving her a cold bottle (torture, I know, please don't call child services on us) and when possible Dave gives it to her. I could share a whole host of other tweaks we have made, but it is hard to know what is making a bit of difference and what isn't. She does so well during the day to not be getting a full night of long sleep (better than Dave and I are doing!) and I look forward to seeing her be even more chipper once we work this kink out. In this house we are firm believers in long sleep!

Physically: We have a cruiser on our hands. She loves to pull up on anything that will hold her weight, give it a good lick, then try to move around a bit. Lydia also learned to go up the two little stairs from our living room to the rest of the house, and even more importantly learned not to sit on the edge as soon as she reached the top. Now to teach her that the big stairs are off limits! Thankfully, Josiah and Sarah are quick to let us know if she even looks at the big stairs with a twinkle in her eye.

Food: Like her siblings, Lydia, thus far, has proven to be a very enthusiastic eater. She has yet to turn down anything we have given her. Her regular rotation most recently includes green peas, sweet potato fries, apple sauce, and baby cereals (we are sticking with this since her iron was a little low). Outside of this list we share with her from the meal we are eating and take cheerios with us everywhere!

Communication: No new words this month, though she is more consistently greeting people with waves and saying bye. Dada is still the favorite word, even is she is a mama's girl at heart. Her mealtime signs are continuing to become more consistent and helpful.

Next appointment: Tuesday, September 8, 2015 at 9:30am