10 months with Heidi

10 glorious months. What did I do with my time before this little Angel came along? I have been feeling super emotional lately. Everytime I look at her and cuddle her, I just can’t believe she is going to be 1 soon! How did this year pass by so quickly? Its not fair. She is turning into a beautiful little girl before our eyes, but she will of course always be our baby no matter what.

So whats Heidi doing at 10 months? She is becoming such a little rascal. She is so much fun. She has been sitting completely unaided for maybe a couple of months now and has just recently got on the move. I wouldn’t call it crawling, but she pulls herself along the ground on her belly. At first just little short distances, but now there’s no stopping her! She is so inquisitive, so nosey. She is going to be the type of kid who just has to get into everything. We can’t leave anything sitting anymore. My empty tea mugs can no longer be set on the floor beside the sofa until the next time I am headed for the kitchen, the remote controls can no longer be left on the sofa. I have had to clear everything off the fireplace (we have a fireguard on order with the health visitor and its taking forever to arrive), Miss Heidi just loves to explore. She has also got a little bit quicker in her baby walker, although she only gets to spend very short amounts of time in this as I know they don’t encourage good walking habits. She started trying last week to pull herself up to stand but she slips on our wooden floors, even without socks, so we support her to help and you can feel the strength in her legs as she pushes up!

This girl LOVES her food. We are 95% baby led weaning. She is such a careful little eater. Don’t get me wrong, she gets tore in with both fists and scoops up as much as she can but then when she gets the food to her mouth, she takes gentle little bites and makes sure to swallow what she has before taking anymore. When she particularly enjoys something, she makes this little sucking/smacking noise with her lips and wrinkles her nose! It is simply adorable. There’s very little she won’t eat. She isn’t fussed on eggs or beans but aside from that, this girl will eat anything! She doesn’t like it when she has a different dinner from us, so we try to make her simpler versions of what we are having as much as possible. I will write a more in depth blog post on what her diet etc is like really soon.

Her first word was ‘Dada’ just over a month or so ago. Our hearts just melted. She is really exploring her mouth lately, all different sounds and movements are happening and sometimes we catch her just sitting moving her mouth around without actually making any sounds at all! Its so cute to watch. Her chitter chatter has really progressed in the past couple of months. I of course, have been trying to encourage her to say ‘Mama’ but the closest I have got so far is ‘Baba’. Thats ok, I can settle for baba!

She is also really taking an interest in books lately. Up until a few weeks ago she just wanted to instantly put them in her mouth, but now she is sitting back and looking at the pictures. She gets really excited by brighter, bolder illustrations and when I am reading to her I like to do different voices and really over exaggerate things. She often looks up at me with a cheeky little smile. I take her some weeks to our local librarys rhythm and rhyme programme. Its such a nice little outing for her and its absolutely free! A different story book gets read each week, followed by nursery rhymes, puppets and musical instruments to play with. She is usually the youngest there, but she loves watching all the other kids and gets excited at the puppets. She also LOVES nursery rhymes so she will have a little dance and a big smile on her face during that part. I hope she continues to take more of an interest in books. I can’t wait to read her all my favourite childhood stories and I would much rather she was an avid reader than glued to a tv!

Although speaking of tv, Little baby bum has just been the saviour of our hellish car journeys. Its the only thing that keeps her happy. So she does get a little screen time, but really only so I can drive without having her scream until she throws up!

We still have no teeth! 10 months old and no teeth. I think she is making up for it though with her hair. It has got so thick and long that I have to blow dry it before bed. Too.Cute.

Out of the blue one day about a month ago she started clapping her hands and waving, and lately pointing has been her favourite thing. She points at things and makes an Oooooh sound. She really does get more adorable everyday. We just spend so much of our time watching her and giving her squeezes and kisses! I have honestly never seen a happier baby. Her smile would just brighten anyones day and everywhere we go people stop to talk to her and shes all smiles and waves. We really are going to have to teach her about street sense though. She kept reaching out to a stranger behind me in Primark a few weeks back! The lady was chatting and smiling at her and she just seemed to think this was someone else to cuddle and play with! I have had so many people say, “Usually babies start to get ‘strange’ around people they don’t know”…not Heidi! I hope she is always this outgoing.

So overall, we can see our little baby becoming a toddler and the fact we will be planning her 1st birthday soon, drives that home a little harder. Its so hard to let go of all the little baby things, but at the same time I am so proud of her and who she is becoming. A bubbly, happy little girl. I want nothing more than for her to always, be as happy as she is now.