Two hands

We can now count Haddie's age on all of our fingers! So crazy that in a month we won't be able to. I don't know why that makes her seem so old. Such a strange thing.  But then again, I'm strange. 😊
Per the usual, she seems like she's gotten so big! Out of nowhere she had three front teeth come in. Had I not seen them when she gave me a big toothy grin when I was playing with her, I wouldn't have even known she was teething! The only sign she had was drooling. She was maybe a little fussier but we were also out of town and she was off of her normal schedule and around new people, but the fussing was so minimal, I really didn't even give it a second thought. I remember Avett working on a couple of teeth at this age and he was a bit of a nightmare. It was of course when all 8 of us barged into the Kings home and took over, and it was getting to the point where we were going to get a hotel because it was adding so much tension to the house. Or maybe that was just me being overly paranoid. But for reals, he was so fussy!
Anywho, since we're chatting about teeth, we might as well talk about food. She eats mostly just three 4-7/8 oz bottles a day. My supply seems like it's dropping dramatically and it's very stressful over here. We've been having to thaw out from our frozen supply but there's not much left in there and we still have two months to go until we can technically do "milk" and she won't do formula. So this means we've been upping the portions of solid meals. She eats three pretty decent sized meals a day. I usually share my oatmeal with her in the morning and whatever I'm having at dinner as long as it's soft enough. And dad usually gives her some kind of puree. We have been cautiously introducing dairy again. We tried right after her 9 month appointment but after a few days she had diarrhea and was a bit fussier. So I decided I would keep introducing it on a weekly basis and see how long we can go from there. She's now been having yogurt for about nine or ten days and doing good. A week in, I mixed up her oatmeal with milk and that also seemed okay. I've had a bit more dairy myself. Really the only thing I've had is Pizza once a day, otherwise everything else is still dairy free. I did just transition to regular creamer again today because I ran out of my coconut creamer and figured it'd be worth a shot. I am cautious to overload myself with too much too quickly, not only for Haddie's sake but I think my own body will be shocked to have to start processing it again. Aaron did treat me to an ice cream cone that I split with Avy when we went to the zoo. It was Heaven. Haddie has had some softer poops this week. No watery diarrhea, no fussing and no rashes, but we're proceeding cautiously.
I have introduced a soft-mouthed silly cup to her. The doctor said to go ahead and try it with water, but she doesn't know or like water, so I gave milk a try which seemed to make a lot more sense and it took a day of figuring it out but she's golden now. Still feeds herself her drinks when I need her too. She can even palm the bottle in one hand. She's got big hands - long fingers!
Speaking of hands, she claps whenever you say "yay!" And waves "hi" and "bye" but she's inconsistent with it. She just started to figure out how to do the hand on your mouth thing but her coordination between voicing while your mouth is covered is backwards. :)
Her gross motor skills are developing so much this month. She is very good at controlling her stand-to-sit. She stands and holds onto furniture with just one hand. She is very slowly furniture walking. And with a little bit of stabilizing support every once in a while, she is slowly learning to walk behind her walker toy or holding onto our fingers. She's pretty quick at crawling, especially when she sees the baby gate or bathroom door open. Why she finds the other side of those thresholds to be so exhilarating, I'll never know!
She totally loves playing chase. Both being the chaser and the one being chased. Giggles the whole time. My favorite is when she stops, rests back on her butt, looks behind her to see if your coming and then squeals with her eyebrows raised way high in excitement! And then quickly turns around to get going again.
I love the way she lights up when I enter a room. Mouth wide open in a toothy grin, flailing her arms and clapping. It's how you know you're loved. That, and the crying that happens as soon as your out of eye sight. Aaron was just saying how he thinks Haddie loves me more because she gets so excited when I come home from work and doesn't do that when he gets home; but when he goes to bed, she cries out for him! So I think it's the same.
She used to be very good about going to sleep. I think she actually is good for naps (930, 1200 and 330ish, sometimes a 500 one), but at nighttime, she starts fussing as soon as I turn her music box on, before I've even laid her down. It's obviously just a signal to her of what's to come. But once she's down, she sleeps through the night. No fussing.
Her number one soother is her stuffed cow. My god does she light up as soon as she sees it. It will literally take her from tears to smiles in an instant. I love that she loves it so much. That's our little Millie Moo cow. And since she never got the chance to meet her cousin, I'm glad she has something to help her be connected and something I can teach to her when she's old enough to understand.
Other than her cow, I don't think there's any one item that she's particulate over. She mostly just enjoys playing with her socks and anything Avett has.
She is getting better about reading books. But I'm also getting more consistent with including them in our night time routine. She used to just sit there and close the book on me or pull it out of my hands. As long as I have the book open flat (no fingers between pages, anticipating a page turn), she generally sits nicely and listens along.
She still takes baths in the sink. They go pretty quick. She's been a little fussier once I rinse the soap out of her hair so I try not to mess around. She did take her first and only bath (to date) in the tub. It was fairly uneventful, maybe even a little easier but I hate having to always clean it out before each bath. It's so much quicker to just wipe down the sink and throw her in.
Haddie did go for her first bike ride this year. Now that's Avett got a new helmet for his birthday, we handed down his old one to her and hooked the kids up for a ride. Little did they know, we took them on a surprise bike ride to the zoo. Love that our bike cart so easily converts to a stroller! Avett talked about the bike ride for days. Haddie just focused on trying to hold her heavy head up!
That's about as much as I can recall for now. I'll be back here in a week's time to update about Avett's monthly changes.