Serenity at Ten Months and One Day!

5/10/09Serenity is ten months and one day old!!! I’m a day late with this update, I hope that’s not a sign that I’m slipping. =) We were in Norman this weekend though so that’s the reason. Gavin and Jennie said that Serenity is very expressive. And she is! I’m always saying what a smiley baby she is, but she has other expressions too. She has a very effective dirty look when someone is doing something she doesn’t care for. She is definitely starting to object when people take things away from her. For example, I had to take crayons away from her at Abbey’s house because she insisted on eating them. Tears and flopping! Other things about Serenity in month ten… She is VERY vocal. She talks all the time, trying out different sounds. She is copying sounds really well, and I think we have decided that she has another real word. Puffs. She is using the sound consistently for her puffs, and even asked for them once. It’s more like pfffs but it works =) K sounds are her definite strong sounds. She is getting in her seventh tooth. She walks very steadily, and can even squat down to pick things up without falling over. At least until she gets sleepy. If she starts falling down a lot we know she’s tired! =) We bought her a toy truck today because she always plays with cars when she sees them. And so we can practice saying truck =)

She still loves her books, and will sit through the same book for four or five times in a row. I am so happy, because I love reading them to her! =) We have added spinning to our fun games. She holds on tight and grins really big. She giggles a lot more now. Her sense of humor is definitely developing because she laughs a lot when we’re silly and strange now. So she gets lots of opportunities to laugh. She has laughed for tickles and gzrbrts for a long time, but I can see her actually thinking that things that are out of the ordinary are funny now. It’s so neat to watch her grow and learn!

She is definitely a Mama’s girl right now. If I’m holding her she sometimes doesn’t want to go to other people. She’s fine with them picking her up if I’m not holding her, and she’s fine going from Eric to say Grandpa Bair. But not so much if I’m giving her away. It’s ok sometimes and really not ok other times.

Eric has set up a monthly weekend visit with Gavin and Jennie. We’re going to trade off locations, at least when we have a house we will =) That’s the plan! The first visit was much fun, although we wore Gavin out. He had to nap a lot to recover, but he said he enjoyed it =) We drove up Friday night, hoping Serenity would sleep the whole way. She pretty much did, but she woke up when we got to their house and refused to sleep in the pack n play. So it was a very snuggly night with three of us in a double bed =) She was so excited in the morning to see Gavin and Jennie, and to meet Cari and Cocoa, the dogs. She loved them, and Cari loved her! Cocoa is not in to small children, but she was very nice with Serenity. http://albums.phanfare.com/4611682/3888806#imageID=68590520 We got to play games the entire day, and Serenity let us play some even when she was awake! We all enjoyed an outing to the park too. As always happens when we get together with Gavin and Jennie, much silliness ensued =) The Gavin and Jennie show is as funny as ever, and now it’s available in sign language.

Jennie started a fun new game with Serenity, lifting her hands in the air and saying yay! and woo hoo! Sometimes Serenity would do it first, and Jennie would follow, and sometimes Jennie would do it first. It was like a mini-wave!! So much fun =)

We got to spend some time at Abbey’s house with Abbey, Brent, Brendan, Jessie, Scott, Nate and Allie! Abbey made a delicious lunch and pie and Jessie made cupcakes. It was a lot of fun! The girls actually seemed to be interested in each other this time. Allie crawled after Serenity several times, and they shared a bowl of Kix. Allie is not shy about taking toys from Serenity, and it’s good for Serenity to get a taste of her own medicine I think =) They had fun together! Serenity ate chili and cornbread just like the big people. Allie is giving up baby food too. They’ve discovered that the big people eat better. I’ll just have to work harder to make sure we eat the vegetables she needs every day. She loved the edamame we had with curry on Saturday (my curry might have been a bit much, it was a 5 out of 5 on the spicy meter. She took it right back out, but she didn’t cry so she’s already handling spicy food better than Eric.) All the kids ate bananas with their dinner. It was cute. They really are a bunch of monkeys =)

She was just the sweetest baby today for Mother’s Day. She woke up early (and in our bed) but she was being so cute I didn’t mind, just chatting away and snuggling with me. And at the end of the day she kept toddling over to me and giving me hugs and snuggles, and then wandered off to play for a while before running back over to me for more Mommy time. I am the luckiest Mama ever! =) At least it feels that way =) She gave me a fairy for my collection that is wearing a pink dress with a bunch of bird friends. It is so cute!

That’s all I can think of for tonight if I want to get this posted before it’s another day late =) I’ll write more soon!