Dear Claire: 10 Month Update

(I've been writing monthly updates to my daughter, Claire, documenting all the changes that come with the passing weeks. You can catch up on past letters here.)

Dear Claire,

At 10 months, I know you’re still a baby. But when I look at you and watch you and describe you, you feel like a toddler. Part of that is probably because now you are, in fact, toddling around. You are officially a walker, having taken your first real set of steps about a week before Christmas. Now, two weeks later, you walk about as often as you crawl, but you’re getting more and more adept with the walking and bolder with every step. You also proved (while we watched on) that you can readily climb an entire set of stairs unaided. Oy. You keep us on our toes!

{ some of your first steps, captured on film }

You also are saying “mama” and “dada” and sometimes “hi,” with a little wave that looks more like opening and closing your fist. And you will sometimes clap along with us (see photo below for an example). Leaps and bounds all around, little one! What a difference a single month can make, huh?

You are still long and lean, weighing in at just 17 lbs. when I took you in for your 9 month appointment; that’s keeping you at 25th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for length, which is where you’ve been for most of your life. Your hair is growing long and shaggy, no longer a cute, purposeful pixie cut that it had been for months and months. Now it can get pretty wild and messy, which your Mimi likes to refer to as your “Harriet Potter” look. We now have to pin your bangs back with bows and barrettes to keep them from getting in your eyes. Along with tracking your physical growth, you have four teeth: two on top (which broke through this month, in time to have your two front teeth for Christmas!) and two on bottom (which I think broke around six or seven months?).

 

You are not really too into specific toys right now; preferring the new over anything familiar. For instance, right now you are “playing” with a travel size bottle of lotion and your toothbrush. Boxes of toys you have and everyday household objects you prefer. Already rushing to grow up, it looks like to me.

That’s the case even when it comes to feeding time. For awhile I thought you were protesting being fed, spitting out and pursing your lips at many of the foods you’d previously lapped up. But recently, I realized I think it’s that you want to feed yourself. I can put a bit of your food on a spoon, hand it to you and you’ll instinctively put it into your mouth and eat a bite or two. I put a handful of cereal on your tray and you squeal with delight at being able to feed yourself.

So, that’s why when I look at you, I no longer see a baby but a person who just happens to be small. And while you might be small on the outside, I can already see that on in the inside, you’re larger than life.

Love,
Mom