Here are the giraffe comparison pictures. We took some the day before, when it was 65 degrees. Then, on her 10 month birthday, it was 90+ degrees.
She's on the move everywhere now, typically preferring "normal" crawling to army crawling these days. And she's somehow drawn to everything she can't have (especially technology like laptops, the stereo and phones and mostly cords), and likes to explore. She's figuring out how to open up cabinets and doors, so time to baby-proof. It's really fun now that she crawls to you when she wants to come get you from across the room, or when you call her or hold out your arms. She's also pulling up on more than just your hands now. Mainly, she pulls up on the crib. And she loves to take steps while holding your hands, and the steps get really wide and crazy when she's excited and trying to go fast.
Her babbling has all SORTS of new vowel and consonant sounds, with intonations. You can almost hear words these days. The words she can say are still limited to "Da-Da", "Ma-ma" (which often comes out " a-ma"), "Dod" (for dog), "Hi" (which sounds more like a big "h" sound) and "Na-na-na-na!" which is "No!" We're trying to work on "yes". She does the response thing too, where you talk to her and ask her questions and then give her space to answer. Then she'll talk a bunch and say "ya-ya-na-na". Jovie does things for reactions, too. She'll do something then look at you with those eyebrows raised, waiting for you to respond or laugh. And every now and then, temper tantrum tendencies come out. Sometimes she'll hit at you or the thing she doesn't want or is upset with and yell and cry. Toddler-hood might be fun...
Jovie still loves to play, and is a really good independent player (as long as you watch to make sure she's not into something she can't have). She has favorite toys and books, too. She loves the book baby colors -
here she is eating it
- and she loves her dinosaur that sings and pops the balls out and her green ball. And her favorite things to chew on are her wooden baby instruments. When she wakes up from her nap, she loves to stand in her crib, hanging on to the base of the mobile that plays music. She smiles and laughs! And she still likes to be on the go.
She's still on a great schedule - 12 hour sleeping at night and 2 long naps during the day (between 1 and 2.5 hours each). She eats really well, although we introduced two foods that have been a journey of getting her to eat - lentils and creamed spinach. With the lentils, after a couple bites she just held them in her mouth and cried. It's getting better these days, though. She eats more textures and finger foods. She can chew better now because she has four teeth - two bottom and two top. Although the top teeth that are in aren't the front ones - they are the fang teeth.
Jovie is still such a happy, smiley baby, and a real joy to have around!
