10 months

10 months? no way.  My baby can't be 10 months already.  That means the countdown is on for her FIRST birthday?! nope.  She's going to stay a baby forEVER!  Ok, I guess its true, she's 10 months old.
We haven't been to the doctor since her 9 month visit (yay for no sickness!) so no clue on weight or stats, but I feel she's getting bigger.  She is starting to wear 6-9month clothing but can still fit into most of her 3-6month clothes.  She's also eating much more solid food - more on that in a bit. We still have NO teeth and none poking through, I'm guessing they'll make there way eventually. 

Food - Kylah is still taking 5 5oz bottles a day, but we've added in more solids.  And even changed the solids from mainly purees to more finger food.  She likes to feed herself and we can all eat dinner as a family (or clean the kitchen, etc) while she keeps busy in her high chair.  We've added in broccoli, and I spent the weekend making some new finger foods for her.  So far she's eating them all.  She's not a huge fan of broccoli, but she'll eat it.  I think one of her favorite finger foods is now officially black beans.  Since her 9month post, she has tried egg yolks, pasta, rice, broccoli, blueberries, and cottage cheese. 

Activities - Nothing major on this front yet.  She's a super fast crawler and can pull up and cruise like a champ.  She is using her walk behind car and piano to walk across the floor but no steps on her own yet.  She also isn't really into letting go to stand on her own, but she's done it a few times.  Still mainly babbling but she has said 'mama' in the last month.  Not on command, and she doesn't really know that I am mama, but it still warmed my heart nonetheless.

Sleep - The past two weeks she's been sleeping later in the mornings, so that's good news.  Unless its the weekend and then she thinks it is time to party.  She goes to bed between 8-9 and is now waking up around 6am to eat and start her day.  Weekends she likes to stay up late and wake up early.  At least we're able to go back to sleep after her early morning wake up.

Toys - She's still really partial to her bath toys, I'm guessing because they are so small she can hold them and they are soft to chew on.  She likes her blocks and ride on cars, but still hasn't shown favortism to any toy in particular.  We got her a bedtime seahorse that plays bedtime music and has a soothing glow to it - her face LIT up in the store when she saw it, but now at home, she could take it or leave it. 

Happy 10 months to me!

It was REALLY hard to get a decent picture this month.

A new 'do!

Kris and I are struggling with Kylah's hair.  Its grown so funny and so fast, but yet so thin and baby fine.  Basically she has a mullet (which I have braided into a rattail before-yes I took pics) and its also pretty long in the front.  The sides and upper back of her head is still short.  I want to trim it up and cut the front and back, but Kris doesn't want to.  He's afraid she won't "look like a girl".  Whatever, the child has enough pink clothes to last a lifetime, so I'm pretty sure there's no mistaking her for a boy - although a few people have and I am quick to correct them.  Well this weekend I decided I wanted to try to put her hair up.  It was a challenge, but she's SO freakin' adorable in her 2 little ponytails on top of her head.  She looks like Cindy Lou from hooville in the movie How the Grinch Stole Christmas - only cuter! Also, I talked Kris into letting me get her these super cute pink boots with fur on them! He hates them I LOVE them!

ponytails!

 

My super cute pink "boots with the fur"!

Adventures in Food

As Kylah is becoming more and more independent, we're feeding her less and less "baby food" (you know, the pureed mushy stuff) and more and more convenient table food.  However, we still like to keep it healthy and typically fix her special veggies and such to keep her trying new things.  This past weekend I made up some homemade mac and cheese, a broccoli/cheese/rice casserole, steamed some broccoli and carrots, and made some sweet potato and black bean "cakes".  We tried broccoli last week and while its definitely not her favorite, she hasn't turned her nose completely up at it, so I'm happy at that.  She will pick everything else over broccoli, but who can really blame her?

I'm not too sure about this green stuff

nom nom nom

Peas n carrots please!

Kylah's First Snow

This winter has been extremely mild.  It is pretty typical for it to be in the 60s one day and 30s the next it seems.  I kept hoping for one good snow, I wanted Kylah to see her first snowfall this year.  (I also secretly wanted a day off of work).  Well, I finally got my wish - sorta.  Kylah got to see her first snowfall, but since the snow fell late Sunday night into a Monday holiday, I was already off of work and Kris had to still go in, luckily he got to go in late so we could take a few pics.  We took her out last night when the snow was coming down pretty good and she didn't care for it.  She didn't want to touch it - too cold!

Mommy and me in the snow!

Ready to come in!

And her feelings on it didn't change much come morning.  Although I knew it would melt soon so we bundled her up around 7AM and headed outside for a few pictures.

This is my "can we go in now?" look 

A little while later, we tried again and I made a weak attempt at a snowgirl to sit beside Kylah.

Kylah and the Snowgirl

And finally it ended with this:

Happy Valentine's Day

Yep.  This post is deviating from the norm of all about Kylah, sorta.  Its her first Valentine's Day and we spent it hanging out at home and took a trip to see Daddy at lunch time and enjoy a nice lunch break with him.  Went back home and napped on the sofa.  After feeding Kylah, I started on dinner.  Kris and I decided instead of fighting crowds, finding a sitter, or even taking Kylah with us out somewhere, we'd just pick something special to fix at home.  I knew I wanted mine to be steak, and Kris wanted seafood.  We went to Martin's and I found 2 small tenderloin filets marked down and lobster tail was on sale.  We decided upon steak and lobster and a side of asparagus.  Daunting.  I'm no chef, nor do I pretend to be.  I need a recipe, I need direction, and most of the time it ends up decent, but nothing coming out at the same time.  I searched my new favorite website, pinterest, among other food sites for easy recipes for asparagus and steak, as well as how to even fix lobster.   I decided upon pan seared steak, Parmesan roasted asparagus, and butter poached lobster tails.  The lobster was daunting.  Its apparently some french technique of using a buerre monte? and it can't be heated to hot or the butter will do something? (See, I never said I was a chef).   I set Kylah up on the kitchen floor with some toys and started some prep work.  Trimming and peeling the asparagus, seasoning and trimming the steak, and de-shelling the lobster.  The first 2 were easy, the latter, not so much.  The steak was seasoned with kosher salt and pepper and the asparagus was seasoned with olive oil, kosher salt, and pepper.  The lobster, I found that if you put it in a container with boiling water for a few minutes it would help getting the meat out of the shells.  I did that, and then used kitchen shears to cut the shell on the top and bottom and attempt to get the meat out all in one piece.  It took some work, but I did it.  Kris got home and he was on Kylah duty.  I heated a pan on the stove with some olive oil on it and seared the steaks on both sides for 2-3 minutes and into the oven they went.  While they were in the oven, I worked on this buerre monte sauce.  You bring a couple tablespoons of water to a boil, and then reduce the heat and add in tiny cubes of butter, whisking the whole time.  You need enough butter to cover the tails.  This is where I almost screwed up.  I used a bigger pan and when I finally cut up all the butter and got the poaching liquid up to temperature and put the lobster in, it barely covered it.  Transferred it to a smaller pot and much better.  Let that cook for 5 minutes and dinner was done.  

It was fantastic.  The steak was tender and juicy - cooked to a perfect medium well, the lobster was juicy and buttery, and the asparagus was tender and perfectly seasoned.  Truly a picture perfect meal.  Kylah even tried a few bites of asparagus.  When I turned back around, they were gone from her high chair, so I'm guessing she enjoyed them.  Kris brought home a mini cheesecake slice and a boston creme cupcake for dessert.  Hey, I'm not superwoman, I can't possibly pull off dessert also!

And the first word goes to....

MAMA!!!! :) Granted, I realize she doesn't know what she's saying and doesn't know I'm "mama", but she said it.  And she said it before "dada"! She has whined it before, but never on command, and she's been babbling babababa for some time, but never the "mmm" sound unless she was really whiney tired...well tonight she did it.  Granted in the video she sounds whiney, but that's because there was no food left on her tray.  And I kept shoving a video camera in her face.  She was saying it all night, but every time I turned the camera on, she'd clam up.  Stinker.  Finally caught it on video!

*Splish Splash*

Kylah LOVES LOVES LOVES bath time.  She loves splashing around and playing with her bath toys and more recently crawling around in her baby bath tub.  We decided to try out the big tub instead of her baby tub tonight.  She was a little apprehensive at first, but then realized she had much more area to play (and crawl) in.  It makes me nervous her moving around so freely in the water since she seems to have no fear of water.  Here are a few pics of her pure happiness in the tub!

mmm washcloths

pure joy!

splish splash

all wrapped up

Cruisin'

She loves her ride on cars, although tonight, it was a push sideways car!

Pattycake!

We've been trying to catch this on video for awhile now, and she finally cooperated! Kylah can pattycake/clap!