Diez Meses

Mazie's mama here. Mazie turned 10 months old this week. I remember my dad telling me that babies got really fun when they turned 10 months old. Mazie has been fun from the beginning but we're starting a whole new kind of fun now. In the past month Mazie has started communicating. She has a small vocabulary of signs, including "hi" and "bye" (waving) and "more" (touching her chest with her fist - dad has a good story about the first time she did this one that he'll post soon). She also responds to the question, "How big is Mazie?" by throwing her little arms up in the air. "Sooooo big!"

Mazie's cutest new trick is dancing. If we put some music on or just sing a little bit she starts waving her hands around and shaking her head back and forth. She looks a little odd, but the music is definitely having an effect on her.

Another change is that she is transitioning from two naps to one. Until a few weeks ago, she was routinely sleeping about 4 hours a day, mostly on Dad's back. Recently, she's been sleeping much less during the day, which sometimes (not tonight) means that she'll go to bed early enough that we can have a few hours to ourselves. Sleeping less during the day is a mixed blessing for Dad. He has less time to get stuff done while she sleeps, but also has more flexibility with their outings.

We also celebrated a pretty big milestone on Thursday. Mazie took her first steps. I was lucky enough to be home getting a late start on the day when she decided to take a couple of steps from her dad to me. She hasn't really repeated the feat, and mostly seems content to stick to crawling (she's pretty quick!). Nanny and Papa are coming this week, though, so maybe she'll show off for them and start running.

With all of these changes, Mazie continues to be a sweet, happy, calm and curious little being. It's wonderful to connect with her in new and exciting ways. Yesterday, she played a game with us involving trips back and forth from her sock drawer to us, diligently transporting ONE pair of socks with each trip and placing them in our hands. Pretty cute.

She is also definitely starting to do things for the sake of reaction. You can see her do something and then look to her parents for a response. She understands "No" and likes to hear it. In the bathtub she likes to stand up, look at Mommy and shake her head and then sit back down. I'm sure this testing will get frustrating at some point, but for now, it's pretty amazing to watch her processing, communicating and asserting her own little will. In short, (too late) we're having lots and lots of fun. Papa was right.

Some good videos are on their way soon.