Addelyn is smarter and smarter every day; I'm continually amazed by her in the things she understands and how well she communicates. When we're playing I can just see the wheels turning in her head as she makes connections and learns new concepts. She is such a patient and avid learner - she shows me a toy and I tell her what it's called and she looks at the toy, then looks back at me and I say it again and we just do that over and over again and there is no doubt in my mind that she knows that I'm teaching her what the object is called. Here is just a small list of some of the things she knows and can do:
Addelyn understands the following words/concepts:
Addelyn - She answers to her name (and has for probably a little over a month now)
Mama - of course :-) she can also say it!
Dada - she understands and says Dada, too!
Up up - she says this one a lot and even signs it occasionally! She LOVES to be held (by me)
Ball - I think she really understands the concept of ball and she even says and signs it regularly
Banana - Today (February 6) Addelyn started signing banana when she wants to eat a banana (her favorite food)
Banana - Today (February 6) Addelyn started signing banana when she wants to eat a banana (her favorite food)
Bath - Addelyn LOVES to take baths, so she picked up on that one very quickly - whenever we're in the bathroom she says "ba! ba! ba! ba! ..." over and over and over!
All done - Addelyn definitely understands it when I say "all done", she says "ah duh" and she tries to sign it, but right now she just usually ends up clapping...I think the sign confuses her a little, but we're working on it!
hi and bye-bye - she waves hello and bye-bye, and she even said hi once.
fan - as in ceiling fan. If she sees a ceiling fan she will sign fan to me (over and over...she gets pretty excited about fans)
"yay" - she claps for yay or even when I say "clap your hands", and I've even heard her try to say it a time or two
"woah" - this one is funny - I must say it a lot, because something surprising happened a couple of days ago and I heard Addelyn say "woah" very clearly :-)
Dance - if I say "Addelyn, dance, dance, dance!" she rocks back and forth (her way of dancing)
Rockey - if Addelyn is holding her dolly, I say "Addelyn, rockey rockey dolly" - and she rocks back and forth
Dolly - if I ask Addelyn where her dolly is she goes and finds it and brings it to me
"Sit Please" - If I ask Addelyn to "Sit Please" she sits down (if she feels like it)
No-no-no - If Addelyn is doing something she shouldn't, I say "Addelyn, no-no-no" and she stops (again...if she feels like it...there's understanding and then there's actually acting on that knowledge)
Come Here - Addelyn understands Come Here and usually comes when I say it very well - she's always looking for an excuse to be close to me :-)
"I'm gonna get you!" - she usually gets excited and either runs away screaming or runs right at me giggling
nose, eyes, ears, mouth - If I say "Addelyn, where's Mommy's ____" she points to it. She's not right 100% of the time, but she's usually pretty good with the nose. And she knows her ears and head very well.
toes - Addelyn knows what toes are and she can find hers and mine and daddy's when asked
puppy - She definitely knows the sign that goes with the word "puppy", but I'm not sure if she completely grasps the meaning of the word puppy just yet - I think she has a wider definition of the word puppy than I do!
milk - she understands and occasionally signs milk. Yesterday (February 6) for the first time she actually signed milk to request it. In the past the only time she had ever signed milk to me was when I signed it to her first, but yesterday she was yelling and I asked her what she wanted...she just stopped yelling, made eye contact, said "muh" and signed milk and that actually was what she wanted! Baby signing is a wonderful thing!]
light - Addelyn's newest thing is lights. Whenever we walk into a room she finds the light on the ceiling and points it out to me and says "aye"
"neigh" - if she sees a picture of a horse and I say horse, Addelyn smiles and says "ehhhh" (neigh)
bunny - if I say bunny, she will sign it
kiss - she makes kissey noises in the air or will "kiss" (read - slobber) my cheek, but won't make the kiss noise on my cheek...go figure...
light - Addelyn's newest thing is lights. Whenever we walk into a room she finds the light on the ceiling and points it out to me and says "aye"
"neigh" - if she sees a picture of a horse and I say horse, Addelyn smiles and says "ehhhh" (neigh)
bunny - if I say bunny, she will sign it
kiss - she makes kissey noises in the air or will "kiss" (read - slobber) my cheek, but won't make the kiss noise on my cheek...go figure...
The list goes on and on - she just knows so much now!
In other news, Addelyn has learned how to get to a standing position without using anything for support, which means she doesn't crawl ANYWHERE anymore. She is walking so much better now that she has that constant practice, and she's falling less and less each day. She's even getting better at walking on slick surfaces, though they still make both of us a little nervous.
One ADORABLE thing that Addelyn has started doing - we play a CD of kid music at least once per day and sing and dance along (something Addelyn always enjoys very much). On the CD we've been listening to recently is the song "Little Bunny Foofoo", and it's our favorite song. I sit her in front of me (or sometimes she dances around) and I do the hand motions to it. We've sung that song so much that recently Addelyn has started to do the hand motions with me! (well, at least some of them). She gets so excited when the song comes on she can't contain herself. Yesterday when it came on she went from playing with some books and occasionally rocking along to the music (the song is about half way through the CD, so by the time we get to it we've been dancing for quite a while) to on her feet dancing as hard as she could, screaming and yelling with delight, and stomping her feet up and down so fast I swear she actually jumped a couple of times (no small feat for a 9-month-old). Yeah, I'm pretty sure I have the cutest baby in the world.
I'm feeding Addelyn 3 meals a day now (I started when she turned 9 months old) and I've started her on oatmeal and also milk products like yogurt and cheese. Since she's started eating more and higher-calorie solid food during the day she has been sleeping SO much better at night! For two nights in a row now she's slept ALL night! (Like, from when I put her to bed at 9:30 or 10 to when she wakes up at 9am!) That's amazing for her! I'm so excited and I really hope she makes a habit of this! With something good comes something not so good, though...her napping during the day is starting to decrease. I can usually get about 2-3 hours of napping per day out of her, but she has rejected all of my attempts to get her on a schedule, so those naps could be 20 minutes in the morning and 2 hours in the early evening or 3 hours after lunch and no evening nap at all. It's just impossible to plan anything around her sleeping!
Finally, some cute pictures to make you smile (as if the dancing video wasn't enough...isn't she too cute?? :-)
Stats:
Motor skills: WALKING, dancing (in time no less), crawling well on hands and knees, standing standing alone well, pulling herself up to standing without any support, self feeding several things (as long as it's not too slippery)
I'm feeding Addelyn 3 meals a day now (I started when she turned 9 months old) and I've started her on oatmeal and also milk products like yogurt and cheese. Since she's started eating more and higher-calorie solid food during the day she has been sleeping SO much better at night! For two nights in a row now she's slept ALL night! (Like, from when I put her to bed at 9:30 or 10 to when she wakes up at 9am!) That's amazing for her! I'm so excited and I really hope she makes a habit of this! With something good comes something not so good, though...her napping during the day is starting to decrease. I can usually get about 2-3 hours of napping per day out of her, but she has rejected all of my attempts to get her on a schedule, so those naps could be 20 minutes in the morning and 2 hours in the early evening or 3 hours after lunch and no evening nap at all. It's just impossible to plan anything around her sleeping!
Finally, some cute pictures to make you smile (as if the dancing video wasn't enough...isn't she too cute?? :-)
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| I just love this smile! |
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| Addelyn at 9 months old |
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| Addelyn loves to read her books |
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| "I get you, mommy!" |
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| This is what happens when you have an engineer for a father - Jake was trying to figure out how the dolly works |
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| bubbles! |
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| We hosted a baby shower last weekend and Addelyn got to keep the balloons! |
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| Addelyn loves to crinkle paper... |
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| box - 60 strait minutes of solid entertainment |
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| Addelyn at 10 months old with the bunnies the day we gave them away :-( |
Stats:
Age: 10 months
Weight: 21 or 22 lbs
Length: 28ish inches
Drinks: about 3-4 8oz bottles of milk per day (all of which is formula) one before each of 2 naps, and one before she goes to bed.
Eats: oatmeal, yogurt, and a fruit for breakfast; puffs, bread, and a cheese stick for lunch; and a veggie, a fruit, and either a meat or noodles or something for dinner. We just discovered that she likes peas!
Sleeps: 11-12 hours/night - 9pm-9am (she's finally started sleeping through the night!)_
Naps: 2-3 hours per day - one nap is 3 hours after she wakes up for the day and one is usually somewhere between 4 and 7:00
Awake for: 2.5-5 hours at a time during the day.
Clothes size: mostly 12 month, some 18 month
Motor skills: WALKING, dancing (in time no less), crawling well on hands and knees, standing standing alone well, pulling herself up to standing without any support, self feeding several things (as long as it's not too slippery)
other skills: putting balls into her toy (then the balls fall out and roll away and you do it all over again), clapping, waving, playing peekaboo (very well with a blanket, and she just started with her hands on February 4), Does hand actions to songs like itsy bitsy spider and little bunny foo foo.
words: mama, up, dada, nana (banana), "Aye" (light), "Bah" (ball), and "Ba (bath)" "ah duh" (all done), "buh buh" (puppy), I've also heard hi a time or two, and I'm not even going to try to list all of the words that she tries to say, but doesn't say regularly.
words: mama, up, dada, nana (banana), "Aye" (light), "Bah" (ball), and "Ba (bath)" "ah duh" (all done), "buh buh" (puppy), I've also heard hi a time or two, and I'm not even going to try to list all of the words that she tries to say, but doesn't say regularly.
signs: Addelyn does bye bye (waving), yay (clapping), puppy (slapping her leg), milk, change diaper, fan, banana and she understands "up", "all done", "eat", and we're working on "help", "out", "fall down", "play", "tired", "night night", "book", "binkie"
