P at 10 Months

Updated with pictures and video!

Wow. The milestones are just coming fast and furious around here. I was getting worried that Phoebe hadn't started pulling up, but she's doing that now and more!

Phoebe and her pal Gabby

Phoebe's 10th month fell over Christmas, so we enjoyed 12 glorious days together. We went to my parents' condo in Mammoth for Christmas, which proved to be an adventure in beating the snowy weather.We were supposed to leave for Mammoth the Sunday before Christmas, but we were anticipating a huge snowstorm in the Sierra Nevadas, so we left early on Friday morning instead (hurray for having flexible workplaces - we may not have made it at all if we hadn't been able to leave on Friday). We made it to Nevada in two hours, had a leisurely breakfast, and arrived in Mammoth before lunchtime. The snow started falling in Mammoth that evening and kept falling for two days straight. We ventured outside with Charlotte on the first day, which was great - she kept catching snowflakes on her tongue and calling them "mmm, sugary!" The great thing about Mammoth is that we can walk from the condo to the ski lifts and then take a gondola down to the "Village," which is about a mile down the hill. That way, even though it was snowing and not exactly easy to drive in, we could still get out of the condo for a couple hours. So on the Sunday before Christmas, we took Phoebe out in her first snow.

The snow was falling in fat, thick snowflakes, but Phoebe didn't seem to mind at all. She was cozy in her fleece snowsuit. Here she is on her very first gondola ride.

We ended up celebrating most of Christmas on Christmas Eve because there was talk of yet another snowstorm hitting on December 26. After opening presents in our stockings Christmas morning, we loaded up the car and headed home. The trip was not quite as easy on the way home. There was a lot of snow that had accumulated from the previous storm and we managed to find only one place open in Minden, Nevada on Christmas Day for lunch - McDonald's. The snow was falling like crazy once we made it to Tahoe and the traffic was slow. Still, we made the right decision because it was a very cold storm and it would have been horrible if we had left the next day.

One of the best things Phoebe got for Christmas was an activity table. Not only does it make a lot of music that she loves (annoying music), it has motivated Phoebe to finally start pulling up. She started out last month playing on it by being on her knees, but now she easily pulls up, and has even started cruising from the activity table to other pieces of furniture. The activity table moves as Phoebe leans on it, so she's already getting used to the idea of moving her legs to keep up. We'll have to get her a new walker (Charlotte's has been outside for the past two years, so it's a little less than pristine). We quickly had to drop her crib to its lowest position after we found her standing in the crib after nap time.

Phoebe continues to army crawl, even though she can just as easily get up on her hands and knees. But the difference is that now she can crawl up the stairs. She still slips from time to time, especially on the set of stairs with hardwood, but she's getting better at it everyday. Last night, she easily climbed up the set of stairs from the living room to the kitchen, and then up the stairs to the bedrooms. She has even figured out how to crawl up on Charlotte's little Pottery Barn Kids chair and then climb up onto the couch. This girl is out of control!

Standing up....

And then planking. She hung on here like this long enough for me to laugh hysterically, call for Chris to come and see, and snap this picture.

The cutest new milestone is clapping! She started clapping on my birthday (what a treat!) and now she just claps and claps all the time (mostly in conjunction with mealtime because food is the best!). I even taught her how to "high five" and that just tickles her to no end.


Phoebe is still sleeping like a dream. She had one bad night last weekend, but that was due to having a cold - I think her coughing kept waking her up. For the most part, she's sleeping over 12 hours at night and on the weekends, when we don't have to get her up early, it's closer to 13 hours. She also goes down for a nap really well - she just sticks in that thumb and rolls over onto her stomach. Yay Phoebe!!!

I'm still nursing her in the morning and at night, and we give her three bottles throughout the day - before her morning nap, after lunch, and after her afternoon nap. We were giving her six to eight ounce bottles, but because of the amount of solid food she eats, we've lowered the formula intake to no more than six ounces per bottle. This, combined with the nursing, is still well within the normal amount of formula/milk a baby her age should be drinking.Yes, Phoebe loves solid food (it's so nice to have one of my children eating the food I cook). She pretty much eats whatever we're eating (minus eggs because of the rash she was getting on her face). She's also packing on the weight. I weighed her on our scale (using the oh-so-scientific method of weighing myself and then weighing myself while holding her) and she weighs around 20 pounds now. What a little chunker! Charlotte wasn't even 20 pounds at a year.

I can't believe than in less than two months we'll be celebrating her first birthday.