Ten months? But that is only two months away from ONE YEAR.

Olive is 20ish, maybe 21ish pounds. She's taller than a month ago. No official stats from the doctor, but I can tell this girl is growing.

She is not yet walking, but at this point I think she's just teasing us. Or she's lazy. So, so close to walking. She even has started to try to stand up on her own without pulling up on something. Just in the middle of the floor, hands on the ground, she gets up on her feet. Can't make her way to standing yet, but it won't be long. She can also stand unassisted no problem. Exceptional balance (for a ten-month-old).

Her hair is coming in thicker, and it still stands up all over her head. I think it's amazing and the cutest baby hair I've ever seen. Some people look at it and say things like, "Whoa, look at that hair!" Then they pause, and go on to say, "It's okay, though, it doesn't look bad." And I'm like, I know. It looks awesome.

Olive is starting to say real words. She can say Mama, Dada, kitty, yum-yum, and maaayyyybe Milo. Oh, and she can clap her hands and say yay. She can blow kisses, wave, and give high fives. When Andrew kisses me goodbye in the morning, then kisses her goodbye, she then turns to me and opens her mouth, expectantly waiting for a kiss. I oblige. Sometimes she slips me the tongue. Hilarious and sloppy, all at once.

One of her favorite games is putting things into other things. She picks up toys and slams them into the nearest receptacle. Helpful at clean-up time.

When she's done with her meal, she starts dropping her food onto the floor. Thanks, kid.

She is finally getting good at holding her own bottles and actually tipping them back so she can drink the whole thing. Sippy cups too. I'm telling you, don't discount laziness yet.

Naps and her morning wake-up time are irregular. She's an early, early riser. Andrew and I are definitely not getting enough sleep.

Olive currently is fighting off her first ear infection. The poor thing was miserable the entire weekend, clearly in pain. Feverish, cranky, restless but exhausted. Got her to the doctor this morning, and she's on her first round of antibiotics ever. And so it begins. (I am somewhat comforted thinking about how when Milo was ten months old, he already had gotten tubes, so Olive's not doing too bad all things considered.)

Olive has two teeth, the bottom middle ones. Where are those top teeth? Why is she drooling so much, but dragging on the teething process?

She and Milo are starting to play nicely together. It's stinking cute, I tell you. This must be the reason people have more than one kid, because take it from me, it is not for all the hours of rest and relaxation that come with the territory.

Olive likes playing with cars and trains. Because that is the only kind of toy we have. Good thing Santa is coming soon so I can properly stereotypically genderize my baby girl.

Sometimes when I am holding Olive, she reaches up and strokes my hair. Guess who also does this? Milo. And it's perhaps my favorite thing he does when he's feeling cuddly, so to have both my children do this? Heaven.

Along those same lines, Olive is getting more cuddly. She often rests her head on my shoulder, and she nearly always wants to be held.

She's beautiful, funny, smart, smiley, ticklish, and amazing. And about a thousand other positive adjectives. I love her so much, truly.

Loves to dance. 

Loves her brother.

Really loves her brother.

Even when his feet are in her face, she loves her brother.

Ten-Month Stats? Already?

At ten months, Milo is approximately 27.5 inches long and 19 and a half pounds.

At ten months, Milo is a bouncy, happy baby.

At ten months, Milo throws his head back to laugh.

At ten months, Milo has started cruising around the furniture, though still quite tentatively.

At ten months, Milo once stood unassisted for about five solid seconds before slowing easing himself into a sitting position.

At ten months, Milo hasn't had any ear infections in the last month. I am a fan of the tubes.

At ten months, Milo's hair is long enough to get mussed when he lays on it.

At ten months, that hair looks kind of reddish brown, maybe...?? It's still thin.

At ten months, Milo loves jumping and will readily bend his knees for bouncing time.

At ten months, Milo's favorite toys are the little yellow spoon that came with a kitchen set, balls, and the wooden blocks from Stephanie.

At ten months, Milo plays lots of little games, including "stick out your tongue until Mama laughs," "drop Cheerios onto the floor," "bang my hands against my head," and "make a sound when Mama taps on my open mouth to make the sound wobble."

At ten months, Milo has two teeth!

At ten months (or probably any age), teething is a bitch. Seriously, why didn't anyone warn me about this?

At ten months, Milo opens his mouth for Ibuprofin and Orajel, but refuses to eat any solid foods. This has been going on for almost a week, and we're starting to get worried, despite having already been to the doctor and told that nothing is wrong.

At ten months, Milo's weight is close to 20 pounds, but he may be losing some due to the aforementioned lack of eating.

At ten months, Milo might be self-weaning, as he is nursing less and less and for the last couple of evenings, wouldn't even nurse before bed. Perhaps this is part of teething? I hope so; I'm desperately not ready for him to wean yet.

At ten months, Andrew and I hate teething. The only positive side effect of teething (other than ending up with teeth) is that the pain makes Milo ultra snuggly. He will sleep in my arms like he did when he was tiny, and he loves to lay his head on my shoulder or my chest. It is my favorite thing.

At ten months, Milo has learned to wave "hi" and "bye-bye" but still needs a little prompting.

At ten months, Milo's "vocabulary" is quite large and I couldn't even begin to tell you all the sounds he makes. He's constantly getting better at making those noises sound like real speech, with the same intonations and whatnot. To my delight, he's back into saying "mama" and sometimes just "mom." His vowel sounds range is expanding, too.

At ten months, Milo is looking more and more like a little boy and less like a baby. When I see him standing there, holding onto the coffee table or some other thing, he just looks enormous.

At ten months, Milo is starting to seem too big for his car seat. But we don't have a convertible one yet, so we'll keep using this one awhile longer. He's awfully heavy to carry around, though.

At ten months, Milo has mastered the sippy cup. He has managed to drink from a straw a couple of times, too, but it may have been a fluke.

At ten months, Milo still flips around and doesn't like to lay still for diaper changes.

At ten months, Milo has basically outgrown all his six-month clothing. He can wear some 6-9 months, 9 months, and 12 month clothing. He has a couple things that are 18 months, one of which sort of fits. We could really use more clothing that is 12 months and up. Pjs and long-sleeved onesies especially. If anyone's interested.

At ten months, I am down to baby weight minus five pounds.

At ten months, I have days where I feel so exhausted I just want to cry. And I'm so grateful to have family around to help out. And I'm so grateful for a husband who washes all the dishes.

At ten months, I have begun planning Milo's first birthday party. Milo is practically one year old. Can you even believe that?