Eloise at 10 months

So Squishy keeps getting squishier! She has rolls on her thighs & wrists, and does a fabulous job maintaining an extra chin & kissable cheeks!  She is a healthy girl & feels like a chunky monkey when you have to carry her for more than 5 minutes.  The 9 to 10 month stretch has brought many changes into her life (and ours) as she is now mobile!  She had been in crawling position for a few days leading up to the day she decided she would just go for it & that is exactly what she did! In a matter of an afternoon, Elo was crawling all the way from the living room into the kitchen & back. There was NO progression of "learning" to crawl. It was nada & then all out crawling mania!

It is not like she was unhappy while playing before the crawling but she is definitely much happier & more easily entertained when I am cooking or tending to Charlotte & she has to be left alone for a minute. Speaking of being left alone for a minute.....

Splish Splash!

What mom? Is there a problem with this? 

This is really the first time that we are having to tell Eloise "no" on a more frequent basis. It is actually making us laugh a lot because it seems like the things that we are correcting her for are NOTHING in comparison to the things that her older sister has to be corrected for. It also doesn't help the not laughing when you say "Eloise, no no!" and she sits up looks right at you & claps her hands while squealing before repeating the offense. It is pretty adorable ; ) We will get tougher as time goes on. The way it goes around here is that you get away with disobeying (if it's cute) the first time, I snap a few pictures & then get down to business next time it happens. 

What this girlie is up to other than crawling all over the house:

• pulling up
• crawling directly to dogs & trying to climb on them...haha!
• biting my shoulder- this is one offense that has NO cuteness involved!
• says "nigh nigh" & waves when you are taking her to bed
• loves to look at books with pages that have texture
• very easily distracted while nursing during the daytime, we are better off sitting in a room away from the number one distraction in the house: starts with a "Cha", ends with an "arlotte" ; ) 
• super content in the Ergo carrier, likes to lean back and give me a grin in turn, melting my heart
• getting better at the sippy cup
• has done the sign for "more" twice...maybe on accident 
• thinks that it is pure torture to have to be still long enough to get a fresh diaper
• has a second tooth on the bottom & the top 2 front teeth look like they will pop through the surface any day now!
• could be left to splash in the bath tub (or dog bowl)  for hours at a time
• waves at the airplanes (I didn't teach her this but Char did the exact same thing!)
• growls like a tiger in response to one of us growling at her

She is pretty consistent with nursing 4 times a day.  She gets milk around 7:30, 11:30, 3:30 & 7 & then solids around 8, 12 & 5:15.  She also has a snack in the afternoon with Char.  Our new foods added to the list this month were: meatloaf, turkey, watermelon, onion, LOTS of seasonings in some of the meat dishes she has had, rice, noodles, barley, split green peas & some cows milk (thanks to Charlotte who was so kind to share her sippy cup with her! I was relieved to see that there was not an allergic reaction : ) 

Sleepy Elo

She has been one worn out little chickadee since she started crawling & is sleeping 13 hours on some nights going to bed around 7pm & waking at 8am.  Most nights it is 7:30 or 8pm till 7:30am.  She is usually snoozing from 9-11 & 1-3.  She happily sleeps in a stroller if we are out somewhere for the morning which is SO opposite of Charlotte!  She also skips the morning nap on Sundays and on any other day that we are doing something she doesn't want to miss out on.  On these days, I nurse her & feed her lunch early then put her down for a long winter's nap : )  

One hilarious thing going on this week is when we put the girls down at the same time for night time sleep. Elo is really calm in her crib until we walk out of the room. (the rest is viewed from the video monitor) Once we are gone she pulls up on the side of the crib & starts yelling to get Charlotte's attention. Charlotte sits up quickly & points her finger at Eloise and says "no no Elo! It's time to go night night! Lay down!" So Eloise obeys for about 5 seconds than starts up with the yelling again until Charlotte can't take it anymore and comes to her rescue. She is the kind of guard you would want if you were in prison ; ) She slides books through the bars, an extra blanket or two, does some sweet talkin' & then tells you the rules again "Eloise, go night night k?"  One night we never intervened and it took about 30 minutes for things to calm down enough to fall asleep.  Another night Eloise got tired of her night time guard and decided to poke her in the eye.  It made for a great example of a natural consequence of disobedience (being out of your bed with your eyeball in reach of someone else's hand).  We got them settled down and asleep after some tears were shed by the sisters.  Overall, room sharing has worked out very well for our family. 

We have been spending some time poolside in the last few weeks of hot, sunny weather. Elo, our little water baby LOVES it! I have a feeling we will be there quite a bit this summer! Happy 10 months Mellow Elo!