Petra is 10 months old!

Double digits! I feel like I start every post saying, “It’s hard to believe it’s only been x months…It’s hard to believe it’s been x months already!” but that’s how it is. Petra is doing so many things, all of a sudden. She’s definitely and very clearly saying “mama” (though that might mean “food”), “dada,” and “saaas” (Silas). The other day, she said “car,” several times, and surprised us by saying, “jaff!” when she picked up a giraffe toy. She used that word again several times–it’s pretty clear that she’s trying to say “giraffe.” It’s all baby talk, but it’s communication. Today at lunch, she rejected every food I offered her, saying, “Bah!” I finally tried some bits of banana, and she smiled, looked at me like I was an idiot, and said, “Bah!” As in, “Yes, banana. This is what I ordered the first time.”

She seems to be getting over her mama-only phase, at least a little bit. That’s making life somewhat easier. If she’s fed, dry, and rested, she’ll go to someone besides me.

This girl is on the move. She’s crawling everywhere, and she’s just figured out that that means she can go anywhere.

This stage requires more vigilance than previous stages…

She managed to get three kibbles of Ender’s food in her mouth this evening, when my back was turned for a split second. I consider this a rite of passage.

She even pulled up to standing the other day. And then the next day, she stood up all by herself for about half a second and then did a full-body face-plant. Traumatic.

Now that she’s figured out locomotion, her sleep is even worse. It’s like her body is saying, “You’ve learned to move–DON’T STOP!”

So she’s completely exhausted (and so am I!), but she won’t. stop. moving. At bed time, she nurses a bit, and then wants to crawl all over the bed. She’s so tired that she literally can’t lift her big head up, but she somehow also can’t stop crawling. So her head is planted on the bed, not moving, but her little legs keep going. That can’t feel good. Surrender is slow to arrive.