10 Months

Eleanor is 10 months old today!

Her favorite things are currently clapping and waving. The first thing she does when she wakes up in the morning is wave at me, then wave at the kitty. She always waves at the kitty even though the kitty never waves back. She waves at strangers, when she hears the words "Hi" and "Bye," and when Andrew walks in the door after work. She claps whenever she hears music, wants to express approval, or simply wants to hear me say "Yay!"

She is picking up new tricks left and right. If I hold out my hand and say “Please!” she will put whatever she has at the moment in my hand. At first it was just a fun pass-back-and-forth game, but it’s started to really come in handy when she gets ahold of something I don’t want her to have. Instead of taking it from her and making her cry, I just say “Please!” and she hands it right over. I wonder how long it will take her to figure out she doesn’t always have to hand me something when I ask for it.

She learned how to take toys out of containers and put them back in. At first she was just doing it with a blue plastic Solo cup that she picked up at a party over a month ago that has been a constant source of fun, but last week we went to a toy store and got her a little dog house with small plush dogs to put in and take out of. She loves it.

She’s also learned how to lay on her belly and fish dust bunnies out from under the furniture. Mommy is not a fan of this last one. But luckily she hands them over to me if I ask nicely and say “Please.” That is if I notice before she puts it in her mouth. Yuck.

She has started reliably saying "Mama" and "Dada" now. Any time she wants me she starts on with her “mamamamamamaaa.” Heaven forbid I ever leave the room, because she immediately yells out for me. A lot of her "Mama" talk happens in the midst of whining, but my favorite times are when she is playing on the floor and crawls to me with a crystal clear “Mama” and a smile on her sweet face. A few days after she really got "Mama" down and she learned "Dada" as well. She is also repeating a lot of sounds and even words, but I don't think she is connecting them with anything yet, so I don't want to point to anything as her first real word. She has repeated "yes," "shoes," and "that" so far, but only sporadically. We love hearing her sweet little voice.

One last thing, she has eight teeth!

Here are some photos from the last few weeks: