10 Months

Time is still flying by! The countdown to a year old is at 2 months! More than that my baby is growing and learning so fast!

Vanessa has said her first word, which us cat! It's not 100% clear but it's definitely what she's saying. She stared saying it a few weeks ago when our cats would come into the room. At first we weren't sure if we should consider it her first word but she kept doing it when she saw them (though she won't repeat on cue). On Easter I heard her say it and it was so clear and again when she saw our cats. She was looking at a book with a cat in it too and repeatedly said it. She has also learned to crawl up an entire flight of stairs. She's taken one independent first step but that seem to have startled her. She is so sweet and smiley and often gives random cuddles. She insists she's a big girl and demands to drink out of water bottles. Every morning she wakes up with a big smile and bounces. She then points to Matt's water bottle by the bed and takes sips. She's silly and keeps chewing on her toes or taking her socks off and putting them in her mouth. She really loves books. She has a handful of favorites including Brown Bear Brown Bear, Good Day Good Night,  Ten Little Ladybugs, Mr. Brown Can Moo and The Busy Bee or some shit. She wants them over and over and over again. Sometimes I'll hide a book she's obsessed with because it gets tedious as hell. Sorry. She seems go understand so much of what we say and I feel like she communicates so well. I'm so proud and happy this little babe is mine!

Update 5/1: She took more steps today! My mother in law still babysits her on Friday's even though I'm not working and said she took about 3 steps independently.  Vanessa did it a tiny bit for me later but it was wobbly and she was so eager to walk to my MIL she kind of lunged forward.  Yesterday she started saying my father in laws name pretty clear (PAP-PAP or Bap-Bap as she says). She actually started saying it last Saturday when he would walk into a room (we're still seeing both my in laws) but it got really clear yesterday.  She also started mimicking us sticking our tongues out, it's the cutest thing! Oh and she now has 5 teeth! 3 bottoms and 2 tops. I didn't realize until today she had a 3rd bottom tooth but my mother in law pointed it out.

Quarentineaster

Easter 2020 is certainly going to be memorable with everything going on in the world and since it was Vana's first Easter. It was a pretty typical Easter but a bit sadder since we didn't get to see my family. Natalie is really missing her cousin Bridget who she is super close with. She video chats a lot with her a lot but that only does so much good. I try to tell Nat to look on the bright side and focus on the positive things and she so far hasn't gotten too too down about it. Anyway, Vanessa's sleep has been so awful lately (more than it usually is I think, hard to keep up with a baby who has never been a good sleeper).  She wakes up frequently and doesn't want to eat or even really be rocked/held. She is just getting harder go soothe and waking up much more. 9 times out of 10 she won't let Matt pacify her either, it has to be me. It's not waking up at night that really gets to me, it's also that she's reqires being held all night and is restless so the quality of sleep I get isn't great. Anyway, I got up with her this morning and made a really cute breakfast. Natalie came down a bit later than us, then Vanessa took a nap and we did an egg hunt. Vanessa found some eggs that were blatantly in sight and Natalie had to research a bit harder for hers. We then went to Matt's mom's house (my in laws are the only people we're having any contact with and vice versa) and had lunch then hung out for a bit and the girls opened their Easter baskets/gifts. We went back home, Matt put Vana down for a nap and I slept on the couch for a good while. Then we went outside and played with the bubble machine we got the girls. I thought Vanessa would really get a kick out of it but she wasn't too interested. Natalie loved it and even said to me, "that was a blast, thank you for getting it for us, " which made me so happy. We finished the evening by going to Matt's dad's house for dinner. Vanessa loves Matt's parents so so much. She actually prefers them to us, it's really funny. She was drinking out of a water bottle and cracking my father in law up. I just love how close we are to them. Anyway,  all things considered it was a good and pretty typical Easter. My mom popped by and left some groceries and a chocolate bunny on my porch. I'm bummed to not have seen my family but I'm grateful I have a family to miss!