10 Months

Dearest Annabelle, yet another month has gone by and so have more discoveries and new experiences.  You have such a curious personality, as I'm sure most babies do, there is just so much to see and explore.  You have begun to pull yourself up on anything you can get a grip on.  You prefer to be standing whenever possible and you have had multiple bruises this past month to show for it!

It is because of this new-found curiosity that your father & I have had to up the baby-proofing around the house.  We believe in letting you have your own experiences, good or bad, so that you may learn from them, but there are some experiences which are just too dangerous.  So, with somewhat of a heavy heart, I've "locked you in" and limited your access to certain areas of our home.  I spent the other night installing two baby gates.  The dining room has now become a catch-all place for things that just aren't safe for you to have your little hands on.  Luckily, you enjoy the gates so far.  You seem to think we put them there as yet another obstacle to use for pulling yourself up. 

Your father installed locks on some of the kitchen cabinets the other night as well, since you've found the joy in opening the doors.  We've also had to move the cat food dish and recycle bin to the "safe room" and out of your reach so you don't cut yourself on any of the empty tin cans or choke on any of the cat food. 

I spent the other day applying rubber bumpers to the tile step in the living room and table corners as these are also the newest hazard around our house.  Luckily, you've mastered climbing up AND down the step with ease, so it's not so much of a worry, but I still can't stand the thought of you losing your balance and falling on the hard edge of the step, even once.  There are still many places for you to "get into trouble" in our house, and we don't intend on leaving you un-attended by any means, but at least some of the obvious hazards have been avoided. 

I think all of the cruising and crawling has increased your appetite these days.  You must be going through another growth spurt.  For the past few weeks, you've been waking up in the middle of the night for a snack, then go right back down.  I wouldn't be surprised if soon you grew a couple inches taller.

Annabelle, you're babbling more and more these days in addition to the few words you like to say, "dada, mama, diapdiap" {that's diaper in the Pope household} and recently you've even said "Piper" which isn't surprising considering how much you LOVE the cats and Piper is the only one who will let you get near him.  But, the babbling is super cute!  You will sometimes go off into a conversation all your own and I've noticed you tend to do this more when other people around you are having their own conversation.  It seems as if you think you're joining the discussion, it cracks me up!

I'm sure there are many more nuances of yours that I'm forgetting at the moment.  I will try to document them all at some point so that we can look back and reminisce some day, but for right now I guess I should start thinking about planning someone's 1st birthday party....geeesh!

Love,

Mommy & Daddy