Ten Month Snapshot: Alexandra

by biscuitsspace on May 15, 2019

I cannot believe it is already time once again to do another post, Alex’s ten month blog post! It has been a busy month, and it is not always easy to keep up with everything, but we are doing our best! The theme this month, summed up in one word, is affection. Alex is now giving us kisses and hugs regularly. It is the sweetest — she crawls up on us and then stands up to get herself level with our faces and then she opens her mouth wide and then leans her lips onto our lips! Then, she giggles and thinks it is just too funny. She is giving us lots of hugs, too. She can even ‘high five!’ and she can shake one’s hand as well. She also really enjoys her story time. As pictured below, in the evenings, Doug places her in her crib and then reads to her with Alex standing up, perched over her crib looking at the pictures. Otherwise, if she is in our lap, when we read to her, she just wants to eat the books and grab all of the pages! So, this has become a nightly ritual at bed time!

Alex likes her gated play area containing some of her toys, which we affectionately refer to as her ‘baby jail’ comprised of this gate and this play mat. She loves to play with her toys, (she is really into balls right now and she is playing more with her toys instead of immediately putting the toys and everything in sight in her mouth), and she likes it even more when one of us plays with her, and she often demands one of us be with her playing! If we are in a pinch, Victory will serve as her ‘play buddy’ in her ‘baby jail’ or in her nursery, buying us a little time to get some things done around the house. Victory, fortunately, will cooperate! Alex is still very aware and into Victory! I think that Alex wishes that Victory would just sit still and literally play with her! We are trying to teach Alex, as much as we can, to be gentle with her fur sister, Victory. Hopefully, when Alex can understand more, she will be able to be a little more gentle with Victory. Victory is not too keen on Alex ‘charging’ her, even though Alex means well. Alex is currently learning what ‘no’ means. Victory has been incredibly tolerant with Alex, which we are very thankful. Alex is still growing like a weed and she was literally off the charts with her size when she was at her nine-month doctor’s appointment. She is healthy, thankfully, and she is doing really well. She had two more teeth crack through her gums this month, with more on the imminent way. Alex is crawling all over and she really likes to and prefers to be standing vertical. She is curious and loves to get into everything in sight! She is balancing herself on her own more and for longer periods; and, just before Mother’s Day, Alex took her first step just before plopping down! She literally seems to be moving right along.

Also, during this month, we celebrated our first Easter together, and it was fun. Alex also had her first Easter Egg Hunt at her play school, which was fun, too — we helped her of course! Both Alex and Victory got their own Easter baskets on Easter morning and they seemed to enjoy their Easter morning together! We also just celebrated our first Mother’s Day as a family of four, which was really special! Doug and I had a date night this month, which was nice. We aim for one date night a month right now, if we are lucky! Also, this month, Doug and I somehow finished getting our gardening and decks ready for the spring and summer months; and Alex and Victory are enjoy going out on the deck together overlooking their neighborhood! Doug is also currently finishing some more baby proofing, which seems to never end!

We are looking forward to enjoying our spring and summer with Alex and Victory! We cannot believe Alex turns one so soon! This month has been full of some exciting changes and Alex will continue to keep us on our toes. We love our girls and we are embracing it all, and we feel extremely blessed!

A few highlights from Alex’s tenth month include:

-she took her first step this month, which was exciting!

-she is standing and balancing herself more each day!

-she still loves crawling and getting into everything in sight!

-she is sleeping well in her crib in her sleep sack, while she is still getting up one time a night to eat most nights — we really hope to get her sleeping through the night soon, as we are very tired!

-she loves being with her fur sister, Victory, and loves when Victory joins her for a meal, while Alex eats in her high chair. Alex creates lots of ‘droppings’ that Victory helps herself to!

-she is making lots of different sounds and she is getting louder with her sounds! She still likes to laugh and giggle, too!

-she is very ticklish and she lets out the cutest giggles as a result!

-she still loves going for stroller rides outside!

-she loves her bed time routine and Doug usually plays with her, gets her ready for bed, and reads a few stories, which Alex loves!

-she likes bath time more and loves to splash in the water and play with her toys in the water!

-she is eating well and cheese was introduced this month, and she absolutely loves it, along with Victory, of course!

-she is still very alert, curious, and observant! She still loves to interact with other kids and observe them!

A few highlights I would like to remember:

-photographing and making videos of Alex — I want to remember and capture as much as I can!

-remembering her taking her first step!

-remembering her sweet kisses and hugs!

-remembering her giving us some ‘high fives!’

-remembering how intrigued she is with my buttons on my clothing and necklaces that I wear.

-remembering how Alex likes to close her bedroom door continuously.

-remembering how Alex loves to crawl all over us, like we are her ‘human jungle gym.’

-remembering that she likes to have her back rubbed once we put her in her crib to help get her settled.

-remembering how she giggles so hard when she is tickled behind her ears! She finds this hysterical!

-remembering our walks together around the neighborhood in her Bugaboo, which she loves!

-remembering how we say, “It’s time for sleepy time,” and then Alex makes the biggest smile!

-watching her explore her environment — which has grown ten-fold for her because she is really on the move!

-watching her ride on her Daddy’s shoulders, which never gets old!

-watching her try to chase Victory in order to try to grab/pet Victory’s fur!

-greeting Alex in her nursery each morning, as she is ready to start her day early no matter whether it is a week day or morning!

-loving how she smells after her baths!

-loving how her hair is so fluffy and soft against my skin! It keeps growing and growing and she is getting a little bit of wave in her hair in the back! It will be neat if she gets some curls, but we will have to see.

-loving on her long, velvety and smooth body!

-loving her giggles!

-marveling at her smile — she has the most wonderful smile that melts our hearts, and now we can see all six of her teeth!

-admiring her eyes — they are the prettiest deep blue eyes I have ever seen!

-loving her long and lovely dark eye lashes!

-knowing on the days that I feel totally exhausted, that I will someday really miss these early days, and I need to remind myself, at times of this fact. The daily exhaustion is improving, some.

-still asking myself what will I miss about this time of my life when it’s all gone? This question keeps everything in perspective.

-most of all, we are cherishing getting to be Alex’s parents!

Doug and I are very grateful for our little girl and our little family! We feel so fortunate and our hearts have grown so much since Alex’s arrival. We look forward to seeing Alex’s little personality continue to develop and unfold. Below are a few images: Alex’s monthly portrait; Alex and Victory’s monthly portrait; followed by photos of Alex throughout this month; and some iphone images during her tenth month with us! You can read our birth story along with viewing images from Alex’s birth here; you can read Alex’s one month snapshot here; her two month snapshot here; her three month snapshot here; her four month snapshot here; her five month snapshot here; her six month snapshot here; her seven month snapshot here; her eight month snapshot here; and her nine month post here.

(The monthly photos are still tricky; Alex is in her laundry basket again this month because she kept crawling away. I just have to find a way to capture Alex and Victory for a couple more months in order to make it to a year, chronicling this special year via this photo series!)

This month I have also been working hard on further revisions on my long-term photography project with my mentor in between everything; and it is quite a bit of work keeping up with Alex’s monthly photos; printing of the images; creating her photo book for her first year; creating blog posts; and writing Promptly Journal entries. However, this time will only happen once, and we want to record and remember it, so we are going to keep going with this process through the first year, where so many changes occur, sometimes seemingly over night! I will always continue to photograph our little family to document our time together, but I am not, yet, sure how that will look for us after the first year with Alex!