Ana is 10 months old!

Before I start, thank you all for your kind words regarding my Aunt. Its been a very rough week, we're moving along and taking it day by day, your thoughts mean so much, thank you!

Now hold on to your hats while I take you on the Ana update whirlwind ride! Can you believe she's 10 months old? I certainly can't! We've been home for 6 weeks now, it just blows my mind! It's been a while since I posted last so I thought I would just give you on update on what Miss Monkey has been up to. Pictures soon I promise! I'll have an update on Little Mr. Monkey soon as well...

Growth:

Ana had her (a little late) 9 month check up on April 22nd. The doctor seemed very pleased with how she is coming along. She is now in the 20th percentile for height and weight and for the first time ever she is on the charts for her head circumference at the 10th percentile! The doctor had said at our first visit the day after we came home that bringing her diet to that appropriate for a 9 month old, and the stimulation she receives now would likely bring her head circumference up, and she was right!

Personality:

We have watched Ana's personality bloom over the past month and a half. The very serious little girl with the tough shell to crack has blossomed into a very happy baby! She still shows a little restraint when meeting new people, but she pretty quickly warms up now and will let most anyone hold her for a little bit.

She is still a drama queen when it comes to her food. She can be happily babbling away, and the moment she sees me stirring something in her bowl, or mixing a bottle she starts to cry and whine! I'll have to get it on video to share with you all, it's pretty darn funny!

She's developing a little attitude as well (Lord help us!). She's decided that anything that comes from a spoon is over rated for sustenance and she can do quite well on her own thankyouverymuch! I've informed her that there is only one picky child eater allowed in this family and that the position has already been filled! We'll see how well that works for me.

We spent a lot of time outdoors last week when the weather was so nice. She loves to sit or lie in the grass but has a tendency to try and eat it along with the leaves lying around. Once I've fished a couple foreign objects out of her mouth and she knows I'm on to her, she bows her head real low and tries to trick me by taking double fist fulls and while I'm emptying one hand she shoves the other in her mouth, seriously...I think I'm in trouble with this one.

Development:

She has popped through the two bottom front teeth, and I think I can see one of her canine teeth on the top starting to push through. She has had rough nights a few nights in a row now waking up several times. She's had a bit of a cold, runny nose, and the teething thing going on so I'm hoping that she'll go back to sleeping through soon!

She will still sit for decent periods and play by herself which is a dream, and I'm enjoying it now before she figures out the crawling thing and unleashes total chaos on the house!

She still has her "ra ra ra" sound but has added "va", "la", "ba", and most recently "da" (go figure!), "ta" and a sort of "sha" sound. We have yet to hear "ma ma" but rest assured that we work on it every day!

She bears her full weight on her legs now. She can hold on to our fingers or a piece of furniture and stand for quite some time. She thinks she's pretty cool when she does it too, she gets this funny grin and says "huh, huh, huh!" while alternating looking down at her feet and at us. It's almost like she's saying, "Hey, look what I can do, aren't I the coolest?!"

When on her belly she can pivot, push herself backwards and just the week before last she started getting herself on her knees (of course she has no idea what to do after she's on her knees, but it's a step in the right direction!).

She now reaches her arms out when she wants to be picked up, and she reaches and leans towards mummy and daddy when she wants to come back to us which is the best thing in the world! Over the past two weeks we have definitely seen her develop a preference for both Greg and I in situations when there are other people around which is a really good sign that she knows she can trust us and knows that our relationship is special. Perhaps the most exciting thing to me is the bond I can see developing between she and I. I definitely feel like she derives comfort from me and it makes my heart melt when she's really tired and she'll burrow her head into my chest and smile at me with her sleepy eyes before drifting off to sleep. For a while she wouldn't let you hold her in a cradle position unless she was having a bottle, but now once in a while she'll happily lay there and snuggle for a bit (if she's not too busy with something else of course!). This is all very new, I was pretty sure we just had a non snuggler on our hands, but she has gradually become more snuggly as the days pass, and I'm loving every minute of it!

Anyways, that's all for now I guess. Oh, the only other thing is that she is really an official citizen of the United States of America now as we received her Certificate of Citizenship a couple weeks ago. I'm going to be taking her 10 month pictures soon and hopefully big brother will cooperate for a few as well so be looking out for those. I'll have some pictures soon to post promise, I have to download my camera and don't have the energy to do it tonight.