Almost 10 months & walking!

You ARE OFFICIALLY A Fidgeter! And I know this cuz i am just as bad! I’m sorry to say but you got that from me. Oh man, you toss and turn and move and stick your butt up and roll and sit up and lie down and bury your head… You just can’t find a comfortable position, just like me! Until you do and then you’re finally asleep.

Speaking of sleep, it’s a hit or miss, based on where you are in the developmental schedule. When you’re trying to work on something (pulling up, crawling, walking) you start napping 30-40 minutes at a time and just excited to get back to practicing. When you’ve mastered a skill, you go back to 1-2 hour long naps, which are wonderful! Nights usually depend on whether you’re teething or not. You now wake up about 3-4 times a night, unless you’re teething and in that case you tend to wake up crying every hour.


You have also began putting your head on my shoulder last month, but lately it’s been the cutest thing. When you’re shy or you’re tired or you want some love, you just lean in, snuggle in and rest your head on me. Oh my! I melt!

modeling our little headband collection

my fav pouty  face

Headbands collection named after you! Alexandra Riis

visiting your dad at work while eating some fro yo

ice cream n stroll at the beach

i might have a pic like this for every month, you love your dada

new friends

people watching on the boardwalk

getting some sun on the bay ( pretty sure you heard music and picked your hands uppp)

All you would want to do after waking up from a super short nap is pull up. “Going to sleep? Nah! Why don’t I pull up some more?” You pull up on everything: walls, gates, chairs, mommy, daddy, trashcans, air purifiers, even piles of laundry( Yes, they often get that high). You quickly learned to stand with one hand holding whatever it is you pulled up on and the other hand looking for something fun to grab.
Crawling quickly picked up speed this month compared to last month. You can easily crawl off our bed ( so no more days of laying you down for a min while I go grab something) you also can easily pick your self up and jump outta your basset ( so the second I hear you making and noises at night I watch and make sure your not trying jump out!) You also have enough strength in your legs to do squats over and over again while holding onto something. ( And lately on your own for 30 sec or so)
Not sure how much iv mentioned you LOVE music before but it never fails! The sec you hear any beat you start dancing.
Ill have to post a videos later. It's so cute, you def have a signature dance you do.



Then came the whole “getting down safely” thing. You never really had a period where you couldn’t get down or were afraid to. You did fall on your butt a little harder than I liked a few times, but after that you have quickly figured out to lower yourself first. But from that moment on, you would pull up, sit down, pull up, sit down, pull up, sit down. NON-STOP! Now you’ve mastered it to the point of boping and squating.

Showing off! haha you are def your daddy's girl when it comes to being the center of attention. you have begun showing off this month and it is THE MOST ADORABLE THING I have witnessed so far. The second we are around a bunch of friends or pretty much anyone giving you attention other then me, you literally light up! You know who is talking to you or about you cuz when they do, oh, theres the talking, smiling and tongue sticking, leg kicking, turning around, pulling up ( all while looking to see if people are still watching )

So your milestones this past month have been;
You took your first few steps all on your own!! You were walking holding on to the couch and your grandpas then I walked over stood close to you and called you, you walked right into my hands!! I did that a few times and each time id call you over you would walk to me as long as i was close.
- you can stand on your own as well. We put music on for you and stand you up and you will bounce to it until you realize I'm not holding you. Then you sit down right away.
- you learned to clap, so often time now when u do something on your own you clap for yourself.
-your being more expressive, making more sounds, head gestures and faces. You can nod your head yes and no. Although " no" seems to be your fav. Like when I say " Alex ready to eat??" You start nodding no no no

9 months of life

You are growing at warp speed. Mastering one thing after another. One morning you would wake up and just have this new skill. Since the earlier months I have noticed one remarkable thing. I can SEE cognitive jumps in your development. Like, one day you would just be MUCH smarter than the day before. There’s yet so much for you to learn , so much to master for you but still everyday you do something new.

So this month I have done a pretty bad job of recording all your achievements and the new things that you’re doing, so I will try to write from what I remember.

You have all of a sudden developed a few fears. You are deathly afraid of the vacuum, you scream in a panic and demanded to be picked up whenever we try to vacuum. You're not to crazy about most males holding you ( but usually totally comfortable with females) maybe you pick up on them not totally being comfortable with a baby and thats why you fuss? not really sure, You’re afraid or despise ( might be a better words) for any confined space, so pretty much everything like the ; car seat, stroller, you're rocking chair, walker, bouncy chair, play yard, crib, bassinet.
There are times where I can set you down in your play yard, bouncy or walker but you have to be in the right mood for it, and I have to talk to you and entertain you while you in it, and def can't leave your sight or else you scream.
You love to be free and not tied down or buckled to anything, but unfortunately you still can't walk or or understand what is safe to touch or not, so this makes it very hard for me to just let you be.
You want to explore everything and go where you please, so since you can't walk around yourself you need my finger to hold on while you maneuver your way around.

I am not sure if you’re displaying a fear here, because I cannot exactly tell by your cues, but you seem to yell at the monitor. When you wake up and see a little green light on the monitor, you turn to it and a say a short little “Nah" "nah" over and over again. I don’t think you know that’s how we watch you but something is definitely up there.

Nay nay! – that is your favorite word. I don’t know what it means and you seem to say it randomly but you do say it often. You have the most adorable little girl’s whenever you say anything. Especially your belly laughs.

It amazes me that you’re so little and can’t talk and yet can understand so much. You know " where's dada" ( i do that when he comes home and you get super excited and start to look for him) you know bunch more but I can’t think of right now, all the standard words like mama dada kiska ( kitty in russian) give me, no, pee k boo, dance, bouncy, and etc, I mostly speak Russian to you when we are alone so you known all those words in both languages for the most part.

For New Years this year we decided to take you back to my home town Chicago .
As well as surprise you're great grandpa on his 85 birthday.

Well first of let me just say you did very well on the plane ride there and pretty much back. You slept most of it with the other time just wanting to stand up on my lap and look at people in the aisle, and tear up sky mall magazine.

The day we flew in was my grandpa bday so we showed up at his house, knocked on the door and sat you in front of it, while Jeff and I hid.

Aw let me tell you he was surprised! He opened the door and looked past you then took him a few sec until he realized to look down ( as u made noises) then he started calling for my grandma saying oh my god oh my... Look who it is!! He called you a few different names (mine, my moms,my aunts, my brothers,) until he finally got it right. He got little teared up and flustered and just kept on saying how what, how, what did you get here?!??
You made his whole year and birthday, both grandma n him seemed over the moon.
It was very sweet to see you meet my grandparents.
Iv been very close to them my whole life and spent every summer and any vacation with them. You're great grandpa taught me how to swim, dance & draw.

Needless to say I'm beyond happy you got to meet them & they got to hold you and play with you. Although time and distance and them getting old has made it harder to stay closer to them, they still mean the world to me.

Here are some pictures ;)

4 generations ~ my daughter, mom and grandma

you're great-grandparents meeting you for the 1st time

my grandpa Jacob

my grandma Lana

grandparents in the 1950s

grandma lana in the 1940's

fam photo

iv known this girl since i was 14