Milestones

I thought about writing a 10.5-month-blog, but that didn't seem like a catchy title. Besides, months are just arbitrary divisions of time, right? Who needs a monthly update that happens precisely at each month-mark? And what is time, anyway? Is it another dimension? How does God exist outside of time? How can I wrap my mind around that?

Whoa. Sorry. Got a little sidetracked. Back to Lucy and all her accomplishments. All you English teachers, just ignore the fact that my opening paragraph has nothing to do with my actual post. In fact, just start reading below this line. You'll feel better about life. Or at least, my writing.

Since the writing of the ever-so-creatively-titled (but on-time!) nine-month update, we've had some exciting, and some challenging, "firsts." On the challenging side, Lucy got sick for the first time ever (at the same time as tooth #5 coming in!). Just so we're clear... I'm NOT complaining that it took her 9 months to catch a cold. I'm just saying it's hard having a sick baby. Did you know that they (whoever "they" are) have decided to stop selling any kind of medication for children under four years old to help with cold symptoms (other than tylenol)? When Lucy was so miserable at the peak of her cold, I scoured those store shelves for anything other than saline spray (really? what earthly good is saline spray?) and tylenol. Nothing for her poor stuffy nose, cough or stuffed up ears. When I finally called Kaiser's nurse line, I waited an hour to talk to a nurse, and had to answer 103 unrelated questions from them before I FINALLY got to ask them my one, simple question about what to give a baby with a cold. Their answer? Tylenol. Thanks.

Poor, sick Lucy

So anyway... other than getting sick, Lucy had another late-in-coming "first." She rolled onto her tummy. Yes, folks, it took Lucy nearly 9 and a half months to roll over onto her tummy. And mighty unhappy she was about it, too. Rotten way to wake up from a nap, in her opinion.

We discovered this month that Lucy is indeed her meat-loving father's daughter. I made smoked pork ribs in late July for a big family gathering, and Lucy just LOVED chewing on the ribs just like the rest of us. She also (surprisingly) likes pickles and green chile sauce (which might have accidentally gotten mixed into her applesauce instead of pureed chicken when mom wasn't home... not pointing fingers or anything).

Mmmmm, ribs!

It is so fun to see Lucy developing as she learns about her toys. She discovered how to put the rings back on her stacking ring toy this month, and she's just starting to get the idea behind putting the different shapes into her box toy (with holes for each shape to go in). She also LOVES the sharing game, and I think could hand toys back and forth all day if the adults in her life would go for it.

Lucy and her friend Alice playing with the box toy

We've started trying to use sign language with Lucy, and she produced her first sign recently... "all finished." She's close to doing the sign for "more," but so far is under the impression that she needs to move MY hands back and forth to do it correctly, instead of her own hands. :)

Lucy has quickly progressed this last month from leaning tentatively on the furniture, to "walking" while holding on to someone's hands, to cruising along the furniture like a pro. And last night, she took her very first solo steps! Before you ask, no, she's not crawling. She can scoot along the floor while sitting quite efficiently, something I learned when she took her first header off the living room step into the office (onto the wooden floor). There was no shortage of tears for a while after that one.

For the few of you NOT on facebook who haven't yet seen this video, here's a little clip from last night's first steps. :)

Meal time continues to be Lucy's "testing the waters" time. We (thankfully!) got over the spitting-out-food stage (thanks for the input, Linda C.!), and are now working through the "stubbornly-closed-mouth" stage. And learning not to dump pieces of broccoli on the floor just because we don't want to eat them. This is (apparently) a difficult concept to grasp for a 10-month-old.

Tomorrow, we take Lucy to the beach for the first time. I can't believe we haven't taken her before now, but somehow, you just don't seem to get around to some things. In our defense, it has been a (just skip this part, you Oklahomans) particularly mild summer so far, so there haven't a whole lot of good beach days.

Speaking of Oklahoma, we will soon be traveling out there again to visit my grandparents. How much Lucy will have changed since they last saw her five months ago! It never ceases to astonish me how quickly my little Lucy is growing up.

(You English teachers, just pretend I had a good, non-cliche closing line... I was plum out of creative ideas).