10 Months/Vivian Says!

Viv was 10 months old as of yesterday. I am having a hard time believing that she's so close to a year old. I'm a little weepy about it actually, which says more about my hormones than anything else. 

There's not a great deal to report since last month, she still loves waving and clapping. Her hair is definitely filling in. She now has her two teeth on the bottom! Probably her favorite toy to play with are the magnetic letters on our fridge and the leapfrog player (see photos). She also is getting into anything and loves climbing. I turned my back for 2 minutes while cooking and looked over to find her standing up in the dishwasher, pleased as punch with herself. Of course I grabbed my camera before getting her down. I hope she'll forgive me for the pictures of her in the buff, but I just love her chunk. 

More than anything I can say that we've turned a corner with sibling relations. From the time she was about 6 months old Nathan has been struggling with jealousy a bit. It hasn't been all the time, but for about 2 months he was definitely struggling with the green eyed monster more than we all would have preferred. Now he really only gets frustrated with her when he's very hungry and hasn't seen us all day. If I'm fast enough with a pre-dinner snack, he's all hugs and kisses again. 

I really love it when she gets up for the day (he's always awake first) and he runs into her room after me and says, "Good morning, Viv! I want to hug her! I love my Viv." I'm not making this up. In all honesty, we still have our moments, but it's a much improved situation. Viv is pretty good at de-escalating the situation on her own. Yesterday he didn't like that she was playing with her blocks so after he took away two of them that she has picked up and was hoarding them in his arms. So she started picking up blocks one by one and handing them to him until his arms were full. He started laughing, which made her laugh, he dumped out the blocks and the game continue for 3 armfuls. It was a beautiful moment to watch as a mom. I could see the future of actual play between the two of them. 

Also, I am now comfortable saying that Viv has real words! It's hard to actually believe that, but she's a little mimic these days. She doesn't use them all the time, but when she does it's pretty darn clear what she's saying. It's a little unnerving actually, but I love her voice. I may be forgetting one or two, but here are the most heard words.

Dada
Mama
Uh oh
Ba (bottle)  I actually heard her say bo-al the other day. Imagine a Brit saying it.
Yeah
Hi 
Papa
Ball (ba) 
Yay