Look Who's Walking! - Alina at 10-Months-Old

Baby Alina is walking at 10-months-old!!!
 

Cute baby walker in her blue tutu swimsuit

Baby Alina turned 10-months-old on June 12th. She took her first unassisted steps on June 22nd, 2012! Just a short week later she began full on walking. This is the biggest milestone of our baby girl's first year and we are amazed that she has mastered it so early on. We think her strong desire to keep up with big sister Elise, pushed her to take those first steps. She only crawled for a few short months and now fully enjoys viewing the world upright and on her toes. We are such proud parents right now! Watching our baby girl walk is nothing short of amazing; and we just can't believe how fast she progressed. I'm sure running, climbing and dancing are not too far off. What a special moment for our littlest doll!



Our skilled little walker perfecting her gait

Walking and calling for "mama" - I love this combination hah

Alina has a few favorite words now; "mama, dada, baba", and her favorite non-word "gaga", which is always super cute to hear. She isn't a little chatterbox quite yet, but she knows all she needs to get by. I think that saying rings true, either you have an early talker or an early walker, she certainly falls within the latter category. Elise was the early talker, but she didn't start walking until after one-year-old. I work on introducing new words with Alina, but as of now she sticks to her favorites, and you will never hear me complaining about her saying "mama" too much, I can't get enough of that one and it seems to be her overall favorite - YAY for mama!

Baby stinker face strikes again; look at all those teeth!

 

Playful little sweetheart

At 10-months-old, Alina has a total of six teeth; four on top and two on the bottom. She got her  additional two top teeth right around eight-months-old, and hasn't had any more come through since. She is no longer nursing, I stopped right before she turned 10-months-old, as she was no longer interested. She has four 8-oz bottles of organic baby formula in additon to all her daily meals. She now eats the same things we have dinner...hooray. She especially enjoys chicken, pasta, spaghetti, turkey meatballs, eggs, avocado, steamed broccoli, squash and carrots, soybeans, and fruit of any kind. She's not a picky eater as of yet, although she has been turning up her nose to tomatoes (which she used to love).

Feed the baby - she's a big eater now
 

Spaghetti face! She has no qualms about getting messy

Helping us do the dishes, with an irrestible giggle



Alina is still a great sleeper. She usually has an hour nap in the morning, and a 1-2 hour afternoon nap. She sleeps the entire night through from 7pm - 7am. She rarely ever cries when put down for her naps or bedtime. This is a huge change from Elise, who always cried when put down to sleep (she still does even to this day). It is nice to be able to lay her down and watch her cuddle into a ball and fall asleep almost immediately. We are so grateful to have a little one who embraces her zzzz's!

One sweet little girl! She is always happy :)

Pretty in pink and showing off her beautiful eyes

Alina looks even more like mommy's little twin, as her eyes are beginning to darken. She has gorgeous hazel eyes right now and it has us wondering if they will stay that way or turn all the way brown. Right now they appear to be brown in the center surrounded by green on the outside. I think they will likely turn brown, but only time will tell. I also love that her hair has stayed a nice golden brown color. It is getting much longer now and we do not plan to cut it. We are going to let it all grow out, nice and long - no bangs for this little one.  While Alina looks like mommy, she definitely has her daddy's sweet and mellow temperment. She rarely ever cries and is not demanding whatsoever, however, she is a ball of energy and super inquisitive. She loves playing with her toys, especially the musical ones, as she is so curious about all the sounds. She is also quite active and always finding a chair to push along the floor; any way possible to get into dishwasher; looking for ways to climb up furniture and toys; and this little one puts everything in her mouth, we really have to watch her in that department. Other than that, she is so easy and always a joy to be around.

 

 



Reading her musical sound book; she loves it





 

 

Alina's growth stats at her 9-month checkup:

Height: 28 in (50th percentile)

Weight: 15 lbs 14 oz (5th percentile)

Alina had her most recent checkup at 9-months. At that point, she was average height, but still super tiny weight wise. Since then, she is no longer nursing and now on formula and three full meals a day. I can tell she has gained considerable weight, although she is still a naturally petite little girl. I'm looking forward to finding out her growth stats at her 12-month checkup. I plan to start her on whole milk in another month or so. I have a feeling we are in store for a huge growth spurt. She may be our tiny little doll now, but not for long; I plan to enjoy it while it lasts!

 

Swimming in April

Alina's first swim day

Momma and the girls playing by the water

Little Alina has no fear in the water

Baby stinker face 2.0 has arrived!!

Cutie pie Elise in her new turtle pool

Being native Californians, we are fully accustomed to warm spring days that hint at the impending arrival of blazing hot summers. It's late April, and we've already been getting in plenty of warm swim days with the girls. We usually take them to the heated salt water pool at the gym, where they get to swim as a reward for patiently playing while we work out. We also bought Elise and Alina a small inflatable backyard pool, where they can wade and swim to their little hearts desire. Alina is fine with just dipping her feet in, while Elise likes to bring in her toys and swim and splash all around.

There is something so special about pool time with the kids. They enter their own little water world, where smiles and laughter are non-stop. I remember being called a "fish" on multiple occasions as a child. I swam until my fingers were wrinkled prunes and the texture of my skin turned into a slick aerodynamic bodysuit. I usually had to be dragged out kicking and screaming, because what kid in their right mind would ever voluntarily get out of a swimming pool?!? I already see hints of this in Elise. She loves swimming, and even went so far as jumping of the edge in to daddy's arms and putting her entire face under water for the first time.  Alina shows absolutely no fear in the water, she loves bouncing up-and-down in mommy's arms, and doing her best to kick and splash up a storm. I think it's safe to say that we have two future water lovers in the making. 

Oh, and on a completely unrelated note, Alina has perfected the celebrated baby stinker face!!! This really deserves its own post, which I may still do; perhaps a "best of stinker face" collection? Elise used to do this, along with countless other babies this age exploring facial expressions, but who would have ever imagined it could be so cute and hilarious all wrapped into one. See the last photo for a great baby Alina stinker face moment.

Giving Mickey the baby stinker face

Sisters pool time!

Playing with toys in the pool

Perfect size pool for her

Best of baby stinker face collection!

Baby Play Time

She wanted to climb up the slide rather than go down

Exploring the play area



Daddy helping her down the slide



The last time we let Elise loose in a mall kids play area, she was still crawling and unsure of how to react to the unfamiliar surroundings. After being swarmed by bigger kids attempting to play with her, she ended up quickly crawling back to mom and dad's feet for rescue. A couple weeks ago, we brought her once again and this time around she loved it! She had a great time exploring all the activities in the play area and even made some little friends, who showed her the ropes around the playground. It was fun to watch and in the end she didn't want to leave!



A little encouragement to explore



And she's off



We got the stinker face when we tried to get her to leave!



At home and taking control of the remote as usual



Nine-months-old and on the verge of toddlerhood

Nine-month-old Elise

The dishwasher never ceases to entertain

Elise turned nine-months-old yesterday. It’s hard to believe that our once tiny baby girl is now on the verge of becoming a toddler. At this point, it is difficult to keep up with all Elise's latest milestones. Each day, she learns something new and more of her personality shines through. She gestures, dances, climbs, plays independently, giggles and squirms in excitement, eats finger foods, chases the cat, gets into everything she shouldn't, and is on the verge of walking and talking. She continually surprises us with her strength and drive. She is becoming such an adorable little girl, both in appearance and personality.

Mom and dad are in agreement, that our favorite new milestone is her dancing! One day, out of nowhere, she just started swaying back and forth to her music. We would love to take credit for passing on our intrinsic rhythm, but anyone who has seen us dance knows that is NOT the case. Elise has her own natural rhythm and we just enjoy sitting back and encouraging her to develop new moves!

While Elise is 99% little angel, she does have her little stinker moments. In fact, she had her first mini-fit this week when I wouldn’t allow her to grab my plate of food. As I was eating she kept inching over and making her best attempts to snatch the plate right out from under me. I blocked her a few times until I finally had to put the plate up and out of sight. Elise yelled at the top of her lungs, fell to the ground and started kicking out her feet and flailing her arms. It was the funniest sight imaginable and the expression of frustration on her face was priceless. I was floored as it took me by complete surprise. Fortunately, I’m laughing at the moment…get back to me in a couple years and I’ll let you know if I'm still laughing.

Close to outgrowing her jumper

 Our messy little eater

99% little angel

I do have my moments of stinkerness :)

Meet baby stinker face

Watch out for baby stinker face!

Elise has a new alter ego: baby stinker face! She scrunches up her nose, squints her eyes, raises her eyebrows, and puckers her mouth to make the funniest little face imaginable. Sometimes she even sticks out her tongue and pants loudly in and out through her nose to add to the stinker face effect. For the past few days, she's been proudly displaying her mischievous little stinker face, it is absolutely hilarious and has left both mom, dad and everyone else in stitches. Mommy thinks that the stinker face may be a result of her one and only pregnancy craving; lemons! Could it be that eating all those lemons has turned little Elise into a sourpuss? :)  

The stinker face strikes again

Elise also achieved yet another exciting milestone this week; she has learned how to clap her hands! She now loves to show her excitement by clapping her hands together while smiling and giggling. It is pretty darn precious as expected.

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