Leaps and bounds

Well, Madeline's 10 month mark has come and gone. I'm behind in posting about it, but here's a few things to note:

- She likes bath time again. Just like that. Right after July 4th weekend she began to show signs of joy in the bath tub. Give her an extra wash cloth and she's happy as a clam. Apparently, she also stood up by herself (with no assistance in pulling up on anything) a few nights ago, too. Craig said he watched as she stood up to get to her toys.
- She is signing a few more signs because I've been working with her on them. My in-laws taught her to vocalize dog while we were over there and she will now say dog and sign dog, but she also says cat and signs dog. She learned "more" and I think she just associates it with puffs and Cheerios. Nevertheless, she's signing it and it's a sign that she's hungry or needs a snack, so I give her something. Two nights ago, she was standing in her crib just cooing away at 3 am. At about 3:15, she was sitting and signing "more" so I went in there and nursed her. She may have been practicing, because it is common for her to just practice the new things she's learned over and over and over again. She woke up saying "tat" (cat) for a week or more once she learned it. She's also highly interested in watching me sign things and whenever I put on "Baby Signing Time" she begins to sign the things she knows.
- She distinctly says, "daddy" now. That tells me that she knows who her daddy is and isn't just saying dadadadadadada because she can. It comes out "da-ee" but she sometimes says the additional "d." Oh, and she'll reach for him and say it too. Granted, she says it all throughout the day as well. She's just practicing her small repertoire of words.
- She mimics. It's cute. If I say something or make a noise, she'll try her hardest to mimic me.

- If you watched the above video, you saw that she was "choking." She's such a faker but the first few times my heart skipped a beat. Now, she'll mimic the choking sound on cue.
- I've started to introduce more finger foods. She's been eating Cheerios like they're going out of style as well as black beans. Madeline has never really been a picky eater and has eaten everything, with the exception of bananas, I've given her. It's excellent! I started with foods that I knew she loved - carrots and peas. They promptly went in her mouth and then right back out again. I kept at it until the other night when I called it quits. She's not enjoying the textures and as a result isn't eating anything. She's not ready for bite sized nibbles yet. I'll go back and introduce them later and probably slower. I even tried to sneak in some chunks of tiny carrots in her puree and she managed to swallow the puree and spit out the carrots. I have no idea how she managed that.
- Speaking of Cheerios...I had a stroke of brilliance while driving back from Alabama from our 4th of July celebrations with Craig's brother and his family (maybe I'll get around to blogging about it and posting pictures :-) It was time for Madeline to eat dinner and we were on the highway trying to find a place to pull over so I could get in the back seat and feed her. I put some Cheerios in the pocket of her bib and strapped it on her (all from the front seat, might I add) and she went to town. Now, whenever we're in the car and I put a bib on her, she looks in the pocket. That's some memory recall!
- She's timidly taking steps. You can tell that she wants to takes steps, but she chickens out and plops to the ground and crawls. She regularly eats cheerios from the tray on her bouncer and will stand there and feed herself without holding on. My guess is that she will be walking before she turns 11 months, but I could be wrong. I'll have to upload a video I took of her the other day and see what you all think.