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| Picture taken the day she turned 9 months old |
10 Month Stats:
Age: 10 months
Weight: ~ 22 lbs (84th %)
Height: ~ 30 inches (94th %)
Favorite toy: Books
Favorite toy that’s not a toy: anything she pulls out of the pantry or other drawers in the kitchen
New foods: bread, tortilla, cheese, turkey,
Favorite food: Cheese
Least favorite food: Regular oatmeal
Number of teeth: 8
Makes her smile: Dancing with her in your arms
Makes her laugh: Buzzing your lips on her stomach
Makes her cry: Waking up from her nap and being overly hungry but not wanting to eat just yet
Favorite place to be: On the front porch, sitting in my lap while playing, pulling to a standing position while holding onto furniture
Can say: “Ababa”, “ayeah”
Milestones: Pulling herself to standing, taking a couple steps while holding onto furniture
Clothing size: 12- 18 months
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| Payton's play area in her bedroom. |
This blog entry will include her 9th & 10th month updates since I’m, once again, late on getting this blog published. After she turns 1 year I may reevaluate if I’ll continue to do monthly updates or just update as things occur (haha, yeah right, then I may never update it again!) Of course updating things as they occur would make this more of a blog and less of the novel it’s becoming, which would be a good thing.
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| Worming her way from our kitchen into the dining room. |
Visitors
Payton’s 9th month was really busy with many family members visiting us every weekend. Payton got to see all of her grandparents, her great-grandmother, both uncles and aunts from my side of the family, and her Aunt Debbie from Charles’ side of the family. It’s been a lot of fun visiting with everyone!
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| Payton loved her activity walker! |
Payton’s 9h month started with a visit from my mom “LaLa” and dad “Grandfather-who- has-no-official-name-yet”. Payton, who has always loved her LaLa, discovered that she also really loves her Grandfather. Just like her own Daddy, her grandfather doesn’t have to do much to make her smile and laugh. He would build towers with blocks, she would knock them down, and then he’s saying “Kabooom!” and she would laugh. LaLa and Grandfather brought their Shih-tzu “Baby” with them and Payton enjoyed getting to spend some time with Baby. Baby is the sweetest little dog and just loves licking Payton’s face. Baby even got to go out to eat with us to The Spot. When my parents come to visit they stay in their RV but the RV’s A/C stopped working and we didn’t want to leave Baby in the house with my dogs (they don’t get along real well), so we took him with us. Despite the heat, it was actually pretty nice sitting out on the deck at The Spot as the sun was setting and the wind was blowing off the water.
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| Having fun being the center of attention! |
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| Payton with her Aunt Debbie |
The following weekend (the first weekend of August) our visitors included Charles’ mom “Nana”, Charles’ grandmother “Grandma” and Charles’ sister “Aunt Debbie”. Nana and Grandma drove here from Dallas and Debbie flew here from Charlotte, North Carolina. Again Payton loved being the center of attention. She showed them how she can stand up and play with her walker (she couldn’t walk with it yet), how she can get around by “worming” across the floor, and how she can play with all kinds of toys and books. On Friday we went to Benno’s where Payton enjoyed eating some french fries, Saturday we ate at The Spot, and Monday we had brunch at Star Drug Store. On Sunday Payton got to swim in her first full-sized (read “non-baby”) swimming pool. Charles’ family was staying at the Victorian Hotel on Seawall so we brought Payton over to the pool. First we enjoyed a picnic lunch under the picnic table umbrella and then we went swimming. Payton definitely seemed to like it. We are so glad that she seems to love the water, whether it is in a swimming pool, the Gulf, or her bathtub.
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| Having fun with NaNa |
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| Spending time with her great-grandma |
The week after, my brother Kyle came Thursday through Friday and stayed with us so that he could attend an interview for acceptance into UTMB’s physician assistant school. He felt like the interview went real well and he was right because just a few days later they called and notified him that he’d been accepted. He still has interviews with other schools before he decides which school he will attend.
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| Charles, Payton, and I at Brooke's bridal shower |
The following day we drove to College Station to attend the bridal shower of Brooke Barnes, a good friend of mine from A&M. After college she moved to New York City to attend law school and I actually hadn’t seen her since. It was great to be able to see her and to see two other good friends from college, Natasha and Margaret. Charles dropped me off at the shower but then when he came to pick me back up he brought Payton in to meet everyone. After the shower we drove back to Galveston. Despite only napping a total of about 1 hour all day and being in the car for over 5 hours, Payton was in a good mood pretty much the entire day.
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| Cousins hanging out |
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The third weekend of August, right after Payton turned 10 months old, we had my brother Albert, sister-in-law Erin, and nephew Hank visit. Hank is only 17 days older than Payton so it’s always so much fun getting the two cousins together. Hank arrived and we were blown away with everything he can do now. He is really advanced for his age! Charles said when he walked in the door from work and saw Hank for the first time in a long time, Hank walked to the middle of the room, bent down, picked up a colored ring, and placed the ring on the ring holder. He said in his head all he could think was, “Show off!” The first day that they were here we took Hank and Payton to the beach. Payton sat right down in the water and enjoyed the waves, but Hank, who has never been to the beach before, was a little unsure about things. After playing under the beach umbrella for a little while and giving the babies a snack, we let them roam the beach. Payton wormed her way across the sand and Hank walked right into the water. After that, it seemed like as long as Hank could walk in on his own, he liked the water just fine. I still have to keep a constant eye on Payton because she loves to try to eat sand. Her pediatrician told me that eating sand wouldn’t hurt her and that after trying it once she would probably realize she didn’t like it and wouldn’t try it again. Well not Payton, you would think she loves the taste of sand the way she is always trying to get it into her mouth! It is constant work trying to keep the sand out of her mouth. But, just like her pediatrician said, it has never made her sick and is probably a great source of fiber!
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| Hank's first time at the beach |
The weather was too hot even for the beach that Saturday, so instead of going to the beach, we went to Murdoch’s Bathhouse instead. Murdoch’s is a pier that is built out over the Gulf. It was first built in 1910 and has been wiped out by numerous hurricanes including Hurricane Ike, but each time it has been rebuilt. Murdoch’s is a touristy shop but has a deck built on the back where you can sit and enjoy the breeze off the water. I hadn’t been to Murdoch’s since they rebuilt from Ike, but Charles’ sister Mary suggested it and we’ve been enjoying that breeze all summer now. After Murdoch’s we went to Casey’s for some seafood. Payton can be a little loud at times, which can sometimes pose a problem in restaurants. She likes to yell whether she’s happy or frustrated. And her yell gets the attention of all who are around. This is why we only take her to casual restaurants that are already on the loud side so that we don’t disrupt the entire restaurant. So at Casey’s Payton was a bit on the loud side and Hank sat quietly, like a perfect angel, thinking to himself, “Payton, I can’t take you anywhere, can I?!”
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| Cute cousins! |
Hank and Payton were really cute to watch play “together”. Basically, for the most part, they would play side by side with many of the same toys but still didn’t interact too much with one another. They would occasionally see a toy in the other person’s hands and would decide to take the toy for themselves. Luckily whichever one (usually Payton) who had the toy taken from them would barely seem to notice and would just find something else to play with. I have a feeling this reaction may change as they get a little older. They got along great though and we all had a lot of fun!
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| Looks like a hat to me! |
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| Enjoying the breeze at Murdoch's |
The last weekend of August my bother Kyle and his girlfriend Lindsay came to visit. When they got here on Friday we went to Murdoch’s to enjoy the breeze and a drink. From there we met Charles, who had been at work, at Shrimp ‘N Stuff for dinner. That evening Kyle and Lindsay went fishing in the surf and I joined them after Payton went to bed for the night. They didn’t catch anything but it was a beautiful evening to spend in the water. The following day set a record high temperature for the summer of 100 degrees. Because Galveston is surrounded by water the temperatures don’t usually get as high as they do on the mainland and in a normal summer it only rarely even reaches above 90 (though with the humidity it often feels warmer than that). But this summer has been the hottest and driest in recorded history. Despite the heat, Kyle and Lindsay spent the entire day at the beach. We took Payton to the beach to join them that afternoon. It was so hot but she still enjoyed swimming and playing under the beach umbrella for a little while.
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| My sweetie pie |
Crawling/Standing/Cruising
At Payton’s 9 month appointment we were told that she was behind on her gross and fine motor skills milestones. A day after her 9 month appointment Payton really got the hang of sitting herself up on her own. She refused to even take her afternoon nap that day because she just kept sitting herself up in her crib instead of laying down sleeping. Thankfully she was still in a good mood that afternoon regardless of missing her nap. The following day Payton started pulling herself to a standing position. A few days after that I walked in to get her up from a nap and was shocked to see her standing up in her crib. A couple weeks later Payton could pull herself to a standing position holding onto just about anything including things like the closed dishwasher and door frames. Also the last week of July she started taking some little steps while holding onto furniture. By the end of August Payton was really starting to make her way around a room while holding onto furniture. She is still very cautious and prefers to only attempt walking while holding onto furniture, not just a bare wall. I think her cautiousness is a good thing because it prevents her from getting hurt very often but also results in her physical development being a little slower than someone like her cousin Hank whose parents refer to his as a “kamikaze”.
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| Just learned how to pull herself up in her crib and is very proud! |
Payton had been dragging herself around on her stomach since June and then finally learned to do a real crawl by the end of August. Now she mostly crawls around the house but if she thinks she needs to get somewhere a little bit quicker she will occasionally still drag herself on her stomach (it’s not quicker but she thinks it is). A week after Payton turned 9 months old we had a huge wake up call that indicated it was past time to baby-proof the house. I was trying to get dressed for the day and watch Payton at the same time. So I plugged my hair straightener in and then closed the door to Payton’s room while I quickly went to the use the restroom. I left Payton in her bedroom with the door closed, reading a book. I was only out of the room for a few seconds when I heard her start crying. She had pushed the closed door open and gotten to the hair straightener. I had no idea that the door doesn’t latch fully when it appears to be closed, but I still felt absolutely terrible that she got hurt because of something that I did. She ended up getting a burn on her thumb. I think I cried more than Payton did, I just felt soooo bad about things. I called the doctor’s office and they reassured me that because it wasn’t an open burn wound that it wasn’t serious enough to need medical attention and that it should heal just fine on its own (which it did). This incident made me realize how I really can’t take any chances with her and it also motivated us to finish baby proofing the house. So the following day we removed glass cabinets from the living room (that I was concerned she might fall into), secured furniture and TVs to the walls, put safety caps on the electric outlets, and latches on the cabinets. So in the end something good came out this though it was still painful to see her hurt especially since it was completely my fault.
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| She loves putting things in and taking things out of her cute purse given to her by Aunt Mary |
A day before Payton turned 10 months old she started walking when you hold onto her hands. Two days later she started really speed walking around the house while holding onto our hands. She could also walk while holding onto her walker as long as we kept our hands under her arms to make sure it didn’t go too fast for her. A week later she learned to control the speed of the walker and walk with it on her own. She still gets a huge smile on her face when she walks towards us while using her walker. She also loves all the music and sound effects that her walker makes when she walks with it and when she pushes the buttons on it. Payton is now really cruising around while holding onto furniture and I really think she will be walking before she turns 1. It seems like all the concern over her not meeting her milestones was for nothing because, as far as I can tell, she has just about completely caught up on them.
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| Enjoying a hot day at the beach |
Verbalization
The only milestone that she may still be somewhat behind on are her verbal milestones. She still can say “Mama” but doesn’t know that I’m her mama. Other than that she does babble a little but mostly she just loves to scream. She screams when she’s happy, screams when she’s excited, screams when she’s frustrated, screams when she’s hurt…. You get the idea! And, like I said earlier, she is very loud. Doing “tricks” when told to is considered a verbal milestone and just this week (at 11 months, 1 week old) she has started to do tricks with verbal cues. For instance, the first week of September Payton started to clap her hands when we would say “Yaay!” and clap our hands and she would wave “Hi” when we’d say “Hi” and wave. Well just this week all I have to do is say “Yaay!” or “Hi” and Payton will do the hand motion to go with it. So she no longer is just copying my motions but she is hearing and understanding the words that I am saying. Also if you say, “How big is Payton” she will sometimes put her hands in the air on her own to show that she is “Sooo big!” Payton will also often copy us if we buzz our lips, make kissy sounds, or shake our heads. On the day Payton turned 11 months old she also learned to “share”. Now if you ask her, “Can I see that?” she will hand the item to you. We then say, “Thank you!” and she gets a huge smile on her face. She literally wants to share everything with us now…. Her food, her pacifier, etc. It is so cute! Next week Payton has her appointments with audiology and the ENT to check to see if there is still fluid behind her eardrums and to reevaluate how that may or may not be affecting her hearing and her speech. Payton is still not verbal and doesn’t say a single word that she knows what it means, but I am definitely encouraged by her responses to the things that I say to her.
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| Playing in the box that her new car seat arrived in |
Eating
Right after Payton turned 9 months old and we were told she was behind on milestones like being able to pick up small objects like Cheerios, we started giving her Cheerios to eat. I wasn’t too excited about giving her processed carbohydrates like Cheerios because at this point I would much rather her be eating things like fruits and vegetables, but I figured Cheerios aren’t entirely that unhealthy so we’d give them a try. I also had delayed giving them to her because of the potential allergic reaction to wheat but at her 9 month appointment her pediatrician said to go ahead and try out wheat products with her. Well the first few times she had Cheerios she would eat them but tended to prefer her steamed vegetables. Now she likes Cheerios and has them along with a fresh fruit and some baby rice cereal each morning for breakfast.
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| Found the syrup in the pantry and discovered that she loves it |
Payton is getting better at feeding herself and I give her several finger foods with each meal. But she doesn’t get quite enough of it in her mouth on her own, so we also are still spoon feeding her some of her foods. It’s funny because Charles says, “Wow, she gets everything to eat!” and it’s true. An example of a dinner I might give her would be pureed turkey, pureed sweet potato, and multi grain baby cereal that we spoon feed to her. Then her finger foods might consist of ground beef, tortilla, cheese, avocado, and broccoli. She is now able to eat much of what we eat for dinner. Around the first of August, Payton started getting more particular with what she will allow us to spoon feed her. Whereas before we could always get Payton to eat, now she sometimes has meals where she isn’t hungry and will absolutely refuse to eat. If we try to spoon food into her mouth that she doesn’t want, she spits it right back out at us. She buzzes her tongue and you can feel it spray all over your face! I will admit the first few times this happened we thought it was funny but it’s definitely not funny anymore. We started trying to discipline her by telling her “No!” but no matter how sternly we said it, she’d just smile at us and spit again. We were like, “Oh my gosh, it’s like we have a rebellious teenager and she’s only 11 months old!” It actually got to the point where it was so bad that we were asking each other, “Could she be autistic??? Might she have oppositional defiance disorder??? Maybe it’s the fluid behind her ears and she isn’t hearing us clearly enough??? Maybe she just takes after her stubborn parents???” Then I read online that babies this age often can’t tell the difference between positive reinforcement and negative reinforcement, so if you’re giving her any attention at all when she’s misbehaving, she thinks you’re rewarding her behavior. So instead of saying “No” when she starts spitting, we turn our heads and don’t turn back to her until she has stopped. And when she keeps food in her mouth we praise her by saying something like, “Yeah, you’re eating!” We just started this a few days ago but so far it seems to be working.
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| Payton loves to read! |
Playing
Payton favorite thing to do, by far, right now is to sit and look at books. She loves to pull herself to a standing position at her book shelf, pull down a handful of books, then sit down and find one to “read”. I find it amazing that she will sit quietly with her books for 20 minutes straight looking at the pictures on her own. She also enjoys pulling books off of my bookshelf and also books off the end tables in the living room to look through. Whether it’s “Cat in the Hat” or “The Old Man and the Sea” she sits quietly flipping through and examining the pages like she knows what they say. She also loves for us to sit and read to her which we do each day. Before having her, I had no idea that babies this young could have such an interest in books. Obviously being a teacher, I love, love, love this!
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| Using her mouth to play with a toy so her hands can look at a book |
At 10 months, 1 week old Payton learned how to push toy cars across the floor. She also learned how to throw things and especially loves to throw her wooden blocks across the room. At 10 ½ months old Payton learned to start stacking her colored Fisher Price rings back onto the ring base on her own. She has known how to take the rings off the base since she was only a few months old, but now she can put them back on. It takes a lot of concentration for her to be able to accomplish this and when she does she shrieks in excitement. Payton also learned to put her wooden blocks back into their basket. So after she’s had fun throwing her blocks all over the room, I walk around and collect them for her, and she puts them back into the basket. Payton is also trying to learn to stack the wooden blocks on top of each other to make a tower but still needs some help to accomplish this. Payton is non-stop action at all times. She goes from one thing to another and now that she’s crawling real well and cruising, she is just everywhere. Dixie, our dog, remains one of her favorite “toys”. She crawls after Dixie everywhere. The love isn’t mutual though but Dixie is very tolerant of Payton. The only time she really gets to pet Dixie is when Payton is having a snack. Then Dixie, knowing she’ll get to eat whatever Payton drops, sits nice and close and will let Payton do literally anything to her.
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| All ready to attend her first Aggie football game |
September Weekends
On Charles and my 7th wedding anniversary (September 4th), Payton attended her first Aggie football game. Payton took her morning nap at home and we left for College Station that afternoon. Payton refused to nap in the car so she didn’t take an afternoon nap. When we got into town we checked into the Country Inns & Suites. The plan was to try to feed her and then if she would nap we would just skip dinner and just go directly to the game. Well, she would barely eat any solids, wouldn’t nurse, and certainly wouldn’t nap. So instead we met my parents, Kyle, and Lindsay at Rudy’s BBQ for an early dinner. Despite being overly tired and not having eaten as much as normal, Payton was in a pretty good mood. From there we went to the Aggie game. Walking up the ramps to Kyle Field, Payton had a look of absolute amazement on her face. Once in our seats she loved watching the Jumbo Tron (the large video screen). Then she settled in to enjoying looking at books that her LaLa brought for her. A little before half time she started getting fussy so we got her to eat some baby food and then after about 20 minutes of standing and rocking her, she fell asleep in her LaLa’s arms. LaLa is obviously a lot stronger than I am because she was able to hold her for a long time. Eventually she handed her off to her Grandfather where she remained asleep until the end of the 3rd quarter. By that time it was already past her bedtime but the nap helped her make it through the end of the game. She sat in a daze for the 4th quarter as we watched the Aggie beat SMU. Because of traffic we didn’t get back to the hotel until almost 11. Payton nursed and then I tried to put her to bed but she didn’t want to sleep in her pack n’ play. As long as she could see Charles or I she was okay but the second we got out of her sight she would start crying. So we took turns sitting by her while the other showered. It wasn’t until we turned out all the lights and got into bed ourselves that she finally lay down. We all slept from about midnight to 7:45 a.m. The hotel had a continental breakfast where Payton ate some banana and rice cereal, then we drove home. Thankfully she slept much of the drive home. I can't think of a better way for two Aggies to spend their anniversary than to take their daughter to her first Aggie football game!
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| Relaxing during the football game |
The following weekend there wasn’t an Aggie football game which worked out perfectly because that weekend was the Ashlyn Memorial Grom Round-up. A little history on this event, Ashlyn is the daughter of our good friends Joel and Crissy Helmke. When we first moved here, 7 ½ years ago, Joel and Crissy were two of the first people who befriended us and introduced us to the local surfing community. We soon also got to know Ashlyn, their beautiful teenage daughter. Pretty soon we didn’t just think of Ashlyn as our friends’ kid but rather she became our friend too. Ashlyn was so amazing…. She just loved people and made people feel special. I remember one time, when I was first learning to surf, I was paddling out on a day that was entirely too big for my experience level (only because I was just beginning I had no idea that I was getting in over my head). Ashlyn sat on the jetty and cheered for me and encouraged me. Once, after hanging out with Joel, Crissy, and Ashlyn, Charles and I had a discussion about what a great kid Ashlyn was and how when we had kids we’d love for them to turn out just like her. Ashlyn had a heart condition that they knew about but that the doctors felt was only a minor problem for her. On April 21, 2005 Ashlyn was walking the halls of Ball High School, where she was a freshman, when she suddenly collapsed and her heart stopped. Since that time, Joel and Crissy have held a memorial surf contest for kids 13 and under in her memory. The contest is free for the kids and all donations go to the Ashlyn Would Go Foundation that provides college scholarships to kids at Ball High School each year. We’ve helped with the AWG Memorial Grom Round-up each year that it’s been held and it is always a very special day. It is so awesome to see all the stoked little groms out catching waves. This was Payton’s first grom round-up (besides last year when she attended in my large belly! Haha) and she seemed to enjoy the day. In the morning, before the sand got hot, she crawled clear across the beach. Some of the kids (Ashlyn’s little brother and sister and the Fox boys) were playing on the sand dune up against Seawall and she was determined to get to them to see what they were doing. For the first time ever she crawled and played in the sand without trying to eat it! Later we were letting her crawl on the beach near the water when I rogue wave came in and knocked her over. She went completely under the wave, she even lost her hair bow that got swept out into the Gulf. I grabbed her up immediately and was completely freaked out! She acted like nothing at all had happened and wanted to be put down to continue playing. I couldn’t believe it because it really scared me. One thing we know for sure, at least right now, this kid loves water! Eventually I had to take Payton home for her late afternoon nap (Charles stayed for the rest of the contest), but it was a fun day for our family.
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| The scene at the AWG Grom Round-Up |
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| Payton and Charles at the AWG Grom Round-up |
The third weekend in September we attended the A&M versus Idaho football game. Before the game we ate BBQ in my parent’s RV with them, Kyle, Lindsay, my cousin Brian and his son Wyatte. Brian and his family just moved here from Michigan so this was their first Aggie game. As a result, after eating my dad took them onto campus to watch the corps march-in. We met them at the game where Payton again read books for the first half of the game and then slept in my arms for the second half of the game, waking up in time to see that the Aggies had beaten Idaho. After the game, Charles, Payton, and I spent the night in the RV. I think because the RV runs on a generator and is pretty loud (and unlike any place she has ever slept before) she seemed scared and woke up every 30 minutes to an hour throughout the night. Neither Payton or I got much sleep at all that night. The next day, Payton slept nearly the entire drive home, then took a long afternoon nap, and slept the following night from 8 p.m. to 8:30 a.m. without waking.
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| Sleeping in her Grandfather's arms during the Aggie game |
The final weekend in September we attended the Texas A&M versus Oklahoma State game. Unlike all the previous games that were held in the evening, this game kicked off at 2:30 p.m. Which meant the temperature was in the 90s and our seats started out in the sun. So for the first half of the game we kept Payton up under the overhang by the concession stands. Luckily you can look out and still watch the Jumbo Tron from there. This was a big game, both A&M and OSU were ranked nationally in the Top 10. The Aggies took an early lead but fell apart during the second half of the game and OSU won. It was pretty disappointing. As is her tradition now, Payton slept in my mom’s arms the second half of the game. After the game we drove to my parent’s house outside of Burnet and spent the night there.
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| Payton and Hank playing with the noise maker at Hank's birthday |
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| Hank sticking his finger in Payton's mouth LOL |
The next day we spent the morning at my parent’s house and then in the afternoon drove to Fredericksburg to Albert, Erin, and Hank’s house to celebrate my nephew Hank’s first birthday. It was really fun and special to be able to be there to celebrate his birthday. Hank is so adorable and constantly walks around the house checking things out while Payton sits and watches. Both Hank and Payton are both really into sharing things right now, so it was cute to see them handing things to each other. They were really into these party noisemakers and so one would put it in their mouth and then hand it to the other who would immediately also put it into their mouth. I kept trying to prevent this from happening but it was no use. Thankfully my fear of germs has been a little better lately although I’m sure it will kick into full gear again once flu season arrives! After being at the party for a little bit Payton started to get fussy. We tried to feed her but she refused to eat. She soon ended up having a full blown meltdown. An entire weekend of not getting enough sleep had really caught up with her. We drove home from Fredericksburg and although she woke up crying several times, she slept the majority of the trip and when we got home around midnight so fell right back asleep in her crib.
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| Happy 1st Birthday Hank! |
It’s hard to believe in just a few short days Payton will be turning 1 as well!!!! I guess that will be my next update on here, the big 1!
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| Payton and Charles at the Ball High homecoming parade |
