Brooks: 10 months old.

Clara turned 10 months old on Dec. 22. Yes, I'm late getting this post done, but the holidays were wildly busy!

At 10 months, Clara weighed 21 pounds, 8 ounces (with her clothes on). I was a bad mom and didn't measure her head or her length! Oh well! She got her second dose of the flu shot so...we won't get sick with the flu, right? I'm knocking on wood as we speak!

Every month seems to get better and better. Watching her development is incredible. She is still napping well - 2-3 hours in the morning, and 1.5-2 hours in the afternoon. She also sleeps through the night. We know...we're so lucky!

Clara is able to stand independently for a crazy long time now. She can crawl fast. And she climbs up stairs like crazy (coming down is still difficult). She waves hi and bye really well, and kisses on command. Something new this month is that now when she crawls, she carries objects around with her. Her favorite things to carry while crawling are her baby doll, blocks, and she loves to push her little people car around as she crawls! Each day, she seems to make more and more sounds. Lately, she's been making this sh/g combo sound that almost sounds lisp-ish. It is precious!

A new challenge we've faced this month is in the eating department. Clara ~~won't eat baby food and is driving her mother crazy~~ will only eat things that she can feed herself independently. I love this little quirk in Clara, and plan on fostering independence with her, but it would be so easy if she'd just eat a little baby food once in a while. Now I actually have to plan and cook dinner! Her new favorite foods are broccoli and cauliflower, and she is also loving grapes at the moment. She has also liked chicken curry soup and picks out the green peppers first to eat. The girl apparently likes a little kick!

She still loves to read books. She can sit for up to 10 or 15 minutes on my lap reading. It amazes me! She turns the pages emphatically and doesn't like when we spend too much time on one page. She loves her Babyfaces books, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?, any book by Karen Katz (especially flip books), and Chicka Chicka ABC, among many others.

Here she is in her new chair from Uncle Arlen. She loves this little green chair. She senses that it is her very own space, and will even get upset when her Daddy teases her and sticks his head in her chair. She yanks him out immediately!