Puzzle Pieces: March 2011

Abby turned 10 months old last week. Once again, she has had a very big month and has changed in so many ways. Here is what she has been up to.

At her 9.5 month check up, she weighed 15 lbs and 13.5 oz. Her length was 26 inches.
She got her first tooth. It first appeared on February 7 and is the bottom right one. She had some trouble sleeping for a couple nights with it and had a low-grade fever. It looks like the left one is about to pop up as well (March 1).
On Valentine's day I went to get her after a nap and was surprised to see her standing up! We lowered the crib to the lowest level and she is still able to stand up, but won't tip herself out.
She loves to stand and walk as we hold her hands. As we were trying to get her to crawl by putting toys far away, she would actually act like she wanted to stand and would then walk to the toy rather than crawling to get there.
She finally started to crawl on her 10 month b-day. For several weeks she had been rocking back and forth but just would not crawl. She was a pro from the very beginning, it was like she had been doing it for ages. I guess she just wanted to get it down before she actually tried it. Or maybe she had been doing it in her crib for weeks. She increases her distance every day and will even come find me in the kitchen when she is in the living room.
She pulls herself up on her toy box and a weighted laundry basket. Our couches are too tall for her to reach. She is starting to "cruise" a little but I wouldn't say that she has mastered it. She is pretty daring though, she lets go with both hands a lot, which often ends badly.
She still loves to dance and has some new moves. She prefers to stand now and bend her knees (see video from last post). She also occasionally does a little shoulder move and she waves her hands about as well. She likes to stand by the stereo and turn the volume up and down.
She LOVES this baby animal calendar that we have hanging up in our kitchen. When she spots it she reaches for it and we have to take her over and show her all of the animals and make the sounds. I have to say, I have improved on my sounds with all the practice.
She has made huge improvements on her laugh. If you have met Abby you know that she has a huge smile. As my mom says, "Abby always smiles with her entire face." However, laughing has not been her strong point. But she has quite the giggle lately, and we have a lot of fun tickling her.
She loves to eat paper. If she can get her hands on some she immediately takes a bite out of it.
She loves to take everything out of my diaper bag as well as her toy boxes. She makes a mess, but it keeps her busy in church, so I'm okay with it.
She loves kids. She had a blast watching and playing with her cousins when we visited them. She also loves to watch kids at church.
She is pretty good at waving "hi," especially to her dad when he comes home from school.
She had some interesting medical "issues" this month. One day her forehead got red and swollen and she also developed a hoarse voice. We were a bit concerned that it had something to do with the wheat cereal I had just started her on. I mentioned it to her doc at her well check and she had us do a blood test, which came out negative. But since wheat is so universal, she still had her do a skin test. She was tested for all of the things babies typically react to and had no reactions. Hallelujah!