Annika 10 months

Annika is 10 months old today. Sometimes I just want to curl her up and hold her like she was a newborn. I wish I could hold on to the moments where I can still cuddle her in my arms but they seem to be slipping away with great speed. She has us all wrapped around her finger and when she whines 4 of us come running and fight over who gets to solve her problems. When she gets herself in trouble she has 4 people who make sure she is safe. And when she laughs she lights up our whole world.

She is hard to cuddle as she is always on the move. We enjoy having her as part of the family. She is great fun. She loves to dance and loves to listen to rock and roll music. She learned to climb up the stairs but is still struggling with understanding how to go down the stairs. She likes people food now and is refusing to eat anything she can't feed herself. It makes meal time a little difficult. She likes to have a bottle and will accept anything in it; apple juice, formula or just water. But she still nurses just as much too.

Annika likes to bite everyone and everything. It is hard to teach her not to. She doesn't understand that this hurts us. She uses biting to communicate the fact that she is hungry.

She is also getting pretty good at communicating. She doesn't cry very much but tries to find a word to explain what she wants. She rubs her eyes when she is tired, she says ba ba when she is hungry, she screams when she wants her sisters to stop and she shakes her head, "no." She does not seem to have much stranger anxiety but is instead very social. She will say, "hi" to anyone and loves other babies the most.

She loves that brown box in the picture and is always climbing on top of it. She also likes to play with the little people and she likes to open and close doors. She likes to ride in the backpack and doesn't appreciate the stroller nearly as much. We love Annika and are glad we have had her in our lives for 10 months.