Kate at 10 Months Old

Kate is already 10 months old! Wow the time surely has flown by. She is a joy to be with and always on the move. We had a challenging start with her, when she didn't want to come out and we ended up having to travel to the Netherlands for our green card when she was only 10 days old!!! Ever tried to get a passport for a newborn within a week??? :-) She was a great traveler though, slept most of the time in the sling. It was much harder to keep the other kids happy during the trip.

She started rolling around the room when she was only 5mo, crawling at 6mo, cruising at 7mo, climbing the computer desk at 9mo and now at 10mo walking all by herself!!!! Even with a fifth kid, it still is fascinating to see her develop. They learn and do so much in their first year!!!

• Gross motor skills : walking, notorious climber, has figured out how to push chairs around to reach higher things, 'upside down baby' by putting her head and hands on the ground while standing with straight legs and looking backwards through her legs, jumping (sitting, or standing without leaving the ground :-). She has been climbing the stairs for quite a while now. She never sits still!
• Fine motor skills : is able to find and pick up the tiniest piece of fluff or dirt from the floor.... Loves playing with legos whenever she gets her hands on them. Feeds herself, refuses to eat anything anybody tries to put in her mouth. Trying to put 2 blocks on each other, but only when they both are standing upright, so it won't be too easy.....
• Social skills : with 4 siblings, there is lots of opportunity for socialization. She has perfected the 'grab some one's hair and PULL' and the 'hit when somebody tries to grab your toy' and is now working on the more gentle skills :-) She thoroughly enjoys interacting with the other kids, one of her favorite times is when she wakes up from a nap and 4 kids come running in 'The baby is awake!!!' 'Hello Kate!!!' and turn on the radio and they all start jumping and dancing on the bed. Also, she has started throwing temper tantrums and gets better and better at it.
• Communication skills : she is very good at communicating what she wants, either using body language, baby signs or crying. She uses quite some signs already, like papa, bird, water, squirrle, nursing, bye, and dog. She does not say mama or daddy yet, her first word actually was 'No!'. A few days ago I made some pics of the kids and they all said 'Cheese!' I didn't really notice whether Kate did that too, but then later I made some pics of just her and she amazed me by immediately saying 'Cheese!' when I directed the camera to her! She uses it every time I make a picture and sometimes at other times too. So her 2 first official words are 'No' and 'Cheese!' :-)

She has 6 teeth now, got all of them at 6mo, and not any since then. She did the same thing as my other girls, got the top outer 2 first before she got the inside 2 upper teeth. Boys did it in the 'normal' way, all my girls did it in this other way. She still isn't sleeping through the night, but since we have a family bed, that is not a big issue. Actually I don't really mind it if she wakes up just to nurse and go back to sleep, but I am not too thrilled with the 'up to play at 2am' sessions....

Another thing which she gets in common with her sisters: she sucks her thumb! But where they stopped doing it when they were only a few months old, she is still going strong at 10mo. When she is tired or upset, her right dumb goes into her mouth and her left hand gets used to play with her hair. Very cute to see!

She is very persistant and determined to get or do what she wants to do. She has an excellent memory of where I put stuff that I don't want her to get into and will later try to find a way to get it. She is generally a happy baby, unless she is tired. She naps once a day, usually about 1 to 3 hours. She is the only one in the family who still naps, I hope she will keep that up for a while!