10 months :(

Oh my goodness. Time flies. It is so so sad to me. I try to soak up this little girl because she will NOT stop growing...darn her! Our lives are beyond hectic right now. More on that in a minute. For now, a little scoop about this darling girls 10th month.

-She waves bye-bye. Typically before bed or naps she will wave b-bye to anyone who is nearby. She will wave bye to Brian when he leaves for work in the morning. Sometimes, I sit her in front of the window and let her wave to him as he backs out of the driveway.

-She started clapping. I worked with her on this one too. I would say, Yay, and clap my hands and then clap her hands for her. One afternoon she was sitting on the kitchen floor and just started clapping. They were slow deliberate claps and she looks beyond proud. She expects if she starts clapping for everyone to join in. One time during family prayer, she was looking around at all of us and wanting our attention so she started clapping and wanted us all to join in. I have a video that I sent to Brian when she did it. I will have to see if I can upload it.

-At 10 and a half months, our little girl decided she was done in the crawling business and took off walking. Now she rarely crawls. Even if she has a short way to go, she pulls herself into standing and takes off. It took her a few days to get pretty proficient at it. During those two days she got soooo many bumps, bruises, and scratches on her face from falling into things. She looks seriously beat up. It only a took a few days and she really has the balance down much better and doesn't fall nearly as often. Why do I get the early walkers. :(

-She loves to make sounds (high pitched, screams, low pitch, growls) and loves to have them repeated by someone. It often becomes a game. Got to get that one on video.

-She knows I don't like her crawling up the stairs but has a built in radar that knows if the gate isn't up and heads straight there. Sometimes she will turn around and see if I'm watching and tries to take off as fast as she can, smiling and giggling. So adorable.

-Still has major stranger danger. Does not want to be held by anyone but mom or dad. This made her 10 month pictures at JCPenney just a bunch of pleasant looks but no smiles. People love to talk to her wherever we go and she very rarely will smile at them.

-She hates the car. She was doing better for a while there. Now we are back to either full on crying or just constant whining while in the car.

-She is a terrible, terrible teether. My worst by far. Super painful for her and totally throws off what little schedule she has.

-She adores nursing. She is super attached which causes me serious anxiety as I'm supposed to wean her fairly soon so that I can have my radiation treatments.

-She loves green beans, sweet potatoes, mashed up bananas and marshmallows. She also loves to share most anything we are having for dinner. She isn't so big on crackers or snacky foods.

-She hates me digging stuff out of her mouth that shouldn't be there, so no I just put my hand by her mouth and say yuck yuck and she spits out whatever she has in there. :)

-Her kisses have pretty much gone extinct. If you ask for one she just reaches out and pushes your face away.

We all still adore her and I'm pretty sure none of us can imagine life without her. She has us all wrapped around her little finger. If only I could either find a way to stop time or turn back time, so that I could soak up her babyness over and over again.

Brief update on our lives right now. After a tremendous amount of stress and back and forth, things fell into place for us to transfer to the gunnison prison. This will hopefully allow us to get our student loans paid off. It's been amazing to watch it all fall into place for us and we can't help but think that we've had a little help getting this to pull through. We needed to apply for the loan repayment by mid March or we would have to wait an entire year. Brian was working with his boss trying to get something to work out and stress was high. One day it would look promising. Two days later it would look impossible. Suddenly one of the two therapists out there announced he was quitting. Then it looked like it was ours. Then we found out they had to solicit interest in the position. More back and forth. Brian and I had serious ulcers. Finally last week it was finalized and our start date is February 18th. We struggled in the housing department. The market is a buyers market down there, but no one is able to sell. We didn't want to be stuck there after our commitment was over if we didn't want to be stuck. There are hardly any rentals. None of the rentals we looked at were working for one reason or another. We weren't being overly picky I don't think. They just wouldn't work out. Then one of the ladies mentioned her neighbor was also considering renting. We happened to be down there looking the last day that they were there before they moved to Texas so we were able to meet them in person and make a positive impression. They hadn't posted it for rent anywhere yet so no one else knew about it. Problem was they were asking more than we wanted to pay. We figured we had nothing to lose and asked if they would consider lowering rent and they knocked it down $200 making it suddenly doable. We have two incredibly excited kids. Those are just a few of the things that have fallen into place for us. Thats not to say we aren't totally shaking in our boots and scared to death about turning our lives upside down. There have been lots of hurdles (like two bouts of the stomach flu) and things haven't always gone smoothly, but both Brian and I have had moments of reassurance that this is the right move for our family right now and we are feeling pretty darn blessed...and scared. :) More later. Gotta pack.