Brennan is 10 months old. I can't believe it. I'm in denial. This year has flown by. We are starting to plan a first birthday party already. While I know she won't really care or remember, we did it for Conner so I think we are going to do it for her. We already have a big birthday weekend planned, but the activities are mostly for Conner (just happens to be her weekend!).
At 10 months old, Brennan is continuing to amaze us with her great personality, all of her new skills and her loving, cuddliness. She is still pulling up and cruising everything, pretty much running while holding on. She crawls at light speed! She will pull up and then let go for about 10-20 seconds, and will walk while holding on to a baby stroller, but she is not ready to walk just yet. She is babbling a bunch and I love hearing her sweet voice. She loves when you do the "How big is Brennan?" game. The first picture is her saying "SO BIG!". She has also started clapping her hands and waving this month. One day, she was just sitting in the family room in a corner with Conner's legos and I look over and see her just clapping to herself. She giggles so easily and is so fun to play with. She is a really great baby and we are so lucky!
Brennan FINALLY got 4 teeth this month. At about 9 1/2 months, they all came in, pretty much overnight. One morning she woke up and 3 had popped through and then the next morning, there was the 4th. You would never have known it. Teething has not been bad at all for her, and so far, we have only given her Tylenol one time, but that was mostly for an ear infection (at the time we weren't sure if it was ears or teeth). Hopefully, teething will continue to be easy for her. She does gnaw on everything and she is grinding those teeth and figuring them out. I think you can see the two little bottom ones in this picture.
She has started eating more and more and we haven't really found anything so far that she doesn't like. We aren't that aggressive with new foods, so there are probably going to be things she won't eat, but for now, so far so good. She is still loving all kinds of baby food and cereal and now she has tried several fruits and vegetables (not pureed!) too. She has had carrots, green beans, cantaloupe, honeydew and bananas. She has also had little pieces of chicken, bread and bagel. She gets so excited to eat real food! She is not, however, excited about drinking anything other than a bottle with formula in it. She LOVES her bottle and I have no idea how we will get her off of it. She takes 3 bottles a day and is pretty excited about them. I try to offer her water when she eats food. We have tried sippy cups but she has NO interest. So I tried the honey bear cups that we used with Conner. It took him a while to figure out but then he learned to drink from a straw pretty easily. Brennan figured it out in about 10 seconds. She still doesn't like it, but she will take a sip or two if I force her. She loves the cup though and would play with it for an hour.
When Brennan gets excited, she is so animated and it is so fun to see. She squeals and shrieks and screams. She loves stuffed animals and baby dolls. She loves tearing apart all the puzzles in the family room. She loves Conner and gets really sad when he goes upstairs to bed without her. Conner loves her so much too and I hope it stays like that for a long time.
Brennan as a baby is SO different from how Conner was. I notice so many differences between them all the time. They were both great babies, though, and for that I am so grateful. Conner was always a very social little guy and still is. He was never really shy around people and never really had stranger anxiety (and still to this day, he never meets someone he isn't really comfortable with). David and I usually think it's because as a little baby, he was around so many different people. For his first 4 months, we were only with him about 12 hours a day. The rest of the time he was with other caretakers. He was held and snuggled by lots of nurses who loved him and we think that's why he is okay with most people. Brennan is so different than that. She is so happy and animated at home, but when we are out in a crowd she is very reserved. She is SHY. We have gone to some groups and we tried a class and she wanted nothing to do with it. She won't even smile. She checks everything out and takes a while to warm up to most other people. Even my family, she takes time with. She doesn't see many other people besides the three of us and we are who she is most comfortable with. She has MAJOR stranger anxiety (since she was very little). We actually had a babysitter last week and she did great so that was reassuring. I'm hoping to try out another baby class or two and see how she does. Hopefully she will come out of her shell and let everyone see her great little personality!
During the last month, we took another road trip (more later) and Brennan got pretty sick. She ended up with RSV and an ear infection. It took her about 4 weeks to get over it and finally she is getting better. Thankfully, she did okay and we didn't have to go to the hospital or anything. She did end up with a few breathing treatments, but that was no big deal since we already had the stuff here for Conner. We did get a pediatrician visit though so I know her weight this month did not change. She is holding at 20 lbs, 15 oz (she might have actually been 14 oz.). She seems so heavy!
Anyway, things seem to be right on track for her and she is such a blessing to our family.
