10 Months!

 10 Months!

 Kinsey turned 10 months old last Monday.  The month overall was pretty good.  Mostly, we've just been focused on David finding a job, so I've been working a lot again.  David had Kinsey at home some while I worked but we still sent her to the babysitter a lot so David could get stuff done like resumes, interviews, etc.  The great news is he had two job offers last week!  One at Target that was going to be overnight, and the second at the VA.  He is going to take the job at the VA.  So we are breathing a little easier now.  The biggest plus is going to be David getting to go to work every day and feeling productive.  Obviously, we need him to have a job financially, but I think the greater benefit is him being able to go somewhere and contribute every day.  We are thanking God for this opportunity having come so fast in such a tough economy.  He's been looking for a job since October but was technically only unemployed for about a month before getting an offer. 

Kinsey can now start to distinguish words when we say them to her.  For example, if her stuffed bear and the kitty are both in the same room, and we ask her where one of them is, she will go to it.  Right now, that's all that I'm sure of her being able to know what the words are, but there are probably others.  Of course as I mentioned before if we ask her to clap she will usually do it on command.  She is also starting to splash in the tub when we say splash.  Common words I think she would start to pick up on soon would be doggie, bath, book, and bottle.  Our babysitter swears she can say "Oscar", which is their dog's name, but I have yet to hear it!  She commonly says "aah-ti" at various things.  At first I thought it was "kitty", but then she says it lots of times at other things too.

She is now able to stand without leaning or holding on to anything.  She can even take a few steps on her own with lots of prompting from us.  I think she'll be fully walking by the next blog post.

At her last checkup, she came in at 89th percentile in both weight and height.  She dropped off a little on the growth curve but not enough to be concerned about.  I think the drop is a combination of her being able to tell us when she's finished eating very clearly and being active ALL the time.  When she's eating finger foods, once she starts playing with them instead of eating them, I take them away.  She is also very clear about pushing the bottle away when she is finished.

Last week her top front left tooth came in!  Her top front right tooth is pretty close to breaking through too.  She started getting a runny nose on Friday and I was assuming it was just from teething, but last night we figured out she was actually getting a cold.  Green snot started coming out, so that was a pretty clear indication.  She's been pretty whiny, poor thing, I'm sure she's not feeling great.  Her nose is all crusty and runny, and her cheeks are chapped.  I've been giving ibuprofen to help with aches and any teething pain, and it helps some.  She's eating fine so far.  Waking up a lot during the night but I've left a sippy cup in her room, turned on the humidifier and space heater, and am praying she won't be too uncomfortable.  Not really any coughing yet, which I'm thankful for.  Before bed I put some vicks vapor rub under her nose and on her cheeks and she seemed to really like it.  Seemed like it made her eyes run a little though but also seemed to make her very calm and sleepy.  David and I are both a little sick too.  Hopefully we will all be back to normal in a few days.

Here are the pictures from the last month.