Sorry for the two week hiatus from my blog life. Sometimes between updating Twitter and Facebook, emailing my family and friends directly and then posting on this website and another for a group of moms I know, it’s gets repetitive and obnoxiously boring. I have to admit that if it weren’t for this blog and how great a record it will be of Gianna’s first years, I wouldn’t even be keeping it up anymore. All my scrapbooking and baby book keeping energy is gone and this is all I can muster. I’m not sure it’s really worth it to keep this site going but since I haven’t made a decision to shut it down, here I am, trying to catch everyone up to speed and make sure I document for Gianna’s sake all the interesting things she’s been doing these days.

One of those interesting things is getting to see her aunt and uncle who live on the Fall River in Northern California. She had a blast riding on their friends’ patio boat, dropping rocks in a small stream and just getting acquainted with the more rustic side of life. Here are some photos (to make it up to you for being absent so long) of our trip:

Their big red barn which I love to photograph in all seasons.

Gianna’s face when Papa set her down in the snow-melt stream.

After her feet went numb she shot me this gangsta kid pose.

Steering the boat with her uncle.

Family time at the wheel.

Curled up against the wind.

Fencing with the river grass.

Signing “bird” over and over again when one caught her fancy.

Gianna in profile. My beautiful baby!

I’m a few days late in marking her 10-month anniversary but tis the season for procrastination.

The last month has just zipped by with barely enough time for me to jot down all her new accomplishments and she has accomplished so much this month. Benoit and I were even remarking how much more of her personality is shining through these days. She has this devilish little girl grin where she looks up from under her long eyelashes and smiles tightly without showing her gums, pressing her cheeks to exponential chipmunk proportions and we know at that point she is daring us to do something to make her laugh. A good tickle under the arm or knee or even sometimes a surprise appearance from behind the furniture is all it takes to get her going. She smiles all day long it seems and even when she’s having a cranky day, the smiles aren’t hard to coax out of her in between the crying jags. It’s enough to make me want to label her that rarest breed of person already, an optimist. They’re hard to find on my side of the family but Benoit’s is chock full of them so it shouldn’t be so surprising to me.

She just genuinely seems to have a rosy take on her little life so far and for that I’m ever grateful, mostly because it is the surest sign so far that she doesn’t remember all the cuts and bruises, fevers, aches and pains that we’ve battled in the past 10 months and it’s reason for me to be optimistic that whatever else comes our way this month will be as quickly replaced by laughter and smiles as those that came before.

So here’s a little rundown of what our little girl is doing at 10 months old…

Gianna is:

Standing unassisted for as long as she wants (up to a minute) and taking one step away from solid objects with only a reassuring hand holding hers.
Walking while holding onto my hands.
Pointing with one finger at everything that interests her. I’ve almost had my eye poked out more times than I can count.
Beginning to cut her first top teeth.
Recognizing the baby signs for light, cat, flower, fan, mobile, bye-bye, balloon and up (and the spoken words in French). She also returns the sign for light, balloon and fan.
Looks around when asked “Ou est le (quelque chose)” or where is (fill-in the blank)?
Can finally sit through a reading of the book Guess How Much I Love You (it’s long and has mutely colored images)
Enjoys hugging soft teddy bears, cuddly loveys and Miko, the family cat.
Babbles INCESSANTLY to herself and at her toys and “yells” at us when she wants our attention.

So, that’s our baby girl in a nutshell. I can’t wait to see what else she decides is within her grasp to learn this month!

Gianna’s ninth month is underway and I have been reflecting a lot recently on how much she’s already grown and all the new things she has begun to do that she couldn’t even dream of doing one or two months ago. I know the time is near when she will not just pull herself up on furniture and walk around it but she will let go and take her first wobbly steps away from me. She is engaging with her world in ways that signal to me she is ready for more interaction, ready to be given more tools for play and language.

She now points to things that interest her and grunts until I follow her little finger and make the appropriate ooohs and aaahs that she desires. She watches my finger when I point to something and very carefully looks in the correct direction to see what I am gesturing about. Mostly I’m pointing at the cat and trying to make the baby sign for cat while saying cat in French and I’m amazed any of it is sinking in because it feels like a chicken dance to me.

She has always been fond of ripping up magazines and catalogs and any other junk mail that arrives by post just for her only now, she hands me the little pieces she has torn with her pincer grasp and when I take them from her and say thank you, she sits back on her haunches and claps at my achievement. She also likes it when I give the pieces back to her and she very happily welcomes them back into the crumpled reservoir she is safeguarding in her hands.

But this has also been a month of goodbyes for us. Gone are the cheery, old-fashioned standbys like peek-a-boo and hide and seek. She has figured out that you do not disappear when you leave her sight so it’s not fun to watch you reappear either. Now, the only way to get a laugh is to scare the crap out of her. She just squeals in delight when you pop out from behind furniture unexpectedly and she even prefers it if you do it while making scary animal noises. It’s apparently great fun to be scared like that and I think I have a horror-flick aficionado in the making.

In any case, she’s only a few days into her ninth month and I already feel like she’s leaving me in the dust. Our baby games are boring her. Her soft toys are left uncuddled in their baskets. People and animals are finally gaining ground. And that means I’ve got to get some new ideas for what to do with her all day. My background as an only child is definitely starting to show and my poor kid is suffering from boredom after only 9 months with me! If you’ve got any suggestions, I’d love to hear them and she would too!