10 months

At ten months, Mercy:

has developed two freckles--one in the corner of her eye and one on her forehead. I had a million freckles as a kid, so I wonder if that's in her future, too.

you can sort of make out the one in the corner of her eye

started to wear some shoes this month. They have pandas on them :) Her foot was measured at Payless as a size three, but it turns out size three is way too big for her. She has tiny feet. Her panda shoes say that they're for babies 0-6 months old.

panda shoes

got her first teeth (bottom two). I'm glad the top teeth are still absent because I just love seeing her gums when she smiles.

in addition to other body parts from last month, she knows where her thigh and head are if you ask her.

she will also dance if you ask her to, which involves clasping her hands in front of her body and moving them back and forth likes she's stirring something.

gives hugs.

knows what an elephant says.

is beginning to tolerate being in a stroller. She didn't like strolling for many months, so I would usually just carry her everywhere or wear her in the ergo. I would try once in a while to put her in the stroller, and as soon as we got to the farthest point we were going to go from the house, she would start wailing, and I would have to take her out and carry her the rest of the way while pushing the stroller, which was exhausting. Now she'll sit in it for a long while before she gets tired.

can say a few words: ball (bah), baby (bah bah), hi (HI!!!!!) and sometimes light (na, sometimes la)

is not napping well anymore. I think it's because she's sick with colds/ear infections all the time combined with teething, but it takes her sometimes 1.5 hours to fall asleep and she fights it hard.

 is starting to get lazy with learning to walk. She has a firetruck toy that she can push to help her learn to walk, and she'll take two steps and then just plop down on her butt to sit down. She doesn't seem as motivated to walk as she did last month.

at the park with Grandma (before she lost motivation to walk)

 's favorite foods are cheese, pizza, pineapples, oranges, avocado, yogurt and hummus. Oh, and ice cream, but that's a rare treat.

still nurses about 4/5 times a day. Sometimes she nurses at night if she's sick and needs comforting (which happens a lot because she's sick often).


tries to feed herself with a spoon. She usually gets most of it in her mouth, but of course, it is a messy endeavor.

takes stuff out of her mouth to inspect it and then puts it back in to finish chewing it.

going down the slide with Grandpa

at the duck race

Mercy loves riding on Daddy's shoulders

 loves to play in the grass.

passionately loves to watch other kids and tries to get their attention by waving and saying 'hi' really loudly. It's so sad when she's not acknowledged because she is trying so hard.


is losing her chubbiness. She's pretty lean these days. Her legs still have a few small rolls on them thankfully, and her cheeks are still squeezable, but she's officially not chubby anymore.

never sits still. She's pretty exhausting and I have to watch her every second. She never, ever, ever relaxes, except if she's sleeping. I don't know how anyone can do that.

started having some stranger anxiety. She often gets upset/scared if I leave the room and sometimes starts screaming.

the usual--mouthful of cheerios

hanging out to dry with her diapers