10 months

I try to take pictures of Kirsten the day she turns another month old...to celebrate the adorable life she lives. She turned 10 months on Sunday. But between adjusting to 1:00 church and well that's the only reason we postponed pictures until yesterday. We had quite the photo shoot with my active 10 month old. She is climbing and crawling and doesn't hold still for a minute. My camera is on its last leg...making the pictures even harder to get. But these are what we have of the little munchkin.

I wish someone would have warned me that babies change the most between 9 and 10 months. Kirsten has gone from a baby to a toddler. She's everywhere, she understands what we are saying, she is being disciplined (for crawling to the stairs mostly), she eats a normal dinner with us, she is just growing up. I've realized that shes not always going to be my baby. She's going to walk, talk, go to school, become a teenager...it's all going to happen someday.
(small tear)
But these are the cute stories we have to share with you this month:

• Kirsten has began nodding her head...it's the cutest darn thing. After returning from Vernal we headed to walmart and were on our way home, it had been a long day and Kirsten was ready for dinner and bed. I asked her if she wanted applesauce and she started nodding her head like crazy for like 30 seconds. Lets just say she got a generous portion of applesauce that night.
• We stayed with Tom and Karen over the Christmas holiday. Kirsten is working on some serious teeth and hasn't been sleeping well. This particular night we had each been up a couple times with her when she started to cry at 7 am. I nudged Kirk and he nudged me, both wanting the other to go get her. Finally I just said "Kirsten" (she was in the next room btw) and she yelled back "MaMa". It was the cutest thing and I jumped up to go grab her. Kirk said "I'm glad she hasn't learned Dada" and I said "I'll take it!"
• The other day we went to the bank drive through and were waiting in a really long line. Kirk kept sticking his tongue out at Kirsten and she would stick hers back at him, I would turn around to look just in time for her to hide her tounge back in her mouth then start giggling. She played this little game 5 or 6 times before she finally gave up and let me see her tongue.
• Sunday during Sacrament meeting we were singing the opening song and I was holding Kirsten. Suddenly Kirsten looks right at me, pushes my hair out of my face, and planted a great big kiss right on my lips....and left them there until I pulled away. It was the first kiss I have ever gotten from her and it just melted my heart!
• Driving back from Garretts farewell, Kirsten had a hard time. She only slept for about half hour and just whined the rest of the way. I did my best to occupy her while Kirk drove through the blizzard. We get to Heber, stop and make her a bottle, feed her and continue driving while she cries in the back seat. Finally, I turn on the radio to drown her out and some rock song comes on. Immediately Kirsten stops crying and was asleep 2 minutes later. I called Amanda right away to let her know I had a daughter just like her.
• When Kirk gets her out of her crib in the mornings she waves her hands until she sees me. She's turned into quite the mama's girl.
• Over the winter break we have been bringing her into our room to snuggle when she wakes up. One morning she bumped her head on our head board. She got kinda teary eyed until Kirk bumped his head too...then it was all giggles from there as her and Kirk took turns bumping their heads on the head board.

We love you Kirsten!