The girls are 10 months old today. It was a miserable rainy day so I didn’t get the camera out until the end of the day only to discover the charger has gone missing. I will post pictures as soon as I find it. Here’s the update:

Teeth:
Emma still only has 6 teeth but they are very noticeable now. She has bitten me a few times now but she doesn’t realize she’s doing it. Leah got another tooth on the bottom. They’ve both been a bit fussy with teething this month. It’s easy to tell when they’re teething because they get really bad diaper rash.

Hair:
They both seem to be getting some more hair. Emma’s hair is very fair and Leah’s is light brown. It still looking like it’s going to be curly….

Sleep:
We had some rough nights this month. Luckily they take turns so it is not too bad. Overall I would say this month Leah has been a better sleeper than Emma. Their bedtime was 7pm but with the clocks changing we are trying to keep it closer to 8pm. We’ll see how long that lasts. They get up around 7am. They are doing very well lately at napping together which makes up for the bad nights.

Getting around:
They have both mastered the commando crawl. They get up on their hands and knees when they want something but they don’t crawl properly. I’m not sure that they ever will. Emma can go from a sitting position into the crawling position (what her exercises were for) and she has just figured out how to sit up by herself. She can also pull herself up if you give her your hands. She is very strong. Leah is sitting by herself no problem but she would still rather be crawling around. Leah is also starting to support her weight when you stand her up - before she would just let her legs dangle. They are both obsessed with the door stoppers (they have broken two) and Jackson’s food.

Food:
We have moved down to three bottles a day and three meals. We are making slow progress with chunkier food. They’ll eat it but somedays it can be a fight. My mom sent us some Gerber Puffs (they don’t sell them in Canada) and Emma really likes them. Leah will eat them every once in awhile. They started on yogurt and they really like it. I’m not as diligent with the sippy cups as I should be but they are getting better. They get water in them so that might be part of the problem but I am not giving them juice.

Talking:
They are still not saying any specific words but their vocabulary is expanding. They are currently in the mummummum phase. It’s funny how they get stuck on a sound until they work it out and then it gets filed away when they move on. We still hear all the old ba da ma favourites but for the most part it’s mum. They are expressing themselves a lot more and they are very rarely quiet. They have even started babbling to each other more. Emma shakes her head when she sees the chunky food coming but I’m trying to ignore it! Leah seems to be over her screaming phase for the most part. Oh boy was that good news.

Personalities:
Leah is still miss social. When we are out and about she smiles at all her admirers. They even get the occasional laugh. She is very curious and likes to gently examine new things. She is a pretty happy little girl and she loves to talk and laugh to anyone who will listen. Although you wouldn’t know it to look at her, Leah loves her food. She is a very good eater - so good that she rarely makes a mess.

Emma continues to be more reserved but she is getting better. While she doesn’t give out smiles for free she is getting better at not crying when she meets new people. She is still content to play by herself but if she gets hungry or tired she’ll let you know in a hurry. When we’re at home and everything is good in her little world she is a very happy girl. She loves to laugh and squeal when she’s excited. She is very determined in everything she does and she is not at all gentle. Emma loves her bottles but can be a challenge to feed sometimes. It’s very rare for Emma to finish a meal without having some food in her ears.

The girls are really starting to interact with each other. I’ll leave them in their room playing and soon enough a baby will pop out looking for me. It’s never very long before I get a second baby squealing with excitement because she’s found her long lost mom! They follow each other around and try and play with the same toys. They are very good about sharing - they just pull the toys back and forth and there are no tears. Wouldn’t it be nice if they always played nicely- yeah right! They still like their Baby Einstein although I don’t seem to need it as much anymore because they love just crawling around the condo and exploring. There are a few things that will stop them in their tracks - the final Jeopardy music, the Walmart commercial with the music that sounds like Baby Einstein and the latest Zellers commercial come to mind.

As they get more mobile and interested in what we are doing the condo is starting to feel very small. It will be nice to move and have the space. For now we are planning on putting both cribs in the same room but I think we’ll end up with the playpen in one of the spare rooms for those nights when one of them won’t settle. All those ideas about letting them cry it out and settle themselves get tossed out the window in a hurry when there’s the possiblity of having two screaming babies.