Sweet & Spicy

These are the best words I can think of to describe Nell right now. She is such a fun girl and just turned 10 months old! I am waaay behind on travel and Christmas blog posts but I wanted to ignore those for now and do a little something on this little girl.

Nell is a super cuddly baby. It melts my heart. I wouldn't say she is anti-social but she often buries her head in my shoulder when others talk to her. Then she'll look up to steal a glance at them when she thinks they are no longer paying attention to her. She clearly thinks she's pretty clever.

And while it's true she is super sweet...that sweetness is mixed with equal parts zest. I think it is pretty obvious in the expressions below. Her reactions are filled with emotion. She has quickly learned what it takes to get her say around here and that usually includes a loud voice. Passionate is the word Devin has often used. Somehow I remember this same word being used to describe Clara and Jonas so it seems as though our children have some striking similarities. Somehow I get the finger pointed at me when we discuss where this characteristic came from??

Nell is understanding more of what we say now. It is exciting to watch her learn. Some of her recent accomplishments are:

• She'll start clapping when you say 'clap' or when you start singing pat-a-cake.
• She'll break into an adorable wiggle when you say wiggle or when fun music comes on.
• She likes playing "Bonkers" where she softly bonks her heard into her opponents head, not surprisingly introduced by her Grandpa Morris.
• She loves any food we are eating - but still abhors baby food so we've stopped trying. Now she eats what we do and is very happy with that, not to mention she is great at feeding herself finger foods. Prunes are a favorite...

• She can easily get into a sitting position from laying down and is starting to army crawl to get things out of reach.
• She likes to test the boundaries of her balance. She'll lift her legs up off the ground and lean backwards like she is going to fall and then just before tipping completely she'll flop her legs back on the ground. She repeats this often. I think it is pretty cute to watch unless she is in the bathtub and then it makes me very nervous - too bad it is her favorite place to try out her tricks. It keeps me on my toes.
• She adores her brother and sister and gets very excited to see them. She has figured out already what makes them laugh and continues to do things when encouraged by this laughter.
• She will sometimes wave bye-bye when prompted. And sometimes she won't.
• When asked for a kiss, she gives a great one. She can smack her lips quite loudly and enjoys when Jonas and Clara join in. It was this noise that I awoke to one morning recently. She was in her bed making this kissing sound and it woke me up on the baby monitor. Probably one of the best noises of all time to wake up to. If only I could have that as an alarm every morning.
• She was recently weighed and is now 17 pounds 12 ounces and is 27.8 inches long (assuming my centimeter-to-inches calculator is accurate).
• She has two little teeth that just popped in.
• She's fine being held by others, unless her mum is within view. Definitely a Mama's Girl.
• Her hair? Spiky as ever.

Here she is when I walked away for a minute to get the diaper bag ready to go. She thought it would be helpful to get out some wipes for me so I could refill my portable wipes dispenser. What a thoughtful girl!

It is obvious that Nell fits right in to our family. Like with all children, it is impossible to imagine life without her. Her personality is lively and the only complaint I have is that time is going too quickly.