10 months

As of last week, Amber is 10 months old. TEN? My baby! As usual, I made a few amateur attempts at taking pictures of her. And as usual, I made a few comparison collages of my three sweet faces. But first, the Amber-update: she's a dream baby! Perfectly squishy, toothy, smiley, and darling. She sleeps all night. She crawls all over the place at high speeds and pulls up to stand on everything in sight--even my legs while I'm working in the kitchen! She loves exploring the house and following Jay and Rose around. Jeff and I think she is our squirmiest baby yet. Diaper changes are epic wrestling matches. She stopped finishing her bottles two weeks ago so now she only drinks a big bottle in the morning and then has formula in a cup with lunch and dinner. She weighs 20 pounds and is 28.5 inches tall. And the biggest news of the month: she wore her first ponytail!!!!

Comparisons:

Her first ponytail, complete with a small bow. She rips them out a lot now, so she constantly has a mohawk.

The mohawk look gets me every time.

 Rose put her in a bucket one day and said "look, Mommy, I made Amber a little playhouse!"

Have I mentioned the perfect little curl at the back of her head? FAVORITE.

 I always drool over professional photographs of other people's kids, babies, and families. I always wonder if I'll ever go that route. Probably not, sadly. I'd rather buy disposable diapers than pay for someone else to take pictures for me. Allocation of funds and all. But I'll still drool and dream and try to get a good picture every now and then!

SMOOTHIE FOR DINNER!

 In hopes of getting some more natural-looking pictures, I let Amber out on the porch on Saturday evening. She was in heaven. Jeff replaced the old splintery rickety wood on the porch this summer with new solid lumber. It seems like a small project but it was a big deal for us non-handy-folks to do it without help. Jeff borrowed a circular saw and let the sawdust fly. It still needs paint, but it's solid! Amber appreciated his efforts immensely.

She was watching Jay and Rose jump on the trampoline.

Excited face! Clapping hands!

Moments when she'll lay on me without wriggling away are few and far between.

True to form, after all those photo shoots, my favorite picture of Amber this month was taken on my cell phone during a rowdy pre-bedtime pajama party on my bed. Her pajamas say "Wildly Cute" on them. That about sums our Ambaby up!