Around her tenth month mark Afton got really sick with an ear infection. It was the busiest week for both Pete and I (finals, dance concerts, YM/YW respinsibilites, and work events). Afton was acting so grumpy and we thought perhaps it was just teething but she was totally miserable and teething had never affected her that much. Luckily Afton has a very wise and caring grandpa who was willing to take her in to his doctor's office during my work party late at night. If it hadn't been for grandpa Pete, we would have certainly spent a night at the ER or Instacare! Once she got an antibiotic she was on the mend. However, with crazy holiday schedules she didn't get as good of sleep as she should have and she has had a runny nose for weeks and now has a bit of a cough. I feel like a terrible mom sometimes but sadly life can't just stop for days and I can't keep her totally isolated. Especially around the holidays when we have plans with family and a billion other things to get done. She is a trooper. But somehow I think all her changing started with these bouts of sickness.
She has starting moving more. I wouldn't quite call it full on crawling nor is it an army crawl because she gets her knees under her but she kind of scoots around like a snail to get what she wants.
Afton has 3 teeth on top now. The two main ones are hilariously large. One of the top teeth is about the size of her two little bottom ones put together! They don't show past her lip just yet, but when they do she will be a site to see! We often pull her lip up just to see those humongous chompers.
Afton loves getting undressed at night. We can usually get her best giggles out at that time. She kicks her legs and laughs and squeals when we take off her clothes and put her in her jammies.
Afton has mastered waving hi and bye. It's really cute. She also claps if you shout "yay!" Most of the time she will shake her hands if we ask her "all done?" (Which is her own little form of the actual sign language.) It is the one we have worked on the most. So I should probably get more consistent about doing other signs as well because he picked it up pretty fast.
Afton is really good at mimicking tones. I can't get her to say the mm sound for mama but if I do it over and over in a particular tone she will mimic that tone. She does, however, say "mmm" after a bit of food. I think she got that from me because after I feed her bites of food I say "mmm" trying to entice her to eat more -- she loses interested in food really fast and it will often take her 45 minutes to eat just a little bit.
Whenever she sees a dog, a picture of a horse, or a picture of a monkey in her books she will make a little excited sound that sounds similar to a bark/neigh or some animal sound. I am working on an elephant and bear sound with her since we read about them in her Noah's Ark book.
I think Afton loves to be part of a joke. She sometimes laughs socially when she realizes others are laughing and having fun. Also, I am not sure if she picked it up from the way we read to her but whenever we read Afton The Napping House, she turns the first pages quickly until you get the the part where the mouse scares the cat and the cat claws the dog and she smiles and laughs. She thinks that part is funny every time!
Last of all, Afton is very social. Sometimes she will be grumpy at home and I worry about taking her out to something I have, but everytime we get out of the house and around people she is happy. If she feels part of the group she is happy. I think she has always been this way but the more she is able to interact, the more prominent her social personality becomes. Last night we took her to a basketball game at the high school so I could support one of my young women--Afton clapped and cheered and completely enjoyed the loud atmosphere!
We love our Afty Lou and can't believe she is coming up on one year!!
What a special little girl you have!! Such a cutie! Love you and miss you all.
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