10 Months or Should I Just Say "Old"?

From now on, when people ask me how old Meili is, I will say, "I stopped keeping track at double digits. She's just old now." That's how I feel. She's giant! But I will say, that every month I think she is my favorite so far, and it was no different this month. Even though sometimes I want to rip my hair out because she is all over the place all the time, it is so fun to see all the new things she has learned.We went to the Box Elder and Cache County Fairs this month, and this was the only picture we got. I liked the fairs more this year than I have in the past because it was fun to show Meili all the animals. Yet, still nothing compares with how excited she gets when she sees dogs.
Meili loves the stairs! She would be perfectly content climbing up them all day, and she has a new, very distinct cry for when we put a gate at the bottom of the stairs. She learned how to climb the stairs while I was running my relay, and now Josh is banned from being alone with her without me because he teaches her new things and she's getting too big too fast!

Just had to add this. Look at those beautiful eyes and eye lashes!

We've been trying to get a picture of her bear crawl, cause it's so funny, but this is the best we've got.

August was a good month for us. When we went to Meili's 9 month dr's appointment, I talked to the doctor about Meili's napping routine. I said, "Right now, to get her to take a nap, I have to swaddle her, and rock her to sleep." And I told him how we've tried crying it out, and other things, and it just wasn't working. The doctor looked at me and said, "Yeah, but can you imagine swaddling and rocking an eighteen month old?" I know, exactly what I was worried about. So the doctor said that we had to let her cry it out. He said, "Pick the 2 hours that she is going to take a nap, and make sure she's showing signs that she's tired. Then read to her or listen to music, to settle her down, and then let her cry. And if she cries for 2 hours, that's her choice." Ugh. I felt awful, and I definitely hoped that she would not choose to cry for 2 hours. But I was determined, and set out again to fix her napping routine. I have been really consistent. The first nap, she cried for like 45 minutes, but ever since then, it is usually less than 15 minutes. (Even though she still does cry, and it still breaks my heart everytime.) But it has made life in our house much happier. Even the babysitter said how much she loves it.

The other REALLY, extra good news...We scheduled an appointment with an eye doctor to look at Meili's tear duct. Our pediatrician explained that they would probably put a little balloon at the bottom of her duct, and then just inflate it a little, and normally that fixes the problem. He said some people have to get tubes put in. So at the beginning of August, we scheduled the appt. for August 31st. Then she never had a problem with her tear duct. So we cancelled the appt. I hope that it's fixed itself, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

One last tid bit of information, not related to Meili. We also had a family reunion this month with my mom's family in Oxford, Idaho. It was really fun to be all together again, and see how everyone's family has changed (because we don't see each other as often as we used to.) I didn't take any pictures, but I wanted to at least remember that it happened.