Maya at 10 months

Maya is 10 months old! 

Maya traipsing around West Coast Park

Time flies. For the stats, Maya is 7.5kg and 68.5cm at 10 months! Small but strong (or "petite mais costaud" as the French would say). That puts her at about the 15th percentile for height and weight (according to the WHO breastfed babies chart). 

For this post, I will repeat the likes and dislikes that Maya still likes/dislikes since we last posted a "Maya at" post when she was 8 months old (see Maya at 8 months) but not the "Maya can" she could do at 8 months. 

At 10 months Maya LIKES:

• Her big brother - her face lights up when she sees him;
• Eating what we are eating regardless of how spicy or strange our food is;
• Her musical tables;
• Walking, walking, walking and more walking;
• Climbing or trying to climb up and down stairs on two feet;
• Making piles (of books or toys) and using them to climb on top of furniture or out of her pen;
• Making silly faces, fake coughing and laughing with us;
• Lhasa the cat - she likes chasing Lhasa and feeding Lhasa every night often signing "cat" and the "food";
• Duplos - she can often be seen walking around playgrounds or below our apartment holding a duplo, dropping it, picking it up, kicking it and going after it;
• Playing hide-and-seek - she gets so excited when she sees Noah  or Maman "hiding" she tries to runs (which sometimes leads to tripping);
• Guantanamera sung by Joan Baez - we used to use this piece for all her naps - we still do at times but not systematically;
• Her milk and snuggling up to maman while drinking;
• Tummy tickles and raspberries;
• Somersaults whether in the air or on the ground, backwards or forwards - she lunges forward tucking her head in to let us know she wants to do a somersault;
• Food - although she is pretty tiny, she surprised us when we started solids - she eats everything we have given her so far, cauliflower, broccoli, garlicky lentils, celery, chickpeas, red peppers, dragon fruit, sour mango, spicy thai green curry... she will SHRIEK if the food is finished but she is still hungry and then wildly sign "food" "food";
• Maman - although Maya is happy with Daddy and a select group of people, she is still very much into her Maman;
• Music - she loves listening to music and jumps about and "dances" to the beat - she also loves to make music either by banging things together or tapping a beat on the table or "singing" (it really sounds like she is humming the beginning of jingle bells);
• Pictures - she likes looking at pictures of the family - especially Noah but also her grandparents and aunts and uncles;
• Sucking her thumb - although she does suck her thumb less than before it is still a big source of comfort;
• Her doudous (loveys in English I think), she has a rabbit and a horse that live in bed and that she likes to hold when falling asleep and a smaller rabbit attached to her stroller that she also holds when sleeping in the stroller (if these are not present though she will happily use a burp cloth);
• Putting things on her head or having us put things on our heads as "hats" and making the hat sign;
• Balls - Maya loves throwing, kicking, holding balls of all sorts (little light plastic balls, plush balls, o-balls....);
• Playing with her brother's toys and stuff; and
• Attention - Maya's face lights up when people in the street look and smile at her.

At 10 months, Maya CAN:

• Walk pretty stably (she still has some trouble with obstacles like a book on the floor or shoe or toy and although she can walk pretty well, she still can't really crawl!);
• Walk down a little step without losing her balance most of the time;
• Stand up (from lying down/sitting position) on her own (she was able to do this 2 days after her 10th month birthday);
• Lean over and pick up objects on the floor without losing her balance;
• Walk up and down hills without holding our hand;
• Magically make a leaf appear in her mouth, from no where (this talent seems to involve palming a leaf when you aren't looking, demonstrating that the leaf has vanished, and then mysteriously revealing it in her mouth at a later time);
• Find the one dangerous thing in her environment, e.g., pulling a small piece of paper out of a big pile of toys, which she then proceeds to try to eat, or ignoring all the stuffed animals for the toy scissors left on the table;
• Seemingly methodically tackle one challenge after another (she decides somehow that it is time to learn now to walk up and down a hill on her own and does it repeatedly till she makes it up and down - she gets flustered along the way but sticks to it; she also did that with little steps and standing up on her own and standing up on her own on a hill (she figured out that when facing down she falls so she would face sideways);
• Do 16 signs (bye bye, cat, eat, more, water, up, hot, milk, maman, dada, yes, bravo, bath, book, walk and hat) though she does not always use them - preferring sometimes to signal her desires in other ways (for example, shrieking or stroking my breast when she wants her milk) but she is generally very good at communicating what it is she wants;
• Make "mamama", "dadadadada", "lalalalala" sounds (most of the time she is not trying to actually say Maman or Dada to mean us though there have been a few instances where she might have used them appropriately). 
• Make a "eh" sound possibly for "lait" (milk) - she has done this a few times when I have said you want your "lait" and she says "ait (or eh)";
• Shriek at an ear piercing decibel level when frustrated, bored, upset or happy (we had mentioned this in her 8 months post hoping it would be a short-lived phase... well the phase has still not ended though I think it is maybe slightly better);
• Play in her bed alone after waking up;
• Feed herself rice and small pieces of food;
• Eat cut up pieces of mushy food without gagging or chocking;
• Fall asleep easily for naps and bedtime; 
• Sleep despite loud noises and much activity; and
• Sleep through the night every night.

At 10 months Maya DISLIKES:

• Being tired;
• Not being able to do something she would like to do (like figure out how a toy works or how to open something or climb onto something);
• Not having the amount of food she would like (mostly that means not having our food) or food when she would like it;
• When we take a "toy" away from her (pieces of paper, leaves, electric wires...);
• Being in a car;
• Sleeping for long periods when out and about (e.g., in a stroller or carrier); short naps are just fine, though;
• When she wants to do something on how own and does not get to (like walking down a steep hill without holding my hand or climbing down steps or eating);
• When we don't pay enough attention to her; and
• When maman is not at least 85% focused on her

Overall, Maya remains an adorable and very determined little girl with a powerful voice, a great smile, and a budding sense of humor.