Ten Months of Taryn!

Taryn is 10 months old today! Seeing previous blogs of Aubrey when she was about this age, I figured I'd better do a blog entry for Taryn and all that she's been up to. Here are some of our favorite pictures showing what we love about Taryn and what she's learned over the past 6 months or so.

I had to get a picture of Taryn with her fingers. She has continued the tradition of a completely different self-soothing approach than all the other girls. No pacifier or thumb for Taryn, but two fingers. It was three when she was really little until her fingers got too big and then she went down to two and has kept that up. She usually covers her fingers with her other hand, so getting an actual picture of the fingers in her mouth was quite the accomplishment. With the help of the Bumbo, Taryn began sitting up on her own quite early and was really good at it. I love this picture as well because you can see the difference once she lost all her newborn hair. She went bald for a bit after all her dry scalp patches would take big chunks of hair anytime we cleaned her head. I was sad to see all that dark hair go, but once it was gone you could actually see all her new "big girl" hair growing in.

I tried really hard to get a picture outside of Taryn closeup so we could see her beautiful brown eyes, but she wouldn't ever look right at me, but I at least caught her smiling which was sometimes hard to catch with the camera and its bright flash that was so distracting. And here is Taryn in her first Easter dress, with the adorable huge flower headband.

Taryn began eating baby cereal right around 6 months old. She loved it, of course, once she figured out how to get it in her mouth. I love these first pictures of the girls in the highchair because they just look so tiny.

Another attempt at getting a good picture outside. I was holding Taryn and putting the camera around and in front of her so she kept trying to grab it, which is why we have the waving look.

During Spring Break at Tyler's apartment in College Station, Taryn had her first swing ride at the park. As you can see, she loved it! I had to put her in with Aubrey just to keep her upright because she was so little in that big bucket seat. She also loved the hotel that we stayed in and the purple bed. She's really good at sitting up on her own now.

The girls love to play with Taryn like she's their very own doll. They begged me to take a picture of Taryn after giving her a princess crown. During the summer, Taryn went swimming for the very first time. She liked it okay - it was still pretty cold. Once she was in the water though, she didn't mind it too much.

While living at Grandma and Grandpa's house, Taryn slept in the pack and play. If you laid her down in the bed, she immediately started to cry, but if you sat her up she loved it and was very happy as long as she could reach her piano toy.

While vacationing in Utah, Taryn found a pretty interesting teething toy. It was cold and squishy and yummy. Too bad Dad took it away after she dropped it on the ground outside. It was a good idea while it lasted. We also took some time trying to get a picture of Taryn's first tooth, which came right around 8 months. This was the best we could get, so if you look really closely, you can see her first tooth on the bottom.

The pillow pets were a good distraction while unpacking in our new home in El Paso. The girls wanted this picture in the blog because they liked the fact that her hand is blurry, showing that she was waving at the time the picture of was taken.

Around 9 months, Taryn started on her first finger foods with some teething biscuits. They didn't last long once she figured out that they weren't that tasty. She spent most of her time throwing them overboard and watching them break into tiny pieces. She much prefers those puffs and cheerios for snack time.

Taryn has been slower than the other girls when it comes to crawling and pulling herself up on things. She still has yet to do either. We finally started standing her up by the ottoman or couch and she'll stand there until she gets bored and then plop back down on the floor. She has no desire to move along the couch or anything yet, which is fine. I want this baby stuff to last as long as possible. Like I said she isn't crawling yet, but she does know how to get around. She kind of scoots and army crawls and rolls to get where she wants, but never on her hands and knees. My other kids usually did this as well - just going from an army-type crawl straight to walking. Regular crawling was never a long part of their growth milestones.

And finally a picture from today on her 10-month birthday. She loves her toys especially anything that makes music or that she can open and close with her hand. She has just started clapping for herself whenever we cheer her on and her 3rd tooth has finally made an appearance. She loves to see the pictures of each of the girls in their blessing dresses as we walk down the stairs. She talks to them every time we pass. She smiles whenever she sees any of her sisters and will talk contentedly to mom or dad or whoever will listen to her jabber. She's adorable and we can't get enough of her.

We love our little miss Taryn!!