10 months

This past week has not been my favorite. It has been full of whining, screaming, crying, and other terrible behavior. Ella has started throwing tantrums at 10 months! She goes limp and then arches her back until I put her down so she can roll around while screaming at the top of her lungs. It is awful. I thought this started at around two?! I keep trying to tell myself that she is teething in hopes that this behavior won't last long, but there are no real signs of that. I think she is just being extra dramatic. What am I supposed to do? The worst part is that she really only does this when I'm around. Yolanda acted so surprised and just asked, "What is she doing?" when I went to pick Ella up on Thursday and she started throwing a fit while rolling around in Yolanda's living room. Gustavo always says Ella is great until she sees me. What thanks for all that I do for her!

Fortunately she isn't always acting like this. Sometimes she is really adorable. She still LOVES music and dances almost every time she hears it. This past week Ella has started to try more things. Instead of clenching her jaw and sucking in her lips when I offer her food, she has been at least putting it in her mouth before spitting it out. Yes, she is extremely picky. A few days this week she has actually eaten the introduced food. Here is a list of the things we have been successful with at least once in the past 2 months: boiled egg yolk, cheddar cheese, beans, corn, pears, carrots, wheat bread (not white bread though), dry cereal, pasta, peas, apple sauce, all types of treats including peppermint and swedish fish (she would try the candy, but not the diced tomatoes that looked identical to it- how does she know?). A lot of these foods have only been eaten once although they have been introduced a dozen times. She is so incredibly picky, but these last few days she has tried a lot more so I have hope that she'll continue to expand her pallet and become a healthy eater one day. Ella has also become a lot more interested in moving. The last few months she has been pulling herself around by army crawling. A few weeks ago she started adding a few traditional movements in with the army crawling, but this weekend she has been crawling around! She is trying to pull herself up on furniture, but can only get on her knees by herself. She loves to stand up and has a bit of a bruise on her eye from falling down while holding on to her changing table the other night. Yesterday she figured out how to get into a sitting position all by herself. It is exciting to watch her grow and develop even though I know with this new freedom to move comes a lot more potential for trouble!