Aydin at Ten Months

Aydin at ten months is a joy to behold. After beginning to crawl one week ago Friday, she has become quite interested in exploring the physical world. Brass door hinges, knots on the hardwood floor, and (as always) Kitty equally enthrall her. Crawling is still a means to an end, such as retrieving a car toy as it rolls away. We're sure it's just a matter of days, though, before she really gets moving. She's already getting pretty fast, especially when we're playing on the bed and she spies something out of reach.


Lately she has started crawling with one foot on the ground, that knee sticking up the air. It looks awkward but whatever gets you there, right? The urge to stand seems to be getting stronger by the day: she is most eager to crawl when she spies something she might be able to pull up with. We don't have too many objects conducive to pulling up, though, so I try to help her by holding out my hands for her to pull on.

The crib rails are of course her favorite pull-up bars. Usually she grabs on and shakes the rail, making one of her characteristic growl noises, her hair flopping around. So much for the "quiet windd0wn" activities we used to do in her crib before napping!

Mealtimes have become strange explorations into the world of "bigger bites." Aydin has zero interest in all the yummy purees her mother has painstakingly prepared for her, choosing instead to subsist almost entirely on a diet of Oatios (the health food store version of Cheerios, chosen for its whole grain goodness). Bananas? Spurned 'em. Sweet potatoes? Gross. Delicious apples, peaches, plums, apricots, papayas (you get the pictures)? Heck no. If there was ever any indication that Aydin's turning into a little girl, her eating habits are IT. She was a fan of pasta for about three days. Now it's pasta no more! I gave her some turnip greens out of morbid curiosity and she actually ate them. Once.


Avocado had been rejected but has now been welcomed back, if only for a day or two. It's tough going for us since we can't feed her dairy or eggs. We had really been banking on the ease and convenience (not to mention deliciousness & protein-richness) of ricotta and scrambled eggs. We're steering clear of soy products for now, too, since it's almost a guarantee she'll be allergic to that too. So, for now, we're sticking with the old saying that "until they're one, food is for fun," just throwing everything (not just the spaghetti) against the wall to see what'll stick!

As for activities, we're surprised to see that after three months, she's still really into her animal puzzle board and can recognize the cat if you ask her to point out the Kitty (she responds to the question in English and in Turkish). She is also a huge fan of her books, often crawling to them deliberately and picking out ones for me to read to her. She likes turning the pages and always smiles at human faces. We are obviously delighted by her love of reading, if not a little baffled as to how to put the bedtime story into regular rotation without getting her too wound up: when Ozan reads to her at night she practically goes bonkers, climbing the crib rail to try to grab the book out of his hand! Sometimes we read Goodnight Moon or Madeline, but usually we read her one of the Turkish books we picked up last summer in Izmir. Ozan obviously does a much better job with the Turkish books than I do, but they're good for me to read too. I really want to get her the Beatrix Potter series, since she always likes to wave at the illustration of Squirrel Nutkin hanging on her bedroom wall after we're done nursing. (In perhaps some weird nod to the current times, it is an image of SN pulling up to the pump for some black gold.)


This is a long post, so we'll just end with a short clip of Aydin getting excited during dinner last night. (I had been making her laugh with high-pitched sounds... until we tried to tape it. When she saw the camera she opted for... bigger gestures.) Wave your hands in the air!