The biggest change this past month has been walking. She walks, almost exclusively. The only time I see her crawl is if she is completely exhausted, or if she is trying to get to a toy that is just a few feet away. Otherwise, it's walk, walk, walk!! And, I wouldn't say she's running yet, but sometimes it appears that she's trotting or something! It's funny to hear her little feet patter on the floor! :) Her balance has improved and she no longer needs to walk with her hands out to stay steady. In fact, she'd rather carry something in each hand and something in her mouth! Silly girl. She also learned this past month to stand up by herself (like in the middle of the room). Previously she needed a toy or a person or a wall or a piece of furniture to help her stand!
She has starting dancing to music if she hears it on tv, or from one of her toys. It's subtle, but she starts shaking her little bootie, or swaying, or bouncing her head! It is super-cute to watch!
She waves hello and goodbye all the time now! It's a floppy wrist action, which is funny to see, but she definitely knows to do it when we are coming and going! It's fun! I should say that she usually waves in response to us showing her how to wave.... she doesn't necessarily do it all by herself. We say, "Can you say goodbye?" and wave, and then she joins in! Sometimes she does it all on her own, but not always!
We are also trying to teach her "High-5". Sometimes she gets it, sometimes not so much! :)
My can she climb. Still can't climb down anything, though! She is so cute when she climbs the couches. She knows I'm watching her, so when she gets all the way up, she turns, gets this devious look and starts laughing because she knows I'm coming in to swoop her off! It's quite precious, really. But TROUBLE!! She has started showing an interest in climbing up the baby gates too. I figure it's only a matter of time before I walk into her room and she is standing outside of her crib. I'm hoping it's not for many, many months... but I'm certain she will be one of those kids who figures out how to do that.
Her sleeping habits are changing rapidly. Just when I'm down to some sort of rhythm she goes and changes things on us!! She is now sleeping more like 10 hours at night (used to be 11), but she is napping quite a bit longer than her normal 30 mins naps. Sometimes I get two 1.5 hour naps out of her! And then, well, sometimes not. I suppose she's still averaging about the same amount of sleep (12-13 hours), but it's in different spurts. I'm actually quite happy with this arrangement, although I wish she'd sleep longer at nights. I have no problem with her getting up at 8, that's perfect. But I'd really like for her to go to bed earlier than her 9:30-10ish bedtime of late. However, not at the expense of her getting up earlier in the morning! We'll see. We are out at Bible Study every Tuesday, and have soccer every Thursday, and are often out with friends on the weekends, so it would be hard to put her down earlier and be consistent about it.... unless we wanted to give up some of those activities (which we don't). And it's not like she is out of sorts at 9.... she is happy as a clam. So, we'll see what happens with that.
Looks comfy, huh?!
At our last Dr apt (10.5 months), our doctor challenged me to shake up how I'd been doing her nursing/solids feedings. I really like our doctor. He gives advice that you typically don't expect doctors to give (we got a lesson on discipline too!), and for the most-part I really appreciate it. He says it in a very non-threatening way... and bases it on his 25+ years of experience and what he sees that works and doesn't work. And he wasn't giving this advice after I told him how I was doing things (and therefore saying I should be doing them his way instead), but rather just as a general "note". Anyway, I had previously been alternating nursings and solids, so she was eating every 2-3 hours. He suggested that I try to do them one after the other (feed her breakfast, then nurse her right after.... feed her lunch, nurse her right after). I was a bit skeptical of the plan, but part of his reasoning was that it's not good for her to be grazing all day long... not good for her teeth (and goodness knows she has enough of them!)... and also it helps her absorb nutrients better if things are done together. So, I've been trying this only for about a week, as I wasn't going to start something new while we were on vacation. But it seems to be working pretty well. It's setting up for a more normal pattern (eating b-fast around 8, lunch around 12:30) of daily life, that will be sustainable once I am no longer nursing. My biggest fear in eating solids and then nursing right after was that she'd be hungry in-between. And I know I could just give her a snack.... but still. However, it seems to be working really well. I'm impressed! I'm still nursing her either right before or right after her afternoon nap, and then we eat dinner around 6ish... so those aren't back-to-back.... but it's a start at least. I figure, I myself can't make it from lunch to dinner without a snack, so, when we're done nursing we can replace it with a snack. And then I still nurse her right before bed. In some ways, I'm kinda sad with these changes. Part of the reason I'm changing is because I clearly am not going to nurse her forever, so I'm setting up a situation where weaning is a possibility... and while I'll be happy when that does happen, I'm also going to be quite sad as well. A few new foods she's had this months: brats, hotdogs, strawberries and cherries!
We've also started to get a more solid bedtime routine. Part of this is because I want to have other things in that routine besides me nursing her.... again, thinking about weaning. So, we brush her teeth, turn on her nightlight and side light, read a book... then turn on her noise-machine, turn off the side light, nurse, snuggle a little, sing her a song, say a prayer, and put her in bed. I'm not saying the nursing would be an easy part to skip! But again, at least we're setting up a routine.
I wouldn't say she has said her first word yet. Sometimes she says words in the correct context (Dada to David, Mama to me, "dow" when she sees a dog, "eye" instead of hi when she sees someone, "ju" when she sees her sippy cup of juice), but it's not consistent, so I'm not really going to count it as saying real words! She has added new sounds to her babble, though, and it's darn cute. She's learned to make noises by rolling her tongue... so it sounds like she says "golly" over and over (gollygollygollygollygollygolly) with the rolled tongue. It's so adorable! She can also make these noises: blowing kisses, smacking her lips, "brrrr", clicking her tongue and several other fun things (and the old staple - raspberries!)! She's been able to do most of those for several months, but I thought I'd write it down here so I remember!! Also, one time when I was doing "Head and Shoulders" with her, she started singing along with me!
At her Dr apt she weighed 19 lbs 3 oz, which puts her in the 30th percentile (compared to other 11 month olds, although she was just 10.5 months). And she was 30 inches long, which puts her in the 95th percentile. And her head circumference was 18 in, which puts her in the 75th percentile. Height and head are staying in the same percentiles, but her weight keeps dropping! All that activity is shedding her baby fat! Overall she is a very healthy girl. The doctor called her "his little athlete" as she was practically running all over his office!
1. Her eyes are still a pretty blue color.
2. Her left tear duct hasn't had been crusty this past month, but we aren't convinced it has cleared up yet.
3. She very rarely spits up.
