Eleven Months

It’s so hard to believe that our little girl is already 11 months old.  She is the happiest baby (well, about 98% of the time) and is so much fun!  I don’t know how we got so lucky.  Some things I want to remember about her at this stage are:

• She really is so happy.  She smiles a ton and has an easy going personality.
• When she gets really tired before bed, she starts crawling around like a maniac.  She crawls one way, stops and throws herself down, crawls in the opposite direction, stops and squeals.  It’s so funny!
• She loves dogs now more than ever.  When she sees Lola or George (her cousin’s dog), she starts screaming in excitement.  I took her to Kennelwood to pick up Lola after our trip, and she went nuts.  She was yelling at the top of her voice at all the dogs…and there were a LOT of dogs around.  I kept apologizing to everyone around us because I’d never heard her do that before and had no idea how to make her stop.  When I’d say, “Shh!” she would just squeal louder.
• She loves her “lovies” (a.k.a. small blankets).  She sleeps with them and carries them around the house wherever she goes.
• She can play independently and seems to enjoy that quite a bit, but she also loves when you are down on the floor playing with her.
• She loves books.  She’ll look at Where’s Spot? and Pat the Bunny for a long time.  She especially likes books where she can lift flaps and feel things.
• She loves her daddy.  Those two have a very special bond.  She gets so excited when he gets home from work.  She squeals and smiles and laughs when he walks in the door.
• She is talking a ton.  She now says “up” and “good.”  She babbles all the time and sounds like she’s having a conversation.  She has also started signing “please.”  It is so cute!  I started teaching her the sign for “please” because she’s started whining quite a bit.  I can’t handle much of that, but at least she’s working out ways to communicate with us.
• She has two teeth on bottom and three on top.  And she finally weighs over 18 pounds!
• She still pulls up and cruises around everywhere, but doesn’t seem to be too interested in walking.  She can stand for a few seconds but will drop down to sitting as soon as she realizes she’s standing on her own.
• The time change this past week caused us some sleeping issues.  That plus traveling and being in different places was not the easiest thing we’ve done.  (I’ll remember that for the next time change!)  After almost two weeks of waking up at least once a night, she is finally back to sleeping 11-12 hours straight.  That makes me one happy momma!

Nancy took these pictures for me when we were in Bartlesville so I could use them for Haidyn’s birthday invitations.  She did an amazing job, especially with such a busy little girl!  Thanks, Nancy.  I will treasure these pictures.  I found the cupcake hat at the boutique where we go to our music class, and I just couldn’t resist.  The cherry on top was the kicker.