Happy 11 months!

I can't believe my sweet girl is one month away from turning 1! This is great news though, because that also means that Mike will be here in less than a month. I am so anxious for him to get to play with his baby-for-just-a-little-longer girl. We are looking forward to a lot of time at home with our little family.

Here is a little 11 month summary for my baby book (that only has 4 months done, yikes!). Elise...

-weighs somewhere between 23-24 lbs and measures about 31 inches tall.

-says several words consistently (without me saying them first)... mama, daddy, book, boss, puppy, bath, and ball. The other day in the car I was watching her in the rearview mirror and she held up the book with Mike's picture and said "daddy". it was so cute!

-tries to repeat lots of words

-LOVES to read books. I keep a basket of books under her nightstand and we read several books in the morning after she nurses. As soon as she is finished, she starts saying "buh" or "ook" for book.

-has 5 teeth (3 on top, 2 on bottom). She is working on her molars.

-enjoys riding in the car. I rotate the toy that she plays with every time we get in the car. Her favorite car toys are Freddy the Firefly (Lamaze), Sophie the Giraffe, Stretch the Giraffe (Lamaze), her plastic keys, and an ice cube in a mesh feeder when she is teething. In a pinch, I just stick my hand in the backseat to give her a water bottle and she's happy.

-loves to explore the house... especially the kitchen. She loves to push and pull the dining room chairs around. I am convinced that she and Boss have teamed up against me because she pulls the chairs out so that he can climb on the table to search for crumbs.

-is beginning to learn how to walk. Tonight she took 4 steps from the coffee table to me.

-hates to have her diaper or clothes changed. I have a few toys that I rotate during diaper changes and that seems to help. The toothbrush, the Haba Max toy or the Baby Einstein Takealong Tunes usually work, but sometimes I still end up putting her diaper on while she is crawling or standing. Thank goodness for snaps on the cloth diapers!

-knows all of her toys and major things in the house by name. If I say "Where's your walker?" she will crawl over to it, pull up, and start walking with a big smile. The "Where's the..." game is a great distraction if she gets upset because I took something away or moved her away from something.

-likes to hand me toys or food. I use the word 'share'. We'll see how long this lasts!

-tries to stack things, put things back together, play with the shape sorter, model my actions (put the ball in the cup, etc).

-eats 2 meals of all finger foods. She still won't eat from a spoon if I try to feed her. I just ordered her some toddler spoons and I think she is ready to learn how to eat with them. She holds her own straw cup. She likes pretty much everything... fruits, vegetables, meats, cheese and beans. I haven't really introduced grains. I gave her half of a half of a bagel yesterday and she loved it! She starts clapping when she is done eating. I think I need to teach her 'all done'!

-loves to dance and rock (sway back and forth or push the glider, depending on what room she is in. It is kinda funny because she doesn't even like to be rocked.)

-has a slightly different sleeping/eating schedule. With a new tooth, two growth spurts, teething, and 2 bouts of sickness in the month of November and early December, she got in the habit of eating in the middle of the night (not good!). I finally decided to let her cry it out at night last week. I never had to do that before but I had been praying for wisdom about the situation and decided it was time. I finally came to the realization that, yes, she was hungry, but no, I couldn't feed her or else the cycle would just continue. She wasn't sick any more... she was waking out of habit. I decided not to go in her room at all. She woke up 2 times and cried off and on for 20-30 minutes before falling back asleep. The next day, she didn't get distracted while she was nursing like she had been in the afternoon feedings. She slept 12 hours straight the next night and all of the nights since then. It has been about a week. I couldn't really do the cry it out sooner because of the growth spurt, teething, and sickness, and I was pleasantly surprised that it only took one night for her to get back on track. I decided to nix the breakfast meal because she never ate much and still goes down for her morning nap early. If she starts waking early from that nap, I will add breakfast. She is very, very, very easy to put down for a nap or at night. I can't remember the last time she fussed at any of these times. She knows when it is time and she actually reaches for her crib. I think I am going to teach her the sign for sleep.

So, if you are curious, the schedule is:

8:00- wake up/nurse/read books/play in the living room (we are pretty slow-moving in the morning unless we have a playdate... sometimes we jog if the weather is nice)

10:00 to 11:30- nap

11:30-wake/nurse/independent playtime in the big pack and play with her new Wonder Dice toys.

12:00-lunch (She gets 2-3 different things and water in her straw cup. She eats either steamed veggies, fruit, cheese, beans, meat, etc. I try to do at least 1 fruit, 1 veggie, and 1 protein every day. I don't know what I would do without my Babycook. It is awesome.)

12:30 to 2:00-talk to Mike when he gets back from work/play

2:00 to 3:30-nap

3:30-wake/nurse/play/go for a walk or run errands if necessary (of course the early evening is the worst time to go to the store... oh well!)

5:30 or 6-dinner (She gets 2-3 different things and 4-5 oz of thawed pumped milk in her straw cup.)

6 to 7:30-play

7:30-bath/nurse/in bed by 8

So there you have it!


I also have a few cute stories. We were driving in the car the other day and stopped at a light. I looked in the rearview mirror and saw her hold up her picture book with Mike's picture and say "Daddy". So cute!

Tonight I was trying to cut her nails. This is always a battle. I usually do it while someone else is at the house to distract her, but Boss wasn't being helpful. I turned on the Baby Einstein First Signs DVD. This is the only baby dvd that I own right now (and we've only turned it on a few times to cut nails. I'm not a fan of babies watching TV until they can communicate and interact with you while they are watching.) Anyway, Elise was fascinated with it tonight. She was so interested that we kept watching it together after I finished her nails. When a girl and a beach ball came on the screen she immediately pointed to the TV and said 'bah' for ball. She did the same thing later for baby. Eventually, she crawled over to the entertainment stand and pulled up to get a closer view. When 'milk' was being discussed, she got really upset for a few seconds, then got down and crawled over to me because she wanted milk. It was about 30 minutes before she would normally nurse. She started clapping when they talked about the sign for 'eat'. A few minutes later, she got bored and decided to go play with her toys. I was pretty impressed though. I think she understands waaaaay more than I know.

I am impressed that you made it to the end of a really long and really disorganized post. I'm not even going to reread it to make sure it sounds right. I just wanted to get this typed before Christmas. Time for bed!