11-Month "Miss"-cellany

In one month my baby will be one year old. Holy moly. She just keeps growing and changing, and growing and changing. Where is the "pause" button???? Miss has all sorts of new things she's doing nowadays. She's cruising a lot and likes to walk behind her lion push toy that she got for Christmas. She can stand for quite a while on her own, and you can see her contemplating walking as she looks to where it is she wants to go and starts to move that way a bit, and then drops down to her knees to crawl there. She dances when she hears music come on. She loves to clap her hands and play "Pat-a-Cake." She knows easily how to manipulate her toys to make them do what she wants, such as open/close, play music, turn pages, etc. In fact, one of her very favorite things right now is to "read" her books and turn the pages herself. She often doesn't even want to wait for me to finish reading what's on the page, she just loves to flip the pages over and see what's next. She also has learned to"share" and "show" and loves to hand me almost anything she gets her hands on, including the tiniest fuzz or stray dog hair she can find on the floor. She loves to "help" in the kitchen, getting into the refrigerator, freezer, or dishwasher whenever she can.

Checking out my professional library - She does love books!

"Sharing"

"Watcha need Mom? I'll get it!"

She has become more adventurous with her palate and has eaten, and seemingly enjoyed, things like chili, chicken marsala (mushrooms and all), and Mongolian grill food. She is also going much better with eating her vegetables and seems to quite love broccoli, green beans, carrots, and peas as long as she can pick them up and eat them herself. Gone are the days of pureed foods, and she eats grown-up oatmeal now (not instant) rather than the powdered baby oatmeal I used to add to her fruit. She will still let me feed her with a spoon things like vegetable soup, cottage cheese (of course), applesauce, and yogurt, though she does prefer to eat her yogurt on her toasted O's. Her coordination has really improved and she is much better at getting the food from the tray into her mouth, without dropping much. This makes for much less messy meal times, except with the yogurt/O's combo :) She still nurses four times per day and has started tasting whole milk in a sippy cup with meals. She typically takes a sip of the milk and looks at me with a funny grin like she thinks I'm trying to pull a fast one on her. She seems to be acquiring a taste for it though, which is good as we move towards starting the gradual switch from breastmilk to cow's milk completely in another month.

Yogurt and O's

Miss is saying more words now, including Mama, Dada, dog, num-num (not really a word, I know, but this is how we say yummy), and baby. The only one she's really consistent with is Mama, but the others are definitely there. She waves bye-bye and blows kisses by putting her flat palm up to her mouth. She does this every day when her daddy comes home from work as soon as she hears the door open. She consistently signs "milk" both when she it's time for her to nurse and when she's hungry in general. She also sometimes signs "more" and "all done" though these are less frequent. She is more and more vocal all the time and I love hearing the new noises she makes and listening to her chatter to herself while she plays. She has the most adorable little inflection while she jabbers. A new thing that makes me laugh is that she has a new "demon baby" voice that she does that seriously sounds like something from the Exorcist. She does it when she's happy and playing, not when she's upset. It's a little scary, but cracks me up!

Hamming it up

Can't resist that toothy grin

I have to say that I am so thankful that I get to be with her all day every day to see all the little changes she is making. I can never put into words how much it means to be able to watch her develop and grow and to have the privilege of being the one who always hears those first words and sounds and sees the first time she makes a new face or does a new behavior. This is truly the best job in the world!