Eleven Months

Whoa - we made it to 11 months!  We are in full-on count-down mode towards the big O-N-E.  A beautiful, girly, pink, vintage theme awaits us next month as we celebrate one whole year with our little lady.

Our 11 month is reminding me more and more of a little girl, and less of a baby (tear!).  I still get a taste of that sweet, swaddled, brand-new girl at certain times of the day.  First thing in the morning as I hold her little snuggled body against me, and she wakes up slow and happy.  After a bath - lotioned and soft and so sweet-smelling.  When she lays her head on my shoulder or in my lap mid-playtime.  Other times, I can't believe that this almost-walking, laughing, playful, talking, little one so full of personality was inside of me less than a year ago.  She is doing things like pointing at things, asking "this?"....throwing food on the floor (followed by laughing)....hiding under furniture and shrieking with laughter when you "find" her....dancing to music....clapping her hands....looking at me and doing the opposite of what I tell her to....actually playing with toys....eating anything and everything...looking at books... I am just amazed at how much she is learning.  I say that every month, but I have really felt in the last few weeks that my baby is growing up, and she won't be a baby much longer!

We had a few changes this month....biggest one was finally dropping the morning and evening nursing sessions.  I was sad to see them end, but it was honestly a quick transition.  It was Natalie's choice - she lost interest in it, and didn't want to latch on for more than a couple of minutes.  That led to a short nursing session, followed by a bottle; it made sense to just call it quits.  Bittersweet.  I'm glad she and I made it through 11 months of it.  I had really wanted to nurse through the end of the winter (extra immune boost through the germy months?), but it's ok.

We are working on a couple of more teeth.  Still sleeping great.  Getting close to the walking thing - but I can definitely wait!  She has really good balance and control - which is nice because she doesn't seem to wipe out/get hurt very often (knock on wood).  She is getting so big!  She has grown a lot, and is exclusively wearing 12 month clothes.  Some of those are already getting snug, so I can see us moving onto 18 months before we know it.  She's about given up baby food (yay!) so she is mostly eating table food.  I am glad I won't have to keep buying baby food!  Much easier to just give her what we are eating.

Our busy little life marches on, but I'm glad I can slow down a little each month and reflect on the past month with Natalie.  I'm sorry that my blogging has been sporadic lately - new & exciting things happening around here.  I hope I can share SOON what has been keeping me so busy! :)