11 Months

We spent Evelynn's 11 month birthday in Little Rock visiting with friends and family and have been SO busy since we got home I'm only just now getting around to this post.

It seems my little baby is turning more into a little girl every day. She is constantly learning something new or showing me just how much she has been observing for the past 11 months.

We haven't taken her weight and height measurements yet this month but my estimate is about 22lbs and 29.5 inches.  She is wearing size 9-12 months in most clothes but can fit size 12-18 month shirts without them swallowing her.  Generally her pants have to be smaller.  She's in a size 4 shoe for now. Her little feet just seem to grow faster than everything else and they are a little chubby so finding shoes can be a bit of a challenge for us. We've learned to try everything on first.

Evelynn has mastered walking and is moving on to trying to learn to run. One of her favorite activities is chasing the kitties and she's definitely getting faster at it.  We've even let her walk a little bit when we go for our evening walks. It's pretty slow going when there are so many exciting things to look at, like dandelions...

You may notice the pacifier in her mouth. It's weird. She was never much of a pacifier kid when she was younger but those top teeth really seem to be bothering her and she likes to chew on the pacifier. It seems to help and it keeps her from grinding her front teeth together, making one of the most annoying sounds in the world right behind fingernails on a blackboard.  It also helps when we're out in the yard because if she has the pacifier in her mouth she doesn't put other things in it like seeds and leaves and dirt. So for now, she can keep it.  She officially has 7 teeth. 3 on the top and 4 on the bottom.  Number 8, on the top, is slowly working its way down. Her poor little gums are so red and swollen. You can also see where her bottom gums are starting to swell with the coming canine teeth. Fortunately, the bottom teeth seem easier on her than the top. We see this face a LOT when her teeth hurt.

Evelynn still hasn't officially said a word that we can distinguish.  She says "Ma Ma" all the time and particularly when she's upset. It does seem to be directed at me at those times but then she just babbles it all the time too.  She used to say "Da da" all the time but we haven't heard the "D" sound for a few weeks. Right now she's all about "Ba Ba" I'm not sure if the sheep at the zoo just had a profound influence on her or what.  When we were visiting my grandparents she was very obviously trying to say "Puppy" but it always came out "Ba Ba" and when we got home she just says that for all kinds of things. Sometimes "Ba ba" means "Ball" or "Book" or "Bottle" and I get really excited. But then it also means "Kitty" or "Phone" or "Remote" and I'm right back to thinking she's just babbling. The other sounds we hear most often are very high pitched "AHHHHHHHH!" and "EEEEEEEEEE"  these sounds are typically happy and indicate that a kitty has been sighted and she is in hot pursuit. They can also mean that she sees the bookcase and is intent on pulling all the books off.

As her walking and large motor skills have improved she has begun working on some smaller motor skills. She can now easily feed herself with her fingers. She can put her spoon in her mouth and even pick up a piece of food with her fingers and put it on a spoon, but the spoon rarely makes it to her mouth with anything on it. In the past couple weeks she has become intent on putting things into other things; her sippy cup in the place on her highchair tray, the balls in her little popper toy, the blocks in her shape sorter, even pieces of food that she took out of her bowl, back in the bowl. She has recently started trying to put the shape blocks through the appropriate holes of the sorter too. She does seem to understand that the blue circle goes through the blue circle opening, but sometimes her hands get in the way; she gets frustrated, puts the block in the top and tries to pull it out the circle opening instead. This is, of course, very exciting to her parents and nobody else. It is also exciting because now instead of just pulling things out of drawers as fast as I can put them away, she will help me put things in the drawers, just not always what actually belongs there.

At 11 months we are moving further and further away from baby food. A typical day for Evie includes breastmilk first thing in the morning, followed by water and a couple cheerios sometimes. Breakfast is plain yogurt with organic fruit/grain baby food. After that we have been trying a we eat what the baby eats meal plan. (Not the other way around.) This is because generally Evie has a healthier diet than her Mommy and Daddy and we should try to eat better too.  Mike has already lost several pounds. I don't get on the scale but I do feel better about my choices this way.  We have a snack around 10:00. It is usually a piece of fruit, some berries or, if we're not home, some cheerios. For lunch we try to eat the leftovers from dinner the night before. If there aren't any then Evie MAY have baby food meat and veggies if there are no other healthy options. Rarely she gets a treat of baked fish sticks (minus the breading) and tater tots. She typically has a bottle of formula for a snack after her nap and depending on how late dinner is going to be she may have an afternoon snack of fruit or berries or cheese as well. For dinner we cook and she eats adult food. This kid LOVES fish of all kinds so we have really incorporated as much as possible into our diet. Salmon with dill and asparagus, Tilapia with lemon and fresh mozzarella/tomato salad (Evie doesn't get the tomatoes yet), and Asian style steamed Cod with brown rice and edamame are all staples at our house these days.  Before bed Evie has a bottle of formula.

There are still a few foods that we are holding out on introducing. They include: Chocolate, Tomatoes, Citrus, Strawberries and nuts of all kinds. She has tried milk products like yogurt and cheeses and had no problems with it but will not have whole cows milk until next month.  She has had small tastes of chocolate and tomatoes with no ill effects but we're waiting until next month to fully introduce them.

Recently her sleep schedule has changed as she has dropped down to one nap per day. Generally she wakes up between 7:15 and 7:45AM. I try to keep her awake until after 11:30 when we have lunch, although if we go somewhere she may fall asleep in the car around 11:00 and then I'm stuck sitting in the driveway while she takes her nap. If she takes a nap in bed around 11:30 she will wake up around 1:00. Then she has her bath at 7:00 and is almost always asleep for the night by 8:30 at the latest. She sleeps all night and is very good about putting herself back to sleep if she wakes. However, she will NOT go to sleep on her own at bedtime. She wants to be rocked to sleep and put in bed when she is completely out. None of this laying her down drowsy but awake stuff for her!

We've been having a LOT of fun lately. We took her to the Kansas City Zoo for the first time and she LOVED it, particularly the monkeys of all kinds.

It has been warm enough to be outside playing. So we got her a baby pool and she's spent many an afternoon in the shade playing in the water. 

Her "boyfriend", Shooter, comes up from down the streets and joins us sometimes too.  They seem to have fun together but see each other more as objects than other people. According to the books they won't really know about sharing and for a couple more years. Alas. 

We're working on planning Evelynn's first birthday party.  It will be a pink and brown polka dot theme. I've ordered her cake and bought her a pretty dress. We're getting her this swing set for her birthday. (But the company is local and we got it at about half price.) We'll be putting that together next weekend. I absolutely can not believe that my little girl is going to be one year old.  Last year at this time we were busy planning her arrival.

And now I'm planning her first birthday. How the time does fly. 

All professional photos on this page are courtesy of my amazingly talented cousin Monrella Buchanan of Paper Memories Photography.