Cecelia at eleven months

April 28 | Eleven Months



(trying to BlogStomp these pictures instead of Photoshopping....turned out just ok, but whatever. )



Likes: Pointing and grunting for communication, playing keep away, open mouth kisses, tearing up train tracks, finding the smallest possible specks of dirt to eat off our floor, shredding paper products, opening kitchen cabinets, smiling when we tell her 'no', and eating like a linebacker.

Dislikes: diaper changes, playing with her own toys, sitting down in the bathtub



 

Biggest Achievement of the Month: sleep progress (!)

Biggest Challenge of the Month: into everything/trouble maker/exhausting





Some outtakes for you---giant hair bow is sort of a joke and sort of awesome. She loooooved having it on her head, obvi.







The Mecca (aka Sleep): We are finally getting somewhere with this insomniac! Most of the month included once-nightly wake ups, our trip to MO threw everything off, but now we are back on track with one or ZERO wake ups per night. Can I get an Amen? She legitimately slept through the night without making a peep for two nights in a row recently which is a first for our little girl. She also clocked two other nights of STTN in April bringing her monthly total to four nights of magic. Again, a first. Sometimes I will hear her wake up and fuss but she goes back down alone. Occasionally Nate will rock her back to sleep but she's not nursing in the night anymore (except for last night but I won't count that one because I was gone for bedtime and we needed to reconnect at 4 am, apparently).

The only thing we've done differently is that I am not nursing her immediately before bedtime or naps anymore. At night we will do baths, jammies, then nurse downstairs to keep her awake. We will play a bit, then back upstairs for books, pacifier and rocking. I tried giving her a bottle a few nights right before bed to really tank her up but she wouldn't drink much of it so I'm skipping them now. She eats so much real food for dinner I can't see how she would possibly be hungry just an hour later.

Naps are usually amazing, too---which I still say daytime naps (ie Mommy breaks) are even more important than nighttime sleep for my mental sanity. She goes down at 9am and 1pm each day. Sometimes she will sleep for 2+ hours at each nap and other times it's more like 1 hour in the afternoon and 2 in the morning. AMAZING, right? Especially when her afternoon nap coincides with Truman's. There is a God and he allows my children to sleep again. Life is good.





Temperament/Personality: The best. She is hilarious and really showing us her sense of humor these days. My favorite: she will hold out a toy and grunt at us, then when we try to take it from her she will rip it back to her chest and giggle, thrusting it back at us again to repeat her silly game.

She loves to imitate us with fake coughs, lip smacking, sticking her tongue out, and screeching. She will clap, give open mouthed kisses, and dance. This little girl is a firecracker with opinions and sass and drama....but she is also the sweetest, happiest little baby I know. We often say that she is going to be our challenging kid as she grows up---Truman was never INTO everything like this. We are in trouble and we don't mind;)









Talking/Communication: Saying 'Dada' mostly appropriately. Also, I swear she is saying 'All done' after eating but obviously it's a little muffled and hard to claim as a true 'word' at this point. She's a loud mouth, this one, and will babble non-stop. Again, I don't remember Truman being this vocal this early on. Picturing notes from school being sent home to say we have the chatter box of the class that is distracting everyone from learning. She can shake her head 'yes' and 'no' and I guess it's appropriate at times but more likely she just picks one and does it after we ask her a question. Still adorable to think about her responding to us a little more each day.

She loves books now that we are actually taking the time to read them to her. Any 'touch and feel' book is a favorite because she loves to touch those soft shapes with authority. I think it's really cute how she can tell which part of the page is 'different' and begs to be touched. She loves books in general and only tries to eat them half of the time.

Pointing at what she wants is a new thing this month and wow, she really knows what she wants. Usually it's something not baby friendly like a knife, my glass of ice water, or the chandelier. I've found that if any of us has a whole apple she will fa-reak out until we give it to her, pointing and grunting and squirming like crazy. She's getting her point across to us, alright.





Eating: Ridiculously good at shoveling all sorts of food into her tiny mouth. Turkey dogs, sausage links, scrambled eggs, bread and butter, yogurt, cereal, all fruits, and of course any sweets don't stand a chance with our little garbage disposal. It's pretty nice to have her clean up all of Truman's (numerous) left overs.



As for milk, she is still nursing about four times daily when we are home together: first thing in the morning, after first nap, after second nap, and after bath at bedtime.  On daycare days she takes two bottles that have 4oz of breastmilk and 2oz of whole milk---but she hasn't been loving my cocktail mixture so much. Need to start moving towards all whole milk but she is probably going to protest a change, like always.







Has mastered a straw and LOVES her some water in a sippy cup. Again, not so into milk in a sippy but we will get there.





The Superficial: Sad to say that her famous grimace face of last month has faded away;( But with those bright baby blues and red curly-ish locks, sister is my little heartbreaker baby. She's still incredibly long and has bumped up to 18 month or the 18-24 month clothing which means I had to go on a shopping spree for her (twist my arm). A lot of this bigger stuff is a little roomy in width but because of her length we are struggling with anything 12 month sized now.






Teeth: No new ones this month, still six total. Less drooling lately, too.

Motor Milestones: She's started letting go while standing still for about two seconds at a time now and Nate said she climbed 3 of our stairs the other day. Uh-oh.







Out and About: Us gals flew to Missouri together this month, which was Cecelia's second round-trip flight. She was flexible enough to get bounced around from house to house, different environments, etc--but we really suffered in the sleep department with all of that stimulation.

On an everyday basis, sister LOVES to get out of the house and behaves really well in social settings. Well, as long as she is with one of her parents, that is. She and Truman spent about three hours at Erin's house while Nate and I had a date night this month. And, well, Cecelia was sort of a hot mess the whole time being in a different house without her parents there for security. My opinionated little girl.



Firsts: Hair cut by mommy (bangs only), first time being babysat by someone other than family or Lori, first real shoes, first taste of sand, first time playing on a playground, first time on swings, first time in a convertible car seat (we need to make the switch for good!)








Little Sis and Big Bro:

Truman's eleven month post was an interesting one to read, yet again. Both kids are full of opinions at this age but Cecelia has to be a little more 'spunky', I think.  Truman was only nursing once per day and then drinking FOUR bottles (30oz) of milk after that? Wow. Totally different than Cecelia's four nursing sessions and 12oz at Lori's only. Truman was becoming picky with solids and CC just is NOT picky at all. T was 23 pounds at this point and I'm sure CC is nowhere near that---I'm guessing 19-20 at the most. Truman was sleeping even better than Cecelia does right now but he was starting those 5:30am wake ups and if I remember correctly that went on for quite some time. Cecelia's night sleeping is still too erratic to really say she has any pattern for waking up each day 'early' but I could see her STTN but starting her days at 5:30, for sure. I don't think Truman was even pulling up to stand at this point and Cecelia definitely has him beat in the mobility category, which makes me wonder if she will walk way before his 13-14 month mark. We shall see. Also, I find it hilarious that I thought Truman had a lot of hair at this age. HA! Cecelia has always boasted the gorgeous locks but Truman's round head is pretty unbeatable, too. It's so fun to compare kids!

Currently these two are still getting along really well, aside from the quarrels about sharing toys. Cecelia really does take it like a champ with Truman rips away everything from her grubby little hands and we are still working on patience with T. His favorite thing to do, when he sees her crawling towards his tracks, is scream at the top of his lungs (in a girly fashion) : "Ceeeeeeeeee Ceeeeeee! Nooooooooo! Mommyyyyyy!" That's my cue to retrieve the tornado baby before Truman creates a road block with his body. I can't wait until they are both old enough to play nicely together for an extended amount of time. I can picture it, but we aren't quite there yet.













I love being your mommy, Cecelia. I really can't believe you are nearing your first birthday but I'm trying not to be too sad about it because it's SO much fun to watch you grow up and change each month. My little stink pot. I love you so.