Eleven Months Old

 

I am not sure why but my baby girl turning eleven months old is freaking me out.   I had a mini-meltdown and internal struggle with the idea of getting rid of her swing... one that I have not fully completed mind you.  I am in a bit of a power struggle of sorts with myself on that one.   Logically, she doesn't use it anymore.  In fact only twice since we returned to the NW.  But she might, right?  :(   She used it every day, multiple times a day, for months and months.   I have wonderful memories of looking at her peacefully asleep in there... sitting up smiling and playing with her toes... she can't be done with it?? (See that's just a small glimpse at my nuttiness on this subject.)   Perhaps I'm having this freakout now because I know that when she officially turns ONE YEAR OLD! (gasp!) I won't have time for this mourning, sadness, craziness. It will be a time of celebrating and being excited that my little girl has achieved such a milestone!  But that's in another month, so I choose to embrace my sadness over the quickly slipping away baby in my little girl.

New things for Mae this month: walking, shoes, Black Friday shopping with her mama, her first Christmas tree, a top tooth, and a three day fever followed by roseola.

Mae in the mobility department is more interested in ascending heights than traveling on foot.   Yes, our little girl is a climber, part monkey really.   She has scaled the baby gates, climbs up onto chairs, boxes, coffee tables, anywhere she can get to.  She's a pro at the stairs and VERY quick especially if she knows she's not supposed to be climbing up them.    She also would happily climb into the tub if we let her, it's amazing how high she can kick that little leg up!  In the walking department she is still pretty wobbly but can cross a floor without falling down 6 out of 10 times.   Her speed is increasing and if she follows the couch line she really can move fast!  Mostly I think it's confidence, so she just needs more practice.  :)   In light of this mobility Mae received her first pair of shoes - and she does well to keep them on for the most part.

Sleep still is sub par in my opinion.  She wakes regularly and often takes until 10pm or later to go to sleep.    I think it's partially due to teething, but a greater deal with habit that she's formed in spite of our efforts.   I suspect the new year will bring along with it some sleep training.   We'll see.  I really don't want to talk about it...

In the illness department - Mae has now been able to check off another high profile childhood illness: roseola.   Yes on Friday morning she began running a fever of 100.6  and it persisted all day Friday and Saturday, it spiked to 102.5 in the middle of the night on both nights, but I suspect being too cuddly in blankets and next to her mama was mostly the culprit of that.  I refrained from too much tylenol, as we're advocates of fevers being the body's natural remedy to fight illness and over the course of her three day illness I gave her 4 doses of tylenol.  Twice to bring the temp down and twice for her comfort.  Sunday morning around 5am she woke up and threw up everywhere.  Thankfully I had a blanket that caught most of it.  I called the doctor and one came out to the house to check on her.  Prior to that I was almost certain it was roseola.  Which by Monday it was proven to be just that - but the vomit threw me off.   Tuesday she woke with a cough that sounded tight - so to be safe we took her in.  I don't take chances with coughs anymore.  The cough turned out to be nothing and didn't even linger much past that day.   So she had a rash for about 2 days and by the third day it was gone.    I will say that her rash was much milder than her brother's was when Ace had it at 10 months.

Mae now officially has three teeth.  She is slowly starting to eat more solid food each day.  Mostly still baby food jars, but she also enjoys puffs, and LOVES french fries - I know not the best but still cute.  She also enjoys steamed carrot quite a bit and the freeze dried apples and pears that I have as one of Ace's snacks.   She will also eat a lot of food if her dad baby birds feeds her. 

Mae also loves to play.  She tries to play peek-a-boo still by raising things over her head, although she is getting better about putting things in front of her eyes to do it.   She laughs at her brother doing silly things and loves to climb up on his bed and the two of them play together in his room.  She is waving 'bye bye' very well now and smiles the biggest smile when her dad walks in the room.   She wants to play the game with her hand and making noises on her mouth regularly too.   Vocab wise - she still mostly just has: mama, dada, bruder, up.   Sign language - the only one she really ever uses is 'all done'. 

This last month all the holiday decor has come out and Mae has enjoyed exploring a whole new world of exciting colors, lights, and new toys.  She is fascinated by the tree, but is doing a decent job for the most part letting it be.   She loves the fisher price nativity set and is enjoying chewing on them.  ;)   It's such a magical time of year and I'm so excited for her first Christmas and can't wait to see her experience everything for the first time!    Hold on tight we're headed full speed ahead toward ONE!!