11 Month Update

Don’t worry, grandparents. I will still post plenty of Madeline updates on the blog. And speaking of Miss M, she is eleven months old today! Eleven-twelfths of a year old… Wow. Everybody always talks about how fast kids grow. But until you have your own, you have no idea how fast time can really fly.

Here she is this weekend enjoying the warm weather and exploring our backyard.

Here’s what’s new with Madeline:

• She is finally crawling! And she is enjoying her freedom immensely. She has such fun racing down the hall or chasing after a toy, usually with a smile on her face. She is developing callouses on her sweet little knees. When she was first born I remember noticing how perfectly soft and smooth she was all over. Her knees were just as soft as her cheeks. No more perfectly soft little baby.
• She has gotten more clingy since learning to crawl. I have wondered if it is because she needs more reassurance from mom now that she has more independence. She wants to be held more than she used to. It is often difficult to cook dinner now because she grabs onto my pant leg and fusses until I pick her up. I’ve been carrying her around in our kiddie backpack a lot while I cook, vacuum, etc.
• She is pulling up to her knees all the time, and occasionally she makes it all the way to the standing position. No cruising yet.
• We’ve been having napping issues in the last week. She likes to play in her crib now, crawling around, pulling up, and sitting up. She has learned that she doesn’t have to go to sleep if she doesn’t want to. Until now it has always been really easy to put her down for a nap. When she is sleepy, I would just lay her down and walk away. It’s not so easy anymore. It has been taking her 30-45 minutes lately to fall asleep, and there are usually tears. Then when she wakes up, she sits up immediately and doesn’t go back to sleep. This is no fun for mom…
• We’ve been working on a few signs. She can now sign “more” and “water,” and she can show you where her nose is. We’ve been working on “milk” too, but I haven’t gotten her to do that one back yet.
• Her current favorite foods are strawberries, blueberries, mandarin oranges, cheese, and broccoli. She resists anything that I try to spoon feed her now. She likes to feed herself. She is rejecting some foods that she used to love – particularly bananas and applesauce. Weird.
• Looking in the mirror is endlessly amusing to her. She smiles and dances and laughs and waves. Sometimes I put my full length mirror on the floor and let her crawl on top of it. She thinks it's the most fun thing imaginable.
• She loves to ride around in the stroller. We’ve been going for walks outside everyday for the last week while the weather has been nice, and she is content for amazingly long periods of time to watch the scenery, taking it all in. She especially likes seeing dogs. When we are out in public someplace, she leans way forward in the stroller, almost standing up, because she is so excited to see the world and wave to everyone she sees. What a flirt.

And here she is, the crawling champ!