11 months old
Dear Katherine,
You are 11 months old today. Yikes! I almost have a one year old. Where has this year gone? It has sure flown by. Each month I say “This is my favorite age.” But each month it gets better.
Katherine, you are so much fun! You are growing up and changing so rapidly. You love to laugh and smile. Things that make you laugh and smile are tickling, Hooligan, peek-a-boo, and your Pooh doll. You think it is so much fun to crawl to the fridge and stand up, looking in when it is open. You are learning to make all kinds of funny noises. It sure sounds like you are carrying on a conversation, but no one else knows what you are saying. You do actually say dog, mama and dad.
You love to give kisses. You even make kissing “mmmma” noises like we do. You love to find noses. You even know where a nose on Pooh and Raggedy Ann are.
You are sleeping so much better and for this I am very thankful. It took about a week of training, but you are now sleeping from about 8 until 6 or 6:30 without waking up at all. You are still not a great napper but we will work on that next. You do take a nap every day, but the time and duration are not consistant. You also really should be taking two naps at your age and usually you do not.
Even though you get up earlier than I would like, my favorite time of the day with you is in the morning. You are alert and so much fun. Usually when you wake up I go in and nurse you and then we play in your room until daddy gets up.
You have started all kinds interesting habits at the dinner table. You blow bubbles and try to spit your food out sometimes. You really like to try to hand off some of your food to Hooligan. You laugh and think it tickles when she licks your hand. You also have started to scream when you are done and we are not. These are not good things sweetie. We have also decided that right now is not a good time to go out to eat. We are having a hard time getting you to sit in a high chair long enough for us to eat at a restaurant with a waiter.
You are doing better at actually eating though. We usually get three meals in. Some of them are small and some of them are larger. You like almost everything, just not much of it. One thing that you do not like is yogurt. I find this weird because every other baby I know loves Yo Baby. We are working hard on having you feed yourself. Your pincher grasp is good but a lot of times you are more interested in playing with your food and not eating it. Recently you have tried whole wheat pasta, chicken, bread and dehydrated peas. You love you snacks the best. You like Veggie Booty, teddy puffs and your all time favorite is your Gerber puffs. You especially like it when they are in your snack trap and I let you take it with you in a store or the car. Your face lights up when I bring out the snack trap.
You are still nursing a lot, but not in the middle of the night! I am fine with still nursing you and really enjoy it. I am not in a hurry to wean you and plan to let you lead that (within reason). You only have three teeth, two on bottom and one on top. You look a little uneven but it is cute.
You are getting even more mobile. We keep thinking you will walk before long. You are a super fast crawler and you love to pull up on anything and cruise. You are getting better at letting go when we you are standing. You are happier now that you are so mobile because you are more in control of your life. If you want to play with a certain toy, you crawl over and get it. If mommy leaves the room, you follow her. If you want to pet Hooligan, you go on over and do it. You have also learned how to get down from the couch or other chairs which is good but you don’t have it down perfectly so I am scared you will fall. You also don’t realize that things like the bed are too tall to get off of in the same manner.
You are getting into everything! Every night I put all your toys in your toy basket and every day you pull them all out. You love to open and close all the cabinets in the kitchen and have learned which ones have the fun things to play with. You love to take papers out of the office trash. You reach for whatever mom and dad have when you are on their lap. You are just so curious.
You are in a weird phase where sometimes you are very attached to mommy and sometimes you are fine being away. We never know which it will be. The other night Daddy came home and your face lit up and you reached toward him but as soon as I passed you over, you started to cry and wanted me again. The previous day you had been in the church nursery for a few hours with no problem. It is certainly easier to leave you places now that you are eating solids.
We are having to try to learn how to discipline you and it is hard. It is not that we have a hard time telling you no and setting boundaries, it is just hard to get you to respond. You are not really comprehending “No” yet and you are not able to comprehend the cause and effect relationship of punishment for doing something wrong. The most frustrating things that we are having to correct you on would be getting into the dog food and trying to play with the computer or any type of cord that you find like a computer mouse.
We pray that we would be wise parents in how we correct and discipline you. We want to help you to grow into a godly little girl who is respectful of authority and obedient as well as we want you to be safe.
You have several new motions. You now point to things. You can clap though you don’t do it often and you just learned to wave.
You have had a wonderful month. This month you celebrated Christmas 3 times. You have a lot of new toys and books. This also meant that you were able to spend a lot of time with your family. We love to have you around your extended family and cousins and are so glad that we live close enough to see many of them frequently.
