eleven

eleven months old

the final month of her first year.

hard to believe.

It's true what everyone says, it really does get better with every stage. The only problem is how fast the next stage seems to come. I wish I could just slow things down and enjoy her for a little longer just exactly as she is right now. I'm not ready for her to not be a baby anymore. I'm not ready for a toddler yet. Even though I know she will be even cuter and more fun (duh), I just don't want her to grow up so fast.

She is getting such a little personality. She is sweet and social and fun and so very happy. She has definitely gotten a little more wary of people she doesn't know, but for the most part... she loves people, she loves being on the go and she's almost always content and smiley. And oh what a cute smile she has with her four little front teeth. I have been thinking for several weeks now that she may be getting more teeth... but so far, she has has the four.

She is getting more and more independent all the time. If she doesn't want to be held, there is no point in trying. She's way too strong. Gone are the days of snuggling her until she falls asleep in my arms. Don't get me wrong, she'll still sit on my lap and cuddle for story time and some songs, but when she's ready to sleep or she wants to get down.... she wins. She is great at jabbering herself to sleep and all she needs is her elle-elle-elephant. It's a little sad that she doesn't need me to sooth her to sleep anymore, but it's so nice to be able to just put her down and walk away.

She is still rocking the 7pm-7:30am schedule and it's awesome. She takes 2 good naps a day, both about an hour and a half... sometimes as long as 2+ hours in the morning. I'm going to be sad when she decides to give that morning nap up.

With her new found independence, she's not loving being contained in her jumper anymore. She wants to be right there with me, underfoot to "help" me with whatever I'm doing. We spend lots of time in the kitchen and if I give her some kitchen tools, she goes right to work...

...and she likes to lick her spoon just like mama!

She is a big fan of self-feeding and is actually really good at finger foods. She is eating lots of regular food now and if I cut things up into small bits, she does a pretty good job of doing it herself. However, I'm nowhere near letting her use a spoon yet. I'm not ready to wipe yogurt and applesauce off the walls.

She is a great eater and is especially loving cheese, yogurt, watermelon, peaches, sweet potatoes and zucchini these days. The only thing that we've yet to find that she doesn't like is oatmeal, salmon and green beans. Almost everything else that she's tried, she's wanted more off.... even pickles!


She is giddy about football season starting and Daddy has already been working to teach her the rah, rah, rah-rah-rah in the Cougar fight song.

Hopefully she'll get it down by next weekend, when this lucky littlemiss attends her first live football game... which will require an airplane ride and trip to Austin!
yippee.


Leah LOVES dogs. She goes crazy and gets so excited when she sees a dog... big or small it doesn't matter, as evidenced by this picture....

...you can tell that her arms and feet are swirling uber fast in pure delight. That's the way she shows us that she really, really loves something. It's actually one of my very most favorite things about her. I hope she never ever outgrows showing her excitement about simple things so freely.

Littlemiss Leah is learning how to get into trouble. She has been crawling for almost a month now and she has it down pretty good. She seems to goes straight for trouble any chance she can.

She's learned how to open her drawers and if I turn my back for long.... she's got them all emptied on the floor. Although a little frustrating, it's mostly adorable. At least for now... maybe in another month or two, not so much.

Leah has quickly learned no-no-no. The other morning as she was going for a wallflower in the outlet, I called her name to get her attention and she turned with a huge mischievous smile and started shaking her head back and forth as I said no-no-no. Now nearly every time she is going for something she shouldn't or if I tell her no, she shakes her head and smiles. Again, it's pretty dang cute right now, but might not be for very long.

She also waves hi and bye, does patty cake and jabbers almost non-stop. Her chatter is becoming much more conversational and context appropriate. She listens then answers and does that back and forth. She also has lots of gibberish that is starting to sound like the beginnings of real words. Anytime she hands me something, she mumbles gibberish with the perfect intonation of "here you go". It is so fun to see her learn so much so fast, although it also terrifies me.

She still absolutely loves music and waves her arms and bounces at the first sounds of a tune.

She is starting to realize her power and independence and we have began to experience the very beginnings of little tantrums if we take something away or if she is frustrated. She can get really mad, really fast and it's hard not to just give in to her... but we are all learning as we go and trying really hard not to do that.

She is definitely her mama's girl...

(and yes, it's empty)

Leah continues to teach me a whole new dimension of love. Throughout everysingle day, she does things that melt my heart, touch my soul and make me love her even more. I always knew that I wanted to be a mother in the worst way, but I never knew it would be this good.

I feel so lucky to be her mama!

Happy Eleven ElleJay!!