Elsie Marie - 11 Months

Well surprise, surprise this is coming two whole weeks late.  It has been a fairly busy couple of weeks around our house with the Thanksgiving holiday thrown in there.  As I post this think in just two weeks our little girl is going to be one!! It is just nuts to me!  Once again the weather here in Iowa was beautiful for mid November.  I was able to take pics in a long sleeve shirt, no jacket.  It was so nice.  It will be difficult to think back where so was at in the categories two weeks ago because she has changed so much in the past two weeks.  I better start to write up her 12 months post now so I won't forget where she is at :).

GROWTH
To be honest, I didn't weigh her at home and I didn't measure her height.  Since doesn't go to the doctor again until her 12 month appointment I don't have the slightest clue where she was at.  6 weeks ago she was at 18.5 lbs so I would say she is probably right around that 20 lbs mark and she appears to have grown in height but we will find out in a couple weeks.  She is in all 12M clothing with some 9-12M shirts.  She is still in size 4 shoes.  She is finally growing into some of her 12M shirts that were a little too big last month.

EATING
This past month was very similar to the month before with the amount of food she has been eating.  She did go through a week long growth spurt where she would wake up in the middle of the night and want a bottle and down it.  Overall she was taking in about 40+ ounces of formula and then a bunch of food.  I felt like she was eating non stop.  After that week she went back to normal with her 4-6 oz bottles 5 times a day.  We have really begun to work on the sippy cup but we aren't making too much progress. She will drink water out of it just fine but not so much the formula.  She does great with a straw cup and I have tried a few others.  This month we are really going to focus on it.   I am nervous that in one month it is not more bottles for her.  For food we are continuing to add more foods and more finger foods to her diet.  Most of her fruit we give her is finger food although we are still trying to use up the baby food we have.  New foods this month:  beef, blueberries, cantaloupe, cinnamon, noodles, corn, oh I am sure there are others but I just can't remember right now.  I did not get enough courage to do the egg noodles this past month (we have done it in the last week now though and no reaction!  YAY!).  Elsie's favorite things to eat are yogurt, toast, and cheese...she loves cheese!!  She does't like puffs anymore...I think she must be tired of them.  Gerber level three meals-I don't think she likes the pureed with the little chucks.  She either likes finger food or purees.

Typical Feeding Schedule

6:00 AM:  6 oz bottle

6:45 AM:  oatmeal and fruit

10:00:  4-6 oz bottle/snack

12:30ish:  Lunch-yogurt, veggies or fruit

1:30:  6 oz bottlle

4:30:  4 oz bottle with a snack, mostly cheese when at home :)

5:30 PM:  Dinner-some sort of meat in pureed form, veggies, avocado, etc.  

6:45:  Bedtime bottle-6-8 oz.  

SLEEP

This was another great month of sleep.  There was a week or so where she was up eating in the middle of the night and then another week where she had a cold going on and would wake up when she would cough but other than that she has been sleeping pretty good.  She still is in bed asleep by 7:00 and still goes down wonderfully.  We are still following the same routine before bed.  Naps have been pretty consistent too.  She has been taking a little bit longer to lay down for her naps (especially her morning one and it never fails, right after I lay her down she gets a poopy diaper and gets up.  So I just change it and lay her back down.  She goes down for her morning nap around 8:30 and sleeps no longer than 45 minutes now.  Her afternoon nap begins between 1:30-2:00 and typically is at least and hour and half so this has been consistently longer.  I have been trying to to stress too much about sleeping.  To be honest, for these last 11 months she hasn't slept on the same schedule consistently for more than 4 weeks.  She likes to surprise us :).  I will say she rarely comes and sleeps in our bed anymore.  If she wakes up early for a bottle we will give it to her in her room and then lay her back down and she will sleep for at least and hour to an hour and a half longer.  Wake up times are getting closer to 6:30-7:00 when this happens.  

Look at that hair . . . it is finally growing in! 

DEVELOPMENT

Last month I said Elsie was so much fun but this month I would say she is even more fun!  She has officially started walking taking her first steps back on October 28th.  It was just two steps but now she is all over the place.  It is so much fun to see her becoming more and more daring with how far she goes and what she walks to.  Check out this Walking Post which includes a video of her going.   She is continuing to master many of the skills she has learned in the past month.  She has begun to sign milk but sometimes will use it when she wants more of something.  And she is a pointing machine.  She points at EVERYTHING!  The minute we get her out of her crib her first thing to do is find something to point at which then we can tell her what it is.  

TEETH

No new  teeth this month so she is still at the four on top and four on the bottom.  

SPEECH
I don't think I have had a specific section regarding speech for Elsie's montly updates but this month I feel like it is necessary since she is really developing with her speech.  Elsie has been saying "mama" and "dada" for the past few months but lately she has added more to her vocabulary.  Some words she says on her own, others she will repeat. Beside mama and dad she is now saying "hi" and will put whatever she is holding up to her ear, she says "uh-oh" when she drops her spoon, sippy cup, puffs when she is in her high chair, and the one I am the most excited about is "woof, woof".  Whenever I say dog or doggy I always add a "woof, woof" at the end.  She first started out repeating it after I would say it, then a week or so later I would say "dog or doggy" and she would add the "woof, woof" on the end well about two weeks ago Cinder walked by and without any prompts from us she said "woof, woof".  It was so exciting for us haha.  Besides those words of course there are sounds she makes that we think are words.  She is trying to say kitty (makes a ki sound).  And she repeats quite a bit of the sounds we make.  Also, she knows what we are talking about...I will ask her "Where's your Doggy?" and she will point right to her stuffed dog or go and get it.  The same is for her kitty animal, her monkey, and her bunnies.

PLAY

This is a new category but I thought it would be a great place to highlight her favorite toys, what she likes to do, etc.  Right now Elsie LOVES her stuffed animals.  It is so cute.  We will ask her where her animal is and she will find it, grab it and give it hugs and kisses, pat it and say "ohhhh".  She just loves to snuggle with them.  As you can see in the photo below.  She totes these little monkeys around everywhere.  She still loves to read, she loves to play hide and seek only now she likes to be the one who hides, and she still enjoys playing with her little octopus hide and seek toy.  She still loves being outside and climbing.  She keeps us busy to say the least :).  

It was another great busy month, especially with all the fall activities that we took part in.  We were able to spend a lot of time with our friends and family and enjoying the beautiful weather.  We went to the orchard a couple times, did the Race for the Cure and did a couple of halloween activities.  I am looking forward to the next month and starting some great Christmas Traditions as a family!  

Having fun playing with the neighbor boy Wyatt!