Walking Circles around 11 Months

Ok so 11 months. Yikes! One more month until a year old!

  

Here she is in all her glory!

Overall I have to say that this past month was probably the 2^nd most trying time of being a mother. Last month we really had a system going and so much had to change all at once.

First big change: she wants to walk, ALL THE TIME! Except she can’t on her own. She wants me to hold her hands and walk around with her. It’s really cute seeing her toddle around, but it’s also killing my back. After 11 months of hardly going anywhere, I love seeing her take advantage of her new skill and exploring things. It’s also neat to get a better insight into her thought processes as she decides which rooms we walk into and what she explores next. I finally started walking around with her in the Jolly Jumper harness so that I can save my back, and she explored around for about 45 minutes yesterday. It was crazy! She literally walked around in circles for some of it, just seeing how her legs work. She’s getting really fast too! The upside of having to escort her everywhere, is that I can make sure she doesn’t get into too much mischief or slam her fingers in too many cupboards (since we haven’t had to babyproof at all)

 

Walking

And standing

And always standing

But she looks so proud of herself

Second big change: She has no idea what she wants to do nap-wise anymore. Some days it’s two naps, some days only 1. Usually based on what time she wakes up, I can get an idea of what our nap schedule is, but even though she goes to bed between 7:15 and 7:45 every night, she will wake up anywhere from 6-8am. So that’s kind of a crapshoot. Also because she’s really in the middle of having two naps, her second nap is always short and she wakes up so crabby. 3-6pm has become her new witching hour. I can’t wait until this transition is over.

Thankfully, it hasn’t really messed up her night sleep. She still is doing her two wake ups (11pm-ish and 5am-ish) but is going down really well without much fuss. And she wakes up so cheery in the morning, ready to start the day (even if I’m not)

Third big change: She totally quit nursing. We had been battling nursing strikes off and on for a couple of weeks, so I knew things weren’t going great for her, but I was hoping to keep things going for a little while longer. She was also such a good eater, so I wasn’t too worried. However, at 10.5 months, she decided that enough was enough and she wasn’t going to nurse any more. I couldn’t even get her close to me. So after trying to use water to quench her thirst, having rather dry diapers, and on advice from our pediatrician, we introduced formula. Soy formula vetted by a nutritionist (since she is rather allergic to cow’s milk and everything that has cow’s milk protein in it), that she absolutely cannot get enough of (well at first). So we use that exclusively now and it’s so much easier (especially because she’s big enough to have regular water and I’m not so afraid of everything at this point). I think this was totally the right call for her since I wasn’t even that full when she stopped. I tried to pump some, but formula keeps so much longer and is so much easier to store! Plus she likes it! Since she is a bit down in weight this time, we need to be sure to give her more (it’s a very different mindset for me than nursing so I sometimes forget), but I’m glad she forced me to make this transition (a few tears were shed, but at least I knew our last nurse was our last).

 

At the paediatrician to make sure that she was ok

Overall, this past month has been a big change in her personality. She is becoming much more demanding and less patient. We are trying to help her develop some good skills, but like her mother, she has really big feelings and they can totally overwhelm her. She’s terrified of falling over, so she always wants someone right next to her. It’s hard to not be frustrated when you don’t get very much time to yourself (see nap changes above), but I am trying to maintain perspective that having a personality is a good thing and that having opinions will help her get what she wants in the future. As my mom reminded me yesterday, people who were just content sitting and playing with toys all day long never changed the world. But I can’t help but want a break from time to time. This past month I have really had to be on point during all of her waking hours (I almost typed walking hours, which is probably more accurate).

 

Look at this expression. So much attitude

Already the object of boys' attention (or her food is)

Some of the adorable things that she can do:

• Claps her hands (especially if you start singing If you’re Happy and You Know it)
• Waves at people (sometimes when they arrive, sometimes when they go)
• Pets animals nicely (when they let her get close enough)
• Dances by kicking or stamping her foot
• Helps with dishes, or rather, pulls herself over to the sink so that she can feel the water and play with whatever dishes are in the sink
• Walking, while she’s not doing it on her own, she really motors and watching those little feet move is the cutest
• Laughs socially, especially when others are laughing or doing something silly
• Making a “pirate face” where she squints one eye and puckers her lips. I have yet to catch it on camera because every time I bring the camera out she smiles (which is also adorable), so I have to be slyer.

 

At Ice on Whyte as a family

Over the next month together, I am really looking forward to some more mommy-daughter dates. I love going different places with her (especially when we take the bus) to see her expressions and what she takes in. Despite her sometimes crabbiness, I’m really hoping the next few weeks are good and we can embrace the last of our freedom.

Mother-Daughter date at McDonalds before our ballet class

I cannot get over how lovely this face is!