11 months!

Dear E,
Oh my sweet girl, I can't believe you are one month away from being one! Time is going by so fast. I just want to freeze everything right now because you are just so fun and so precious. You are so loved by your daddy and me, and we have had so much fun with you with this month. We thank God every day for you and we are blessed by you!

YOU ARE A WALKER!! You walk everywhere and you keep me busy busy busy. You go from one thing to the next and can go from one room to another in no time. I look away for 2 seconds and you are gone! Ha! The only time you really sit still is when I put you in the pack and play so I can get dinner cooking or something. I wouldn't have it any other way. You are so curious and just want to engage and get into everything. I love that about your personality. You are full of life, spunk, and energy1 You definitely have to be told "no" with things during the day (the dog food and plugs are major ones) because you want to try everything out but most of the time it doesn't end up with a complete meltdown. You have even started to attempt to climb on things. The only thing you can get up on without help is your rocking chair in your room. You climb up and turn around and sit down and smile because you are so proud of yourself.

You still LOVE to dance and LOVE music! Taylor Swift music (especially the Enchanted song) can calm you down in a snap. You will just lie your head down on my shoulder and be completely chill while that song is playing. It is sooo precious. You love it when mommy or daddy dances with you too. You still love your books and now will bring us books and then look at us and wait for us to read them to you. Sometimes you will stay and listen to the whole book and sometimes you don't =). Your favorite books are Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What do you hear?, Doggies by Sandra Boynton, and the baby version of Pride and Prejudice. Favorite toys this month: your push/ride toy, shape sorter, and stuffed animals. I have a given you a play remote that doesn't work and you still love to look at my phone too. You LOVE to take things out of boxes, containers etc. You can now open all your drawers in your dresser and you will pull out all your socks and pajamas. You are starting to put things back into containers but you will only do about 1-2 things before you start taking them back out or move on to the next thing. You are really into hugging things. People, stuffed animals, and Lucye are things that you hug all the time. You will run up to us and grab our legs and just hug our legs really tight. You will also give us hugs when we hold you too. We soak them up and absolutely love them! I hope you never stop giving us hugs!

We didn't try a lot of new foods this month but you are pretty much completely on finger foods now. You get oatmeal with a fruit puree in the mornings for breakfast but other than that you eat finger foods. New foods this month: watermelon, strawberries, kiwi, and pumpkin bread. I made some vegan pumpkin bread and you absolutely love it. Sometimes you will even skip over the meat to eat it first! You almost have a tooth! You have been teething a lot this month and we noticed a little opening in your gums a couple of days ago. You won't have a toothless grin much longer. You are "talking" a lot this month. Lots of babbling and attempts to imitate. You said "quack, quack" after me one time when I was making the duck sound. You now say "da" for Daddy and it is purposeful. Your daddy eats that up! You continue to amaze me with how much you understand. You now point to things constantly so I can tell you all the things in the room.

Your separation anxiety has gotten better this month but you still like me to be nearby if possible. You have started playing peek a boo this month by actually putting something up to cover up your face first and then making noises until I ask you where you are and then you take it down. It is so funny and cute! You love to go outside and stare out the back door often. You haven't decided if you like the grass or not but you will walk all around our back porch for as long as I let you. You have even brought me your shoes because you want to go outside. You can now put the stars on the stalker but you only like to do one at a time.

Cute things you are doing this month:
- You will run away if we say that we are coming to get you and laugh and laugh. Then you will fall down and roll over onto your back to wait for us to tickle you.
- You kiss the phone during our morning FaceTime with Daddy
-You try to turn on your sound machine with your foot because you have seen me do it countless times.
- Love the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse hot dog song. I don't let you watch TV but I put that on to distract you while I pump in the mornings.
- Love to show me things and sometimes you will let go of it and sometimes not
- Play peek a boo with curtains, blankets etc.
- You were doing this last month but I forgot to write it down: you will lie your head on me or your dad's shoulder (whoever is holding you) when someone says hi to you and you want to make it very apparent that you do NOT want to be taking from our arms.
Firsts this month:

Your first swim

Your first fourth of July

You have gone down to 2 naps and they can last 30 -90 minutes. You aren't the best napper but I think you think you are going to miss something if you sleep. You go to sleep around 7:30 and wake up at 6:30 every morning. You are nursing every 3- 3 1/2 hours. You are 29 inches long and about 21-22 pounds. You wear 9 month and 12 month clothes. Your 9 month sleepers though you are almost busting out of so we are switching you soon to 12 month ones.

Oh E, you are so special to us. You are such a blessing and we love you oh so much! 

Love, 

Mommy and Daddy