Eleven Months Old

** I fell off the wagon.  Again.  I actually wrote this post on time but was super lazy about uploading the photos.  But I'm determined to post it before she turns one!  Speaking of photos, since the house was in the middle of renovations and we were sequestered in our bedrooms, there was no printer and thus no monthly sign.  It probably wouldn't have mattered since I can't keep her and the sign in the same frame these days anyway.  Girl is on the moooove.

The past month has flown by, and I am in denial that in one short month Nora will be a year old.  She is getting so big and changing every day.  She can pull up and cruise the furniture (well, she would cruise the furniture if we had any.  We are in the midst of a house reno and have moved almost all of our furniture into a pod.)  She hasn't stood up unassisted and has no interest in walking.  She can get anywhere she wants to go by crawling and has even perfected a modified crawl that allows her to carry something while she crawls.

She loves to eat.  She still loves her baby food, although we are trying to move away from it.  She doesn't care for fruit and veggies in their normal form, so I keep giving her some baby food for the nutrients.  Her teachers claim that she eats fruit and veggies at school, but I'm skeptical.  She loves carbs and will eat bread for days.  Her favorite bread is blueberry bread (blueberry muffins and scones are also a big hit).  She will also eat a biscuit or zucchini bread if given the chance.  She is a big fan of grilled cheese sandwiches and cheese quesadillas.  We recently discovered that she also likes turkey and pineapple casserole (with no kitchen, we've been eating out a lot and the options are limited).  She also likes hummus, avocado, rice, yogurt, and string cheese.  She has gotten pretty proficient at feeding herself.  She is a fairly clean eater, but her newest trick is to drop food on the floor.  Her teachers asked if we had a dog that she liked to feed.  Nope - she just enjoys dropping food on the floor.  Sometimes she pretends to eat it and then drops it and laughs.  Let me tell you - it is hilarious, especially when I'm on my hands and knees cleaning it up.  Hilarious.  We've dropped one bottle, so now she only has two bottles (5-6 oz) during the day at around 10 and 2 or 3. 

Showing off that lone tooth

Nora loves to babble, and if you get her going she will laugh hysterically and "talk" to you with the cutest expressions.  But other times she is so serious - just watching everything and taking it all in.  She says a lot of "da" and "ba," but nothing that one would consider a word.  She likes to wave (although I'm not sure that she understands the concept or when to do it) and give hugs (which mostly just involve her burying her face in your shoulder or leg).

She moved to a new classroom at school.  She is now a "Bunny."  This is the second week in the new room, and she seems to be doing okay.  She cries every day at drop-off, but they assure me that she is fine during the day.  The first day was pretty traumatic for both of us.  My friend dropped by to check on her later in the morning and said that she was playing (but she was also holding onto her lovey, so I know she was struggling).  I'm hoping that before long she will be as happy in this class as she was in the last one.  In this class they no longer sleep in cribs and are now on small cots.  According to her teachers, she is doing great on her cot and takes two naps during the day (one of which is usually close to 2 hours).  I'm not sure that she is actually asleep that entire time, but at least she is resting.  They also go outside on the playground twice a day, so every night she is filthy.

She loves bath time, but still prefers to be in her baby tub.  We've had to give her a bath in a regular tub a few times and she is not a fan.  She's finally gotten better about sleeping through the night.  She goes down anywhere from 6:30 to 8:00 and usually wakes up around 5:30.  I'd love for her to sleep past 6 am, but at least she is sleeping through the night.  She wakes up and cries out occasionally, but gets herself back to sleep pretty easily.  We had to cry-it-out multiple times because every time we got her sleeping through the night we went out of town or she got an ear infection and we were back to step one.  Speaking of ear infections, she had another one this past month (which brings us to a total of 4, I believe).

With her favorite toy - an empty water bottle

She is generally a pretty happy camper, at least as long as she doesn't get hungry (but who can blame her on that score?).  She is still wearing mostly 6-9 month clothes, but can fit into some 12 month outfits.  She's still in the size 3 diaper.

We love you sweet girl!