11 Months Old

The countdown until Grace's 1st birthday begins! Only 1 month left! This month I have felt more challenged as a parent and also just loved Grace's personality more and more everyday. This has definitely not been one of those months where things seemed to fly by but one where things have drug on a little bit more than usual. Below is the monthly summary...

Sleeping: Grace is still on the same schedule but I'm not sure how long it's going to last. Naps are at 9 and 1 and bedtime from 7-7. She might be closer to one nap a day than I realize. After having a cold that impacted her daytime sleep she finally got back to her normal schedule and then Daylight Savings Time came around. 5 times during the past week Grace has not slept well for her morning nap and taken a great afternoon nap. The other days she took a good morning nap and a bad afternoon nap. I've got an action plan to help me determine the best number of and best time for her naps over the next month so hopefully things will be settled by then.

Nursing: I'm still nursing Grace 4 times a day. She hasn't bit me this month so I think we tackled and conquered that issue quickly. I'm planning on starting to wean her off of nursing in about 2 weeks. For me waiting until the day she turns 1 is not that big of a deal and it will be nice to have her off of the daytime feedings in time for several events in the middle of April. I'm expecting the weaning process to take about a month and am planning on taking it slowly. I can't help but be a little anxious and I hope Grace does well with it.

Eating: I have totally forgotten what pureed baby food is and I love it! She had taken such an interest in table food and seemed to prefer it so we just started giving it to her all the time. I finished up the last of the food I made for her and we haven't looked back. All in all Grace only had pureed food for 4 months. She's been eating right along with us for most of March. It has made me work a little bit harder at meal planning but I think it is good for us. Although, there have been several meals where I'll heat up extra veggies just for Grace and not make any for Matt and me. Oops:)

Playing: This month has been fun to watch Grace learn and grow in her personality and playfulness. She is making so many more connections and learning so much everyday. One of her new favorite activities is dropping things behind her back, turning around to find it, and repeating the process. She also has her favorite books that she looks at constantly.

Walking: I gave this it's own category since I think there will be at least a couple months of updates on Grace's progress here. Over the last month Grace has gotten good at just standing on her own (as pictured above). A couple of weeks ago she took her first step. She did it 2 different times 2 days in a row and that was that. She had not tried again until this weekend when she took 2, 3, and even 4 steps to get to me. She did it several times! It was so cute because as soon as we stood her up to walk to me she would start shrieking with excitement because she knew what she was about to do. It's amazing seeing your little baby take steps that's for sure.

Communicating: Grace has gotten both mama and dada down now. She is not always consistent with them but she knows who we are. She has added "more" to her sign language and does it mostly while eating. I'm trying to teach her to pant like a dog when she sees dogs but she only does it to mimic me not to spontaneously identify a dog.

Those are the highlights I can remember for now. There are so many new things everyday it's hard to remember everything.