11 months!

Dear Lucy,

You are 11 months old!  I can hardly believe it, but the calendar doesn't lie.

Well, you've been switching it up on us lately, you little rascal!  Most notably, through the behavior I spoke about in my last post.  You know, the way you would make yourself throw up whenever we would put you down to sleep the other week.  Yup, you really hit us out of left field with that- we couldn't figure out what was wrong!  After several days of confusion, Daddy and I determined that you just needed a little extra attention and comfort from us for some reason, because you also turned into a cuddly baby during that same time.  You would hug us, which was new.  You would put your head down on our shoulder when we carried you.  You would hug over the railing while you stood up in your crib.  A couple times you even grabbed my hand/wrist and put it up to your face (the same way that you hug your stuffed animals) while I was feeding you.  You've kind of backed off on most of this again, which leads me to believe that you really weren't feeling yourself that week.  You didn't seem to be sick, but maybe you just weren't feeling good, maybe because you're teething.  I've heard that babies become extra cuddly when they're not feeling well, which makes sense.

I gotta say though, kid- it got pretty bad for a while there, before it got better.  There were a couple days in the midst of it when you cried every time I tried to put you down for a nap.  I wanted you to nap and I didn't want you to throw up, so I picked you up.  You clung onto me and snuggled into my arms and chest.  I could tell that you really wanted and needed to be close, so I laid down with you, and we snuggled up together on the floor of your room, and we both took naps that way.  I felt a little guilty "giving in," because we never want to start bad habits, but I was exasperated, and my mommy sense was telling me that you needed it, so I felt like it was okay to make these exceptions.  Normally you're an independent sleeper and we hadn't napped like that since you were maybe 5 months old, so I felt like a couple days here and there wouldn't be much harm.  And truth be told, it was kind of nice to be snuggled up like that with you again. You didn't throw up, and you did take a few good naps that way, as did I. :)

Since then, we started a new going-to-sleep routine.  Now, instead of putting you directly into your crib, we hold you a little longer before putting you down, and we leave your crib soother off.  It seems to be working.  *knock on wood*  We bought a video monitor the other week, so now we can watch what you do before you fall asleep- which is kind of fun.  Evidently, you crawl and roll around, sit and sometimes stand up, plop back down, roll over some more, take out your pacifier, put it back in, play with your elephant lovey, roll around some more, and eventually lay down and stay down, and fall asleep.  Sometimes it takes less than 5 minutes for you to fall asleep, sometimes it takes a half an hour, or even longer.  But as long as you're happy in there, we don't care!  You seem to have found a new favorite spot to sleep in- at the far end of your crib, furthest from the door.

This afternoon you went down for your nap as usual, but after about an hour, you woke up, started to cry, and after a few minutes, launched into the "barf cry" and - yup, you guessed it - you threw up.  Apparently, crying will most definitely still lead to vomit around here if we allow it to escalate.  Lesson learned.  Hopefully, this will not become a daily ritual like before.  I think we're finding ways to soothe you so that you don't get to that point, but today was a reminder that we still need to be watchful.

Changing the subject... after we cleaned you up this afternoon, we brought you into the living room to play and you stood up- all by yourself!  You've been practicing recently, and are getting better and better at it.  You usually do this when you're standing up, holding on with one hand and reach to grab an object with another hand, and then grab with both hands, thus letting go of whatever you were holding onto.  Today we saw you stand there for a few seconds before falling down!  You're also walking, also while holding onto things, but you're getting better at walking and navigating around things.  Such a big girl!

Without wanting to jinx anything (we all know I'm big on jinxes), you've been eating well recently.  We got a new high chair for you, one with a high back and a shoulder harness, since you used to twist around too much in your other booster-style chair.  The new chair is working out well, so we'll save te other one for when you're a little older.  You're opening your mouth to spoons again- hooray!  You still have a thing for keeping a few bites worth of food in your mouth before swallowing.  Please note: this leads to gagging- try not to this.  Sometimes we have to give you either a bite of finger food (which requires chewing/gumming) or a sip of water, to get you to swallow.

Other times, you swallow just fine, like at dinner tonight. :)  You've been drinking pretty well, too.  We've been feeding you milk (formula) mostly by way of a big dropper.  There, I said it.  I'm not sure what "they" (child development experts, advice books, and the like) would have to say about this method, but it's imperative that we get at least 15 ounces of formula in you each day, so we're going with a "by any means necessary" M.O. right now, until you get better at cup drinking.  It's working, you're getting your formula (as long as you don't throw it up later), so I'm okay with it.  You still practice from drinking water out of your sippy cup, so I'm pretty confident this won't hinder your ability to drink out of cups in the future.

We're wondering if any of your quirks as of late have to do with teething.  We've grown accustomed to attributing any out-of-the-ordinary behavior to the general category of teething by now.  And, you do have two new teeth coming in for sure, and you may be getting ready to cut more, so who knows.  Your two front teeth on top are coming in.  You won't look like an upside-down bunny anymore pretty soon. :)

You are so smart!  We can ask you where certain things are in the house, such as pictures, flowers, or the dog, and you will look at them or point. (Your version of pointing is to wave- so cute.)  You love your picture and word books (books with a single object and word on a page).  And boy oh boy, have you been "talking" up a storm lately!  You babble a lot - you were especially chatty today - sometimes it really sounds as if you're really talking to us, just in a language we don't understand.  You haven't said your first "real" word yet, although you do say "ma ma ma" and "da da da" frequently, and we're fairly certain you know who mama and dada are. :)  You also say something that sounds like, "This?" while pointing at things.  We interpret that to be you asking us what certain things are, so we tell you.  You do this a lot.  It's pretty cute!

In fact, you're pretty - no, very - cute in general.  No matter what's going on, even during the rough days, your cuteness outshines it all.  You kill me on a daily basis with your cuteness, your sweetness, your funny sense of humor, and your spunky personality. 

We love your smile, your squeals, and your giggles.  We love your chubby cheeks, your arm rolls, your chunky thighs, and your little fingers and toes.  We love everything about you!