Lets train

April 28 | Eleven Months



(trying to BlogStomp these pictures instead of Photoshopping....turned out just ok, but whatever. )



Likes: Pointing and grunting for communication, playing keep away, open mouth kisses, tearing up train tracks, finding the smallest possible specks of dirt to eat off our floor, shredding paper products, opening kitchen cabinets, smiling when we tell her 'no', and eating like a linebacker.

Dislikes: diaper changes, playing with her own toys, sitting down in the bathtub



 

Biggest Achievement of the Month: sleep progress (!)

Biggest Challenge of the Month: into everything/trouble maker/exhausting





Some outtakes for you---giant hair bow is sort of a joke and sort of awesome. She loooooved having it on her head, obvi.







The Mecca (aka Sleep): We are finally getting somewhere with this insomniac! Most of the month included once-nightly wake ups, our trip to MO threw everything off, but now we are back on track with one or ZERO wake ups per night. Can I get an Amen? She legitimately slept through the night without making a peep for two nights in a row recently which is a first for our little girl. She also clocked two other nights of STTN in April bringing her monthly total to four nights of magic. Again, a first. Sometimes I will hear her wake up and fuss but she goes back down alone. Occasionally Nate will rock her back to sleep but she's not nursing in the night anymore (except for last night but I won't count that one because I was gone for bedtime and we needed to reconnect at 4 am, apparently).

The only thing we've done differently is that I am not nursing her immediately before bedtime or naps anymore. At night we will do baths, jammies, then nurse downstairs to keep her awake. We will play a bit, then back upstairs for books, pacifier and rocking. I tried giving her a bottle a few nights right before bed to really tank her up but she wouldn't drink much of it so I'm skipping them now. She eats so much real food for dinner I can't see how she would possibly be hungry just an hour later.

Naps are usually amazing, too---which I still say daytime naps (ie Mommy breaks) are even more important than nighttime sleep for my mental sanity. She goes down at 9am and 1pm each day. Sometimes she will sleep for 2+ hours at each nap and other times it's more like 1 hour in the afternoon and 2 in the morning. AMAZING, right? Especially when her afternoon nap coincides with Truman's. There is a God and he allows my children to sleep again. Life is good.





Temperament/Personality: The best. She is hilarious and really showing us her sense of humor these days. My favorite: she will hold out a toy and grunt at us, then when we try to take it from her she will rip it back to her chest and giggle, thrusting it back at us again to repeat her silly game.

She loves to imitate us with fake coughs, lip smacking, sticking her tongue out, and screeching. She will clap, give open mouthed kisses, and dance. This little girl is a firecracker with opinions and sass and drama....but she is also the sweetest, happiest little baby I know. We often say that she is going to be our challenging kid as she grows up---Truman was never INTO everything like this. We are in trouble and we don't mind;)









Talking/Communication: Saying 'Dada' mostly appropriately. Also, I swear she is saying 'All done' after eating but obviously it's a little muffled and hard to claim as a true 'word' at this point. She's a loud mouth, this one, and will babble non-stop. Again, I don't remember Truman being this vocal this early on. Picturing notes from school being sent home to say we have the chatter box of the class that is distracting everyone from learning. She can shake her head 'yes' and 'no' and I guess it's appropriate at times but more likely she just picks one and does it after we ask her a question. Still adorable to think about her responding to us a little more each day.

She loves books now that we are actually taking the time to read them to her. Any 'touch and feel' book is a favorite because she loves to touch those soft shapes with authority. I think it's really cute how she can tell which part of the page is 'different' and begs to be touched. She loves books in general and only tries to eat them half of the time.

Pointing at what she wants is a new thing this month and wow, she really knows what she wants. Usually it's something not baby friendly like a knife, my glass of ice water, or the chandelier. I've found that if any of us has a whole apple she will fa-reak out until we give it to her, pointing and grunting and squirming like crazy. She's getting her point across to us, alright.





Eating: Ridiculously good at shoveling all sorts of food into her tiny mouth. Turkey dogs, sausage links, scrambled eggs, bread and butter, yogurt, cereal, all fruits, and of course any sweets don't stand a chance with our little garbage disposal. It's pretty nice to have her clean up all of Truman's (numerous) left overs.



As for milk, she is still nursing about four times daily when we are home together: first thing in the morning, after first nap, after second nap, and after bath at bedtime.  On daycare days she takes two bottles that have 4oz of breastmilk and 2oz of whole milk---but she hasn't been loving my cocktail mixture so much. Need to start moving towards all whole milk but she is probably going to protest a change, like always.







Has mastered a straw and LOVES her some water in a sippy cup. Again, not so into milk in a sippy but we will get there.





The Superficial: Sad to say that her famous grimace face of last month has faded away;( But with those bright baby blues and red curly-ish locks, sister is my little heartbreaker baby. She's still incredibly long and has bumped up to 18 month or the 18-24 month clothing which means I had to go on a shopping spree for her (twist my arm). A lot of this bigger stuff is a little roomy in width but because of her length we are struggling with anything 12 month sized now.






Teeth: No new ones this month, still six total. Less drooling lately, too.

Motor Milestones: She's started letting go while standing still for about two seconds at a time now and Nate said she climbed 3 of our stairs the other day. Uh-oh.







Out and About: Us gals flew to Missouri together this month, which was Cecelia's second round-trip flight. She was flexible enough to get bounced around from house to house, different environments, etc--but we really suffered in the sleep department with all of that stimulation.

On an everyday basis, sister LOVES to get out of the house and behaves really well in social settings. Well, as long as she is with one of her parents, that is. She and Truman spent about three hours at Erin's house while Nate and I had a date night this month. And, well, Cecelia was sort of a hot mess the whole time being in a different house without her parents there for security. My opinionated little girl.



Firsts: Hair cut by mommy (bangs only), first time being babysat by someone other than family or Lori, first real shoes, first taste of sand, first time playing on a playground, first time on swings, first time in a convertible car seat (we need to make the switch for good!)








Little Sis and Big Bro:

Truman's eleven month post was an interesting one to read, yet again. Both kids are full of opinions at this age but Cecelia has to be a little more 'spunky', I think.  Truman was only nursing once per day and then drinking FOUR bottles (30oz) of milk after that? Wow. Totally different than Cecelia's four nursing sessions and 12oz at Lori's only. Truman was becoming picky with solids and CC just is NOT picky at all. T was 23 pounds at this point and I'm sure CC is nowhere near that---I'm guessing 19-20 at the most. Truman was sleeping even better than Cecelia does right now but he was starting those 5:30am wake ups and if I remember correctly that went on for quite some time. Cecelia's night sleeping is still too erratic to really say she has any pattern for waking up each day 'early' but I could see her STTN but starting her days at 5:30, for sure. I don't think Truman was even pulling up to stand at this point and Cecelia definitely has him beat in the mobility category, which makes me wonder if she will walk way before his 13-14 month mark. We shall see. Also, I find it hilarious that I thought Truman had a lot of hair at this age. HA! Cecelia has always boasted the gorgeous locks but Truman's round head is pretty unbeatable, too. It's so fun to compare kids!

Currently these two are still getting along really well, aside from the quarrels about sharing toys. Cecelia really does take it like a champ with Truman rips away everything from her grubby little hands and we are still working on patience with T. His favorite thing to do, when he sees her crawling towards his tracks, is scream at the top of his lungs (in a girly fashion) : "Ceeeeeeeeee Ceeeeeee! Nooooooooo! Mommyyyyyy!" That's my cue to retrieve the tornado baby before Truman creates a road block with his body. I can't wait until they are both old enough to play nicely together for an extended amount of time. I can picture it, but we aren't quite there yet.













I love being your mommy, Cecelia. I really can't believe you are nearing your first birthday but I'm trying not to be too sad about it because it's SO much fun to watch you grow up and change each month. My little stink pot. I love you so.

December 28 | Seven months



Likes: Cuddling, nursing, sitting up, eating solid food, smiling, mommy, her jumparoo, standing with assist, shrieking, gnawing on everything possible

Dislikes: cumbersome winter coats, attempts at replacing pacifiers in the middle of the night, being consistent with sleep





Biggest Achievement of the Month: improving nighttime sleep

Biggest Challenge of the Month: ahem, sleep. ;)



The Mecca (aka Sleep): I posted a little about our ups and downs this month already, but this was the month that we tried something different because our previous sleep habits were NOT working anymore. And operation 'try ANYTHING' worked for a bit. Cecelia slept up to 9 hours at a time most nights, waking just once or maybe twice to eat. She gets a bottle from daddy at the first wake up and then I usually nurse her anytime after that. Most nights she is up around 3 and again at 5. Sometimes she will sleep past 7 in the mornings but other times she is up at 6 with the rest of us.

We had a little lapse in progress there for a bit around Christmas with the chaos of routine-less days. She was waking up every few hours and then giving us hell returning to sleep. A few nights she was awake for hours at a time and it was obviously pretty rough on our whole house. But the past few nights have been better---getting back to her usual 1-2 wake ups that don't last more than 15 minutes a piece. I HAVE been lazy when she wakes for the second time in a night and instead of nursing her in the rocker and putting her back to the crib, I am just bringing her to bed again. I keep telling myself that after the new year I will be strict again but that little decline in sleep over Christmas really threw me for a loop and I'm freaking tired. ;)

Naps are kind of all over the place and again, over the Christmas craziness she got into a bad habit of being held for all of her naps (ahem, out-of-town grandparents!!). She's getting better already and is falling back into her schedule of naps that last about 1-1.5 hours at 9ish and 12ish. Sometimes if those naps are her annoying 20 minute ones she will need a third nap in the afternoon but that is really hit or miss. There are naps that she sleeps for over 2 hours and there are naps that last 10 minutes---and of course, snapping her eyes open as soon as we lay her in the crib is still a fave. But again, lately she is better about soothing herself back down. Now if I could just get her to nap at the same time as big brother every day!





Temperament/Personality: She's so awesome, you guys. Content, happy, smiley, talkative. She still has a few moments of being overly demanding (usually in the evening hours) but for the most part she is just a doll. I forgot how things just get a lot easier after the 6 month mark. Sleep helps immensely, too.



Eating: Nursing is still chugging along and we are just now starting to have the pop-on-pop-off sessions as she is getting more distracted during the day. If I take her up to the nursery where big brother and loud daddy aren't bombarding her with interesting sounds, she nurses really well. I think she is starting to show preference for my right 'big producer' side and leftie never really feels that full to me anymore, but I can still get decent milk from it when pumping. It's interesting how our nursing relationship is gradually changing but overall, she hasn't changed that much. Still loves the boob and I'm grateful we've made it this far without supplementing.

She's taking 12 oz at Lori's now and still nurses about 3 more times during the day and usually twice at night. So about 7 times in 24 hours, I'd say. Her nursing sessions aren't quite as long as they used to be but she still stays latched on for a good 10 minutes or more, I think. I don't know. Definitely not keeping track of the details anymore.

She's also taking solids twice a day and baby girl can house some purees. We gave her a jar of carrots the other night and she took freaking 4 oz of it like it was nothing. In addition to a lunch of about 2 oz that day, with snacks of puffs and yogurt melts. I can see her becoming really obsessed with feeding herself chunks of food pretty quickly here, which is fine by me. Sliced pears and bananas are easy enough for her to grab and actually ingest a bit, too. Besides the chunky food, 90% of her purees are things I've made her myself. Pretty sure she likes the store bought smooth purees better than my slightly grainy versions but whatever. I've made her squash, sweet potato, pumpkin (okay, from a can but still), apples and pears. She's had store-bought carrots and bananas and loved them both a LOT. I still want to do another post dedicated to her transition to solid foods so I'll stop rambling now, but it's so fun to watch her eat real foods!



The Superficial: She's wearing all 12 month clothing now because of her length. Some of her 9 month onesies sort of fit but all of the new clothes she got for Christmas are 12 months. They look huge on the hanger like there is NO WAY she will fit into them, but sure enough! Fits like a charm. No clue how much she weighs or how tall she is this month but she is a solid baby girl.

Her hair is kind of filling in these days, little baby-hair regrowth hanging out on under her awesome long bangs. Those big blues are still taking my breath away and combined with her carrot top? Stop it.



Teeth: Still only the bottom two but man, I SWEAR two more on the bottom are on the cusp. And the four top teeth appear to be 'right there' too. I'm poking my finger in her mouth daily now, praying to the teeth gods to show some mercy. Let there be a reason for random crappy sleep!





Motor Milestones: This was a huge month for her motor skills! She is now rolling over consistently from back to tummy (left only) and occasionally from tummy to back. She found her feet finally, loves to do the airplane on her stomach with all limbs lifted off the ground, and is even trying to get up on all fours. Her belly is actually clearing the ground a bit and I can't believe how strong she is getting! She'll sit up unsupported while playing with toys but I still feel best putting the Boppy behind her for insurance. Our girl is finally/sorta on the move and it's exciting but also frightening to think about a fully mobile baby. Also, as I mentioned above, she can feed herself puffs and chunky foods pretty well--pincer grasp and also a crazy 'gimme' fist hold are her favorites. ;) She is such a grabby girl, too---will reach for everything in sight these days and I've had a few handfuls of my hair tugged with authority. My nose and lips have also been clawed off my face a few times. The girl loves to explore with her hands and mouth.







Out and About: mostly just lots of Christmas shopping this month. Baby girl loves going into stores in the Ergo carrier---almost always takes a snooze in there if we are out more than 20 minutes. I hope that doesn't end anytime soon. Wish she would fall asleep in her car seat but she totally despises it again.



Firsts: First consistent rolls, first Christmas, first solid foods



Favorite Baby Gear: The Boppy for seated protection, our old high chair for meals, and numerous hand-me-down toys I pulled from the attic for miss teething queen. And I bought her the next size up in pacifiers---I think they are 6-12 month ones now. Still loving Nuk brand and can't get over how big those pacis seem!





Little Sister and Big Brother:



I guess the seven month mark was a big one for Truman, too! He had just conquered his first ear infection, his first airplane ride, we had just started at Lori's house, and he was really getting into solids. So basically, this post made me smile a lot at the similarities and of course the differences between children. Both are just getting into rolling and sitting and GRABBING everything in site. Both are great eaters with solids and nursing is still going well---but this is the point when I start to get nervous about my supply matching up to these growing babes. Both kids are not the best sleepers at this point and I was feeling guilty about keeping T in our bed for part of the night back then. Not as guilty now, since I know it won't last forever, but I do feel like I need to crack down on sleep habits again. Soon. Truman was over 19 pounds at this point and there is no way CC is that huge, but she is every bit as tall as he was and they both boasted 12 month clothes at 7 months of age. Both just have their bottom two teeth and I think CC's are a lot bigger than T's were back then, too. So basically, at 7 months both of my kids are a LOT alike: a little slow with the motor stuff, tall, good eaters, and poor sleepers. And I love the hell out of them for those little quirks;)

Currently Cecelia and Truman are still madly in love. I feel like I type this every month but I'm just blown away by the love they have for each other already. Truman can't get enough kisses from his sister and he's always asking where she is, demanding that I go get her so they can 'play'. I can't wait until next year at this time when both of them are bombing around the house like little tornadoes---maybe I CAN wait for that part, but when it happens it will still be really cute;)







Another month down, baby girl. I am so proud to have you as my daughter. You are my favorite Christmas gift this year, in case you didn't know how wanted you were. I love you, Cease.