Well, at eleven months it has gotten pretty hard to get a picture of Little Bird laying on her back. I have to snap a bunch of pictures quickly before she rolls over and crawls off. So the selection and quality is not always the greatest. It is hard to believe that another month has gone by. By our best home measurements, LB weighs 20 lbs 12 oz and is 29 inches long. She certainly seems to have grown taller the last few weeks but who knows.
This month she has figured out how to walk. It is still pretty unsteady but she is now able to stop and regain her balance sometimes and then keep going. The furthest she has gone is about half the length of the living room (about 10 steps). But usually it is just 3-5 steps then she drops onto her bottom and crawls. She has also started to lurch/dive towards things she wants to grab, without really trying to catch herself or worrying about getting hurt.
With the living room redecorated, the futon has a little space behind it, which makes a great tunnel to crawl through. The other day while changing to the new futon covers, it was the perfect opportunity to get an unobstructed view of her crawling through.
Little Bird's eating habits vary from day to day. Some days she will eat cereal and yogurt and fruit for breakfast, ham/turkey and cheese and dried raspberries and Os and crackers for lunch, and just as much for dinner. Other days she throws most of it on the floor to feed Sadie and Sylvester. She still makes a pucker face each time she puts a dried raspberry in her mouth but she loves to eat them. She seems to not like sweet potatoes much anymore. She has started eating peas and is doing better at eating pears. Her favorites are dairy (cheese, yogurt, etc) and breads. So we start with her least favorites and progress to what she eats best by the end. She often also likes the squeezy baby food stuff (sometimes that is the only way to get her to eat any fruit other than bananas).
Little Bird got to finger paint for the first time. I made homemade finger paint with cornstarch and water, so it wouldn't matter if she put it in her mouth. Not only did she stick her fingers in her mouth, she would try to bend over and eat it off the tray. Yuck. Bust she had fun making a mess.
Last Sunday was in the 50's (the warmest weather in awhile), so we walked over to the neighborhood park and LB tried out the swing. She was not convinced that it is fun. Most of the time she had a very nervous look on her face, but once in awhile a smile would pop out. Caleb also took her down the slide and I am not sure how she liked that either.
Little bird loves to play with her two dolls now. Until last week she didn't really seem interested in dolls but now she will drag them around and try to bite their faces. She has gotten quite good at pushing her little stroller around, although half the time it is not the regular way and she is lifting it, tipping it over and then manhandling it to get it where she wants it. She still love to eat her little people, although Bat Girl has succumbed to Sadie's attach now too.
LB has figured out how to open the footstools to get out her toys and books. She loves pulling things out of the boxes. She is such a busy player, she never stays in one place for long. But this makes her a pretty good sleeper too. She still takes two naps during the day. At night we snuggle her into her sleep sack, sing some lullabies, lay her down, and she will be asleep in just a few minutes most nights. She likes to rub her hands against Caleb's face when his "whiskers" are a little long from not shaving for a few days.
Slowly LB is picking up more signs. She now knows baby, milk, dog, more, and all done. She says mom or momomom and dadada and seems to understand their association to each of us. She also will say" d"a in relation to Sadie and Sylvester sometimes. LB has some premolars that are slowly making their way to the surface. You can see her little swollen gums on the bottom.
Most tries at taking pictures end up like the one below, with LB on the move, crawling toward the camera to attack. She is such a funny little expressive girl.
