You are killing me right now with how big you're getting. Seriously, kid. You're my baby. Can't you just stay little for a while?? But it's hard to stay sad when you are so amazing. And so.much.fun.
You are going to walk any minute. Seriously. We've been thinking you'd get to walking any minute for a while now, but now it's really true. Just a few days ago you took a step - toward your big sister. You can stand on your own, but you're still not sure about it for very long. You cruise along furniture and push a walker with great ease. You can't yet get up to standing by yourself in the middle of a room (without something to pull up on), but you're trying to figure it out.
You've started figuring out what things are for. You hold play phones up to your ear and say "Ehhhh?"; you babble and turn pages of books; if we hand you a shoe you'll try to put it on your feet. And my favorite: you got a baby doll for Christmas that you LOVE. We ask "Leah, where's your baby?" and you will look around for it, zoom over to it, grab it, wrap your little arms around it and put your head down it and say "awwwww!" (And then you'll try to eat it. We're working on that part.)
I think we can say you're officially saying at least two words. You occasionally say "bye-bye" ("buh buh") and wave, but the biggest word - the most repeated right now - and the one that makes me at once joyful and frustrated? "Daddy." Yep, it is unmistakable - "Da-ddy." I would argue that you use it for all three of your family members, but you ALWAYS say it when you see your Daddy. I love it because it melts my heart to see my favorite people love and appreciate each other, but at the same time, I wish you were saying "Momma"! :) (It's ok, you'll get there, I know.) You can sign a little bit, I guess, but we're not great at follow-through on these things, so you only know "bye-bye" (which is easy) and "all done" (which is essentially bye-bye with both hands).
You've switched almost completely to whole milk, and about 50% of the time it's from a sippy cup instead of a bottle. At mealtimes we struggle with this, because you love to play the "drop" game with your cup and milk goes flying everywhere. (I've honestly never met a spillproof sippy cup). But first thing in the morning and just before bed, we snuggle in the rocking chair with a bottle and I kiss your sweet cheeks and smell your little head. Oh, those are some of my favorite moments.
You are still so, so, so HAPPY. You squeal and smile and squeal some more. All the time. You love to give hugs and kisses, and you especially love to maul Eden. Luckily she loves to maul you right back, so you guys just hug and kiss each other and make your mommy turn into jelly. I love it.
One funny thing you've started (well, funny for now anyway) is mini-tantrum throwing. You get frustrated over something (sometimes we know what it is, often we don't) and throw yourself onto the ground on your stomach and cry. Approximately two and a half seconds later you get up and start crawling again, and Daddy and I are trying not to laugh at the hilarity of an eleven-month-old's "tantrum".
Another image that is often on my mind right now is you crawling toward the staircase (which, obviously, is strictly off-limits to you unless an adult is with you), turning to look at me with that little impish grin, and turning back around and crawling full speed toward the stairs. It's as if you're saying, "Look at me Mommy. I'm about to do something bad! See if you can catch me!!"
You eat incredibly well. You eat 100% table food, and there's very little we give you that you don't gobble up immediately. You LOVE feeding yourself. But if we're not fast enough, you start rocking back and forth really hard, banging your head on the back of the high chair (doesn't that hurt?) and going "uuuuhhhhhUUUUUUhhhhhhuuuuuuhhhhhhUUUUUUhhhhh" very loudly until we stop you by cradling the back of your head (seriously, I'm afraid you'll hurt yourself!). I think it's your way of saying "more." Let's try to find a less potentially-destructive manner of communication, OK?
Sweet Leah, you are such a JOY. I am so thankful for you and while I am sad to see you getting bigger, it's only because I love you so much just how you are right now that I can't imagine moving on from this moment. But I know from experience that what's ahead of us only gets better.
I love you little Munchie.
Love,
Mommy
3 comments:
Requesting some baby tips.
What finger foods does she usually eat?
And what kind of sippy cups do you use?
Thanks!
CM: happy to oblige!
We usually just give her well-cut-up pieces of whatever we are eating. This morning for breakfast she had a waffle (and, in fact, I just cut it into strips and let her bite it - we're practicing this). She eats all kinds of meat and fish, veggies and fruits, and every Saturday morning we all have French toast and eggs (we don't give her the bacon just yet).
For sippy cups, we have several kinds, all with handles, for her. Her FAVORITE is the Nuk latex one, and it seems to leak the least. We also have a Playtex one but it leaks a lot. She does really well with the kind with the pop-up straw, but it tends to fling milk everywhere so we only use those with water.
She's adorable! I can't believe she's almost one already
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