Downhill to a year old

How did she get to be 11 months old?!? Wasn't it just yesterday that we brought her home?
It's crazy how much she's turning into a little girl and leaving the baby-ness behind. I wonder at what point she becomes a toddler and not a baby. Technically, she is toddling around. She's only been walking a week but she's improved so very much already. If she doesn't want to get anywhere fast, she'll attempt to stand and walk to her destination. If she does want to get somewhere fast, she prefers to crawl. The girl can cover some serious ground very quickly on all fours.

She's turning into a curious eater. This past weekend, she meticulously dropped all her food on the ground. Unfortunately, I think Craig and I both gave her a reaction to this game and she repeated it at every meal. I know she's playing us so I have to remember to not give her a reaction when she does such things. She will eat purees still, but I think those are quickly becoming a thing of the past. She'll gobble up what I serve her one day and toss it on the ground the next. She is still nursing four times a day (including one night feed), so I'm not too worried about her nutrition. She has tried blueberries and grapes and rejected both. She won't eat strawberries either. She will turn an apple into pulp in a mesh feeder but toss a bite-sized apple aside. She will eat pureed carrots but gag on cooked, whole carrots. She must really have texture issues.

She mimics like crazy. Her newest thing is to attempt to growl. She has this toy alligator that growls and I noticed her attempting to growl after the toy goes makes a sound. She opens her mouth and sighs (because she doesn't know how to make the growl sound with her throat) and will mimic me with the same sigh when I growl at her. I know she'll eventually figure out the growl. She also mimics clicking her tongue, screeching, moans and other little things. She will also touch my nose when I say the word "nose." I am working on her recognizing my mouth now.

She calls me "daddy." Not "dada" but "daddy." She can say "mama" but I know she refers to both Craig and me as "daddy." I know it's normal, but I want to hear my name!

I think we have a daredevil on our hands. Do you see how she's balanced on this toy?She loves this chair. She also loves to stand on it and use it as a step stool. Yesterday, Craig and I both saw her secure her little toes in the holes on our portable gate. She got one foot up and then the other and was just hovering over the carpet. Craig's dad thinks the gates will last about another six months before she learns how to climb over them. I really hope he's wrong.

She's found the tupperware cabinet and loves it.

She's still not sleeping through the night, but we're back to only once a night. Rarely, she'll sleep all the way through, but I never do. I'm so accustomed to waking up that I am either wired for a bit before I can go back to sleep or I wake up multiple times a night.

Speaking of sleep...Madeline is officially more comfortable falling asleep on her own now. It's been this way for quite a while now, but every now and then I would let her fall asleep on me while nursing. I would trim her nails and just hold her warm body for a while. Now, when she's done nursing she wants to play with me if I don't put her in her crib. She will maybe put her head on my shoulder for two seconds before she starts pulling my hair or jumping up and down.

I haven't talked about cloth diapers in a while, but I'm still loving it. She does wear a disposable at night because she still wakes up, but I'll try them at night when she consistently starts to sleep through. She hates diaper changes in the day and they're a million times worse at night, so I don't even bother. A box if diapers lasts us forever and I buy the Target Up&Up (which I recently discovered are latex and chlorine free, an added bonus for the cheap diapers!). We're in a great routine with the cloth and I love the lack of chemicals. I was a bit discouraged for a while there when my diapers started leaking, but I tried this fabulous detergent, Rockin' Green, and my diapers literally functioned and felt BRAND NEW again.

That's all I can think of for now. I cannot imagine life without her and I can barely remember life before her. There are a lot of things going on with Craig and me, but I'll write about that in another post.