Eleven Months

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.

Mom has a Mom (and shes LB's grandma)

This weekend Grandma came to visit for just a couple days. She arrived late at night on Camberly's birthday and left to go home on her own. As is usual when she visits, it was a whirlwind of spending time with Little Bird and doing some project around the house. We had been slowly making plans to redecorate the living room, so she took that on full force. Thursday was busy finding a mirror and new rug. Then Friday, Grandma took care of Little Bird while we both worked. It sounds like they had a lot of fun together. Saturday  was busy again putting the living room back together (pictures to come eventually).

While she was here, Grandma taught LB to raise her hands above her head "touchdown" after she would knock over a tower of blocks. (We haven't quite figured out the correlation between blocks and a touchdown.) Grandma is so nice she let LB play with her ipad and attack the computer keyboard. The read books together and played the piano. They did bath time and storytime. It was such a fun visit.

A Hard Week

Poor Little Bird. This week has been tough for her. She has had a cold and she is getting one of her premolars. So she is dripping out her nose and drooling like crazy. With low fevers coming and going, multiple wake ups during the nights,just wanting to be held, lots of ear pulling, and head bonking, we went to the pediatrician to make sure it wasn't her ears. But they were just fine--its "only a cold."

And unfortunately she has passed it on to her parents. We started feeling the congestion hit a couple days after she did. She has developed a red "mustache" from all the nose wiping.  Then to top it all of she hit the edge of her eye on the corner of the futon armrest and ended up with a bruise.

But even though the nose is still running, she seems to be feeling a little better and is back to crawling around and even trying to take a few steps.

Busy Body

Little Bird is exploring and getting into things more and more. She has learned how to stand on her tip toes to reach into drawers or on top of table edges. And she grabs whatever her little hands can get a hold of. Anything that can be pulled down, ends up on the floor. LB has also gotten very good at climbing over obstacles, like the diaper bag that used to keep her out from under the quilt rack and basket of dog stuff.

She seems drawn to Sylvester, always trying to get him, even though he is a little leery of her "hugs" and doesn't usually hang around for long. She has fun exploring under Camberly's desk to see what fabric or sewing stuff she can pull down or knock over.

She is such a busy girl and she keeps us on our toes. We never know what she will figure out next.

Ten Months

 Another month has come and gone and Little Bird continues to keep us on our toes. By our best home measurements, she hasn't gotten any taller or gained any weight. Our methods are not the most precise but it is also probably due to a combination of her eating habits and constant motion. Now that Little Bird knows she can feed herself, she will only eat a little off the spoon and wants to do the rest on her own. She is also a fickle eater--one day she scarfs down cooked carrots and the next just throws them all on the floor. This is true of a lot of other foods too--pears, freeze-dried raspberries, sweet potatoes, scrambled egg. So her intake is probably not as consistent as it was when it was all bottles. The things she almost always eats are cheese, yogurt, Joes Os, and crackers. Our little dairy and grain girl.

Little Bird has been content to keep crawling and cruising. She doesn't currently seem to interested in balancing to stand on her own or to walk. But I doubt this will last for long. She uses the skills she has to get all over the place and into everything. This month she discovered the bottom stair. Usually she just goes the the stairs to pound on them but a couple times she has gotten herself up onto the first step. She has gotten very good at climbing over things to get to her target and she will stand on tip toes and stretch so far to try to get phones and computers.

We got her a walking toy/stroller to push around. At first she was much more interested in climbing onto the box and playing with it. Now she is mostly interested on the toys that are attached and the little musical bear. But if we stand her up behind it she will push it as she walks along. But as soon as she hits an obstacle and can no longer go straight, she is done. She needs to learn how to turn.

 It is amazing how she finds things to put in her mouth. She thinks it is so fun and often shows it off to us. She has gotten good at pushing it out with her tongue so we can get it out. So cooperative.

Grandma will be proud of how LB lets us brush her teeth every night. She is getting much better at not trying to bite the bristles as we brush.

We have been trying to teach Little Bird a few signs so she can communicate with us on some basic things. She watches a video "Baby Signing Times" where they teach the signs with music. She is most interested in the introduction song and very quickly learned the sign for baby. When you say the word baby now she puts her hands together and rocks her arms. She will pat her leg for dog (although she says dah for the dogs too). And most recently she has figured out milk. So much fun.

Speaking of dogs, they are going to have to be wary of this girl. More and more she crawls over to get them.  We are trying to teach her to be soft with them because often she grabs two hands full of hair and then bites their hair and pulls it out. No wonder Sylvester is a little wary. Sadie just takes it and sometimes it looks like a wrestling match as Little Bird tries to grab a hold of her. Sadie gets her right back though with a licking attack.

Little Bird's hair is slowly growing, mainly on the top. Right after baths it is a little curly up there. Such a little joy. We love you LB.