Calendar Girl - Eleven Months

Eleven months, you guys.  I know.  I know.  Someone hold me?  Please?

We were at baby class last week, and another mom asked me to remind her how old Ruby was.  I told her, and she said that her daughter was just a few weeks behind.  Then she said, "Are you getting all... you know... because her birthday is coming up?"  YES.  Yes I am.  It is just SO hard for me to believe that it has almost been a year since my baby girl entered the world.

I think it's safe to say that the eleventh month has been the most fun one yet.  SO much personality is in this little girl!  She loves to play, and makes up her own little games when she thinks something is funny (they usually involve putting something in my mouth).

Also, right back at the beginning of the month, she started clapping with regularity.  She'll also do it if you say "clap claps", or anything that rhymes with clap really.  She also claps when she likes something (especially songs), and if you start singing "All the Fish", she claps because she's anticipating the "bubbles, bubbles, bubbles, POP!" part.

Mid-clap

Around the same time, she started playing "so big!", which is also pretty much the cutest thing ever.  And if you say "sooooo" anything, she'll do so big.

Soooooooo big!

We actually ended up going to the doctor right at eleven months, so I know that this girl has done a fair bit of growing.  She tipped the scale at 18 pounds!  Over two pounds in two months?  Way to grow, kid!  She's also a whopping 28 inches tall, so I guess we should start thinking about getting her convertible car seat, huh?

We can tell she's been getting bigger by her clothes, too.  She's almost completely in 12 month clothes now, even Carter's which seem to last her the longest.  I won't lie, it's pretty exciting to finally have her fit in clothes on-schedule (though I know she'll still be comfortably in 12mo stuff after her birthday)!

So, why were we at the doctor?  Well, unfortunately, little miss is still not mobile.  She actually did figure out how to army crawl backwards (arms only), but she hates it very much and cries every time.  She also always backs herself into a corner and gets stuck.  Also, she still cannot pull herself all the way up to a stand (only gets as far as her knees), and though she'll stand against something if I put her there, she has absolutely NO desire to cruise furniture.

After another class of watching her (mostly younger) peers do laps around her, I called the nurse line to ask if I needed to be concerned.  The nurse decided to have us come in (that day, no less) just to make sure that there was nothing going on with her.  We saw an awesome doc (not our regular one), and he gave her a very thorough work over; checking her spine, her muscle tone, reflexes, everything.  He considered x-raying her hips, but ultimately decided he wasn't concerned enough to radiate her.

At this point, he's not too worried about her.  Yet.  Her spine was good, her hips were good, her muscle tone (which I learned is different than strength) is on the lower end of normal, but still normal.  She doesn't have any other markers for developmental delays, and apparently gross motor is the least important of all.  So for now, we wait.

Ruby did have a "win" for the appointment, though.  Apparently her pointing obsession is about 4-5 months advanced.  So I guess that's just what she's working on?  This kid points at everything.  But the rad part is, it's not random.  She points at stuff she likes, or stuff she wants.  And if she knows what something is, and you ask her where it is, she will point to it.  There were stickers of fish on the wall at the pediatricians, and she and I had talked about them earlier.  So the doc asked her, "where are the fish?" and she whipped around and pointed them out.  He was blown away.  I guess not all eleven month olds can do that!  So, I guess she's a non-mobile, baby genius?  We like to joke that she doesn't need to be able to crawl/walk to sit on her lab stool at Stanford. ;)

Eating is still going just as awesome, which is probably contributing to her growth.  She adorably crosses her feet when sitting in her high chair, points out what she wants to eat next (I still have to ration her food so she doesn't shove it all in at once), and when the meal is over, she carefully inspects the pocket of her bib for "smugs" - pieces of food that have dropped down there, that we say she's been smuggling.  We were at a Thai restaurant one day, and she just poured the contents of the pocket into her mouth.  The waitress saw, laughed, and exclaimed, "she doesn't want to miss a bite, does she?"  Nope, she does not!  She eats pretty much everything, including eggs now, enchiladas, falafel, nori, you name it.  Everything except nuts, strawberries (because I am allergic), and honey.  I hope she keeps this up!  She also has completely mastered all sippy cups, including those with valves, and straws!

She looooves to try to grab the camera!

Sleep, as usual, is kind of all over the place.  Nights continue to be mostly ok, with the occasional wtf night of constant waking.  And most often, if we have a night issue, it's waking several times shortly after putting her down, before finally settling into sleep.  She's often been waking, flipping over, army crawling backwards into the corner, getting stuck, then screams for help.  Ugh.

Then there are naps.  Oh, naps.  She will go a week taking awesomely consistent naps about 2 hours after waking up, that last a couple of hours, and I will think we finally have it down.

But then the next week, no naps.  

I don't get it at all.  She fell asleep in baby class and slept on the (hard!) floor with toddlers running all around and people talking and slamming doors.  But then will have a day at home where she won't nap longer than 20 min, if at all!  Maybe some day we will figure it out, but naps are not the hill I'm going to die on.

Perhaps part of the sleep woes, are that she got another tooth this month.  Her top left front tooth finally broke through.  The other one is kind of coming and going (but it's basically there), and these teeth seem to have been giving her more trouble than the first two.  Still, she's a pretty tough kid, pain-wise, so who knows?  

Also, she got her first REAL cold this month, which prompted me to go out and buy a Nosefrida (finally), baby chest rub, vapo-bath, and boogie wipes (which I thought were a gimmick, but are actually awesome).  The first night (before we had all that stuff) was rough.  But all of those things helped immensely (even though she really hates the Nosefrida).  Oh yeah, and Mr. G went out of town before she was over it, which sucked for both her and I!

How many are you, Toots?  Oh, eleven?

Ruby babbles almost constantly now, which is just pretty darn cute.  Mr. G is dada, I am dada (unless she's mad, then it's MOM MOM MOM MOM!), and Braidy is do-do, which we assume is dog dog.  Like I mentioned above, her receptive language is off the charts.  She understands a TON, and can point out bears, ducks, dogs, Braidy, Mommy, Daddy, grandparents, sippy, diaper, food, milkies, her clouds (mobile), jumpie-jumps (jumperoo), toys, and about a billion other things I can't think of.  If you tell her what something is, she usually remembers and can point it out later.  One day she was being a grouch, and I said, "Why so sad, thundercloud?"  She whipped around and pointed out her mobile.  Because she heard cloud.  She is obsessed with pointing to the "three little bears sitting on chairs" in Goodnight Moon, and finds them on every page.  And she waves bye-bye to people and things when we leave, or they go away.  Love.

Since I am late on this post (what's new), I feel like this last month of her babyhood is already just racing by, but like I said, the months just keep getting better.  And while I sometimes see glimpses of toddlerhood (hello, meltdown because I won't let you hold a can of beans in Whole Foods) that scare me (haha!), I just can't wait to spend the next month with her.  And the next.  And the next.  And the next.  My Ruby Jo, I'll eat her up, I love her so!