11th months!

This week, it seemed like I was running low on everything: time, sleep, gas, groceries, energy. I was late to a meeting at Central Office, with my gas light on the whole drive there; I went to the grocery store on Saturday, only to start another list that same evening. But even so, it was a good week; one of those busy but productive, tiring but fulfilling, exhausting but energizing weeks. For all those reasons, I am a few days behind on posting Emmy's 11 month photos. She turned 11 months old on Tuesday! The morning was too rushed to take her photos before daycare and work, so I tried to fit them in after I picked her up that afternoon. Boomer had to work late, and I was solo for the evening and not very optimistic about the outcome of the photos. There was just the smallest window of time from picking her up from daycare and then the perfectly choreographed routine of bath and bedtime, so I hurriedly dressed Emmy in the 11-month onesie, snapped a bow in her hair, and started clicking with my camera. The blurriness shows just how active our girl is; the standing up shows the inquisitiveness and independence of a little girl exploring her world; the tears at the end show a unhappy baby that wants to be held after being at daycare for 10 hours. I thought about trying again another night...perhaps I could get better smiles? Maybe it would be clearer with Boomer's newer phone? But the fact that I have kept up with the monthly photos at all is an accomplishment to be celebrated. They couldn't be more perfect to me!

As you can see in the photos (not the crying one!), Emmy is very mobile. She can pull herself up on almost any surface. She has gotten confident enough to only use one hand to steady herself; it seems that she is very close to taking that first step. She has gotten pretty quick on all fours, and she loves making laps around the downstairs; she is most fascinated with trying to grab the flowers on the coffee table in the living room. She hasn't quite discovered the stairs yet, and for that, I am very grateful. We have protectors in most of the electrical outlets and have removed the white rubber pieces on the springy door stops, both of which she likes to play.

Emmy is in 12-month clothes and size 3 diapers. She continues to get a lot of her nutrients from breastmilk. I still nurse her in the mornings, and then she has three 5-oz bottles during the day and an 8-oz bottle at night. She also eats two (sometimes 3!) Step 2 Gerbers each day and one serving of rice cereal, with also small bites of real food and other transitional foods like puffs and veggie crisps. She has a mouth full of teeth, 8.5 to date. She is fairly neat when she eats, although we haven’t really allowed her to play with her food much. Mommy and Daddy still control the spoon, but she is doing great at picking up food from her tray and bringing it to her mouth. We just recently upgraded her portable booster seat to a true high chair. And she seems to like it!

She loves saying "hi", and she is starting to reach for people when she wants to be picked up or held. One of her favorite games is playing hide-and-seek with Daddy. Boomer had jury duty again this week, so he pulled double shifts going between the courthouse and the high school. He still made time for his little girl though, and I captured these sweet photos of the two of them. I love spying on them from the baby monitor.

 

During a family grocery store run, I couldn't pass up a photo op with Emmy driving the cart. (We switched to a regular cart...she's not quite big enough to ride around in this one yet.)

In the next few weeks, I'll be planning a birthday party. It is hard to believe how fast the time has gone! For now, I will do my best to forget the grocery shopping and the laundry, and enjoy snuggles with my not-quite 1-year-old.