11 Months Old Today

Kaitlyn is 11 months old today. It has by far been her biggest month in visible development. This month Kaitlyn has learned to crawl, pull to stand and has even started to cruise! WOW!! She has been a very busy girl these last few weeks!! This month we have also been seeing a lot of verbal development and reactivity also. She will now answer questions by nodding (no and even YES) and will also comment on things too. When her cup falls or when Krista or Erik get into trouble she now says "Uh-Oh!" It is areally funny to hear because she prononunces it perfectly and it is always right on cue! She also does a lot of "tricks" as I like to call them. She will put her hands over her eyes when I ask to play "peek-a-boo", she will clap when I ask, she will wave "bye-bye" on command also. She also gives hugs when we ask and LOTS of big sloppy kisses too With respect to verbal development, she can say--mama, dada, buba (for the tub), coco (for herself), ni-ni (for night-night), guck (for duck), momo (for her favorite teddy bear), and I'm SURE I'm missing a few others.

As far as eating goes Kaitlyn has only tried a handful of new foods. She seems stuck eating the things she likes and doesn't like to try new tastes or textures. She LOVES pasta and bread, any fruit (except the sour ones like blueberries or even strawberries). She isn't into the high protein foods--she does seem to tolerate turkey and cod, but does not like salmon or other fish at all. She loves carrots (but that is it for the veggies and she is STUBBORN about this), she likes saltine crackers, cheerios, biscuits, pretzels, yogurt, and her new favorite is cottage cheese. She loves water also, and I've recently started to give her a little pre-made milkshake drink for babies made with cereal which she will sip (and take a max of 1-2 oz 30/60 ml). She is still nursing several times a day (I admit I don't count) and also several times at night. I do plan on weaning her sometime after her first birthday. I've really been enjoying nursing her, but know that once I wean her she will sleep through the night and we BOTH need that! I nursed Erik for much, much longer than one year and it was wonderful, but I do believe that the majority of the health benefits come during the first year. We've nearly a reached that goal, with not even one single bottle so far in her life.

Kaitlyn is a funny little one, she loves attention and people and likes to make people laugh. She will crunch up her nose and blow out of her nose until you do the same thing. Ultimately it gets us laughing and that is what she is after! She gives kisses and hugs whenever we ask. She always smiles for strangers and LOVES being out and about. She adores riding in the shopping cart or going for walks in her 3 wheel stroller. She is very "portable" which is good since she NEEDS to be. TODAY we moved from the baby carrier carseat to the BIG GIRL carseat. She looks SO small in the big Britax seat! I've been waiting for her to stabilze at 9 kg and also to come as close as possible to 1 year before the transition. I would have waited until 1 year, but really felt that with her legs being crunched up it was no longer safe for her. It was getting hard to put her in the rear facing position when she stretched her legs out, and I know that would be dangerous for her spine and knees if we had to stop quickly. She seems quite strong, so I think forward facing from 11 months is fine now. Her baby carrier actually goes up to 13 kg and she is just a tad over 9 which is the lower limit for the new seat. I will miss the carrier because it was so easy snap into the car (onto the base) and also onto the stroller. We'll get used to the new system soon. Krista and Erik were thrilled today to have all 3 kids facing the same direction!

So that is a brief snapshot of Kaitlyn and her development this month. I can't belive that this time next month she will be ONE YEAR OLD! We'll enjoy every second of this last month though before it is over.