Abigail: 11 months

Nicknames:  Holding steady, same as last month: sunshine, favorite baby, sweet pea are our current favorites

 Temperament: happy, curious, excited, interested in everything, proud of herself as she figures out new things, only fussy when overly tired

Item/Toy We Love The Most: Abigail's shoes! they let us do lots of big kid things like walks and playing on the playground, plus the stroller and the rubber ducky song

Item/Toy You Love The Most: Abigail really likes things you can push, things that help her stand up, riding around in the snap and go without the infant car seat, and trying to eat boxes, books, tissues, and pieces of the carpet

Things We're Loving Most Right Now: seeing how you problem solve, watching you smile at yourself when you realize you can walk on your own from place to place, your laugh, your sense of humor, your communication skills, your good appetite

Things You’re Loving Most Right Now: starting to be an independent walking baby!, eating food, laughing, cuddling, playing 'sharing' games with us, nursing

Eating: We are still on about the same schedule for foods as last month: 4 solid meals and 5 or 6 nursing sessions, which are getting shorter.  Abigail is less interested in her bottle and we have tried faster flow nipples with limited success.  We are giving Abigail more finger foods and table foods, like pizza and stuffed pepper filling and quesadillas, with success, although we still do some purees which are met with a mixed reception.  Abigail is always especially interested in whatever we are eating.

Sleeping:  Abigail has had another fairly good month of sleeping, knock on wood.  We had a few more days for the early wake ups (5:30ish) but then they went away.  In addition, there have been several days where Abigail sleeps straight through from 7-6:15 or so, which has helped me sleep better as well.  She is still often up once a night to eat, though.  She has been going down easy for her first nap at home but fighting the second nap a little more.  There are many days where she only takes one 20-30 minute nap at daycare, but on the days when she takes two, we can tell because she can hold it together a little longer in the evenings. 

Playing:  Abigail became a very fast crawler this month but often crawled as far as she needed to so she could pull up, and then continued cruising. She has been getting a lot braver with walking, and now regularly walks on her own for longer and longer distances, although she can still be cautious at times.  This has made playing fun and different because of her mobility.  She enjoys exploring everything and is interested in checking things out! She loves going outside, going to the playground, and playing peek a boo and sharing games with us.  This is a really fun age.

Growth:  No doctor visit this month but we know Abigail is getting taller because she can reach more things!  She now can stand up on her tiptoes to get things she wants, including off the kitchen table!  She is beginning to strengthen her legs again so we have had less diaper leaks in cloth lately even though we have them on the modified rise still. We are moving in to more 12 month and some 18 month clothes, although the 9 month onesies still fit snugly. 

Abigail continues to chat with us a lot but is not saying any definite words yet.  We enjoy listening to her talk to us and to herself and is usually happy and eager to tell us about things.  She is definitely getting better all the time at understanding us and we know she will be talking herself before we know it!

A comparison: