11 Months

11 Months.  And you know what, this time it feels like it.  Don't get me wrong, I'm still broken hearted that next month she won't be an infant anymore, and it still does not feel like its been a year since she was born, but she does seem like an 11 month old now.

Baby Belle really is almost a toddler.  She took her first unassisted step last week (1/22/13) and has repeated a few times.  Never more than one, but she has done it.  Sam says, "She can only take a step when there is a small opening."  Pretty much, bud!  She is no longer afraid of the push toys, but cannot steer them at all so often ends up running into walls.  She stands on her own for up to 30 seconds at a time, intentionally letting go.  She knows she can do it now.  Will she be walking by her birthday?  Stay tuned...

Still no teeth.  But I swear she's getting one.  She has been gumming those frozen peas that she previously considered far too cold for human consumption.  And she's been a bit more fussy than usual.

She is developing more of her own opinions and doesn't hesitate much to express them in the form of grunts, cries, and babble.  She has food preferences, a dislike for stillness on the changing table, and pure adoration for her brother.  Unless he holds onto her feet when she's trying to crawl.

She is still nursing, but more for sport than for nourishment at this point.  She generally prefers real food to her milk, except for first thing in the morning.  We like our quiet time together until brother barges in to find us.  She eats most table foods now, except that she can't chew meat.  Sometimes I puree for her whatever we're having for dinner, sometimes she eats it as is.  A couple of times I have cooked ONE meal that all four of us ate (spaghetti, soup, chili) - life changing.  I still give her some baby food, but that is working its way out of the picture slowly.

She still naps twice per day, but the morning nap is becoming less crucial to her.  Poor girl still has her scheduled changed up depending on what the rest of us are up to, but thankfully she still flows just fine.  And she sleeps 11 hours at night with no peeps at all.  If only we could get Sam to sleep until 7...

She is still small, but she hasn't been measured in two months.  She wears 9 and 12 months clothes, but I'd be lying if I didn't say there's some 6 month stuff she still fits into.  She wears size 2 shoes.  She is getting a little bit more hair, and its looking like it will be curly all over!  I got her some spray on/leave in conditioner to help tame the wild bed head, and we're experimenting with different kids of bows and rubber bands.

And so, our list.

Likes:
-Morning Nursing
-Brother
-Hanging onto Mommy's pants
-Blankie
-Standing independently
-Holding anything in her mouth

Dislikes:
-Waiting for the rest of us to FINALLY be ready for dinner
-Meatloaf
-Sleeping at church

Randoms

Here are some randoms pictures from...well about the last 6 months or so.  I started this post in the fall and never published it, so I just added to it.  Enjoy!

 A boy and his trains.  Such a little boy.

 He was nursing his bear, telling me to be quiet so I didn't distract his baby.

 

 A fall treat that combines my two favorite things, apples and candy?  THANKS mom!

 

 She was so excited to finally be big enough to play with something at Sam's favorite "inside park!"  Of course now she is all over the place, just like him.  But I have to make sure no one steps on her.

Sam has been on two field trips now, on a real bus.  We got an email notifying us of their safe return after the first one, and that everyone enjoyed the bus ride better than the play :-)

 Crawling under things, through things, over things, climbing things.  This is how she spends her free time.  That and trying to unload the dishwasher.

 This is what January in Houston looks like.  And why I love our neighborhood - we strolled to the park while we were having our oil changed, and stopped for some home made croissants along the way.  Can't do all that within a mile of your house in just any neighborhood!

 He watched a movie being played on the TV mounted to the ceiling, listening through the headphones, wearing shades to block the tech's light.  He's holding his new character toothbrush, which he put in his bag with a prize, new floss, etc.  At this rate, he should not have the same dentist issues that I do.

She used to be a rock start napper at church, but she's starting to have some trouble.  They tried to get her to sleep in the swing - HA!  She hasn't been in one of those in 6 months at home.  She thinks swings are for the park now, which is why she looks so sleepy here.

New School Pic

Taken in early November.  Such a stud.

Sam Says...

-Upon hearing his sister cry when she was left alone in another room:
"Annabelle, you know God is always here with you!"

-When I asked him what Mommy is going to be when she grows up:
"Oh, just a princess."

-When I mentioned that I wanted him to stay my little boy forever:
"Why are you sad I'm growing up?"
"Because you won't live at my house anymore."
"But I'll be in the neighborhood.  I'll be a neighbor.  Across the street.  So you can come over whenever you want.  After 10 days."

-With absolutely no prompting or explanation:
"Mommy I have my finger in my tooshie!  My poop comes through there!"

-Lest you think he's a joy all the time:
"No!  I'm not your friend anymore!"

Children's Museum

Tot Spot, How Do I Love You?  Let Me Count the Ways!

I finally renewed our Children's Museum membership.  It expired a few months before Sam started preschool - last year! - and then I couldn't get my act together to take both kids.  But the Tot Spot, for 36 months and unders, is my favorite place in the world for late crawlers through 2's.

And today I took AnnieBananie all by herself!  Still not sure how I'll work it with both kids (Sam is technically not allowed in the Tot Spot, and Annabelle will get trampled in the big kid areas), but she and I had a great time.

She crawled over rough terrain, chased after balls, gravitated towards trucks.

She actually crawled all the way across a huge mat to close the doors on the pop-up toy, which I had opened just because I know it bothers her.  She CANNOT leave those doors open!

She also spent a considerable amount of time "driving" the car.

And I heard several times just how beautiful my girl is.  I kid you not:

 "Its ridiculous how beautiful she is!"

-Random Museum Guest

I can't wait to go back!

More Christmas

This, of course, is more for my record than anyone else's.  It was baby girl's first Christmas and it must be recorded!

Speaking of the little girl, what do you do when you're leaving for Christmas Eve service right after dinner?  Feed the baby in her bloomers, of course!  Sam sat through the whole service with us, but had a difficult time waiting ALL the way to the end to get to hold his candle.  He was so adorably serious holding onto that thing.

Did you like the gingerbread house in that shot?  Sam and I made another one this year.

Don't we make a pretty bunch?  After church there was still much to do - matching jammies to be unwrapped, reindeer food to be spread on the lawn, cookies and egg nog set out for Santa, the Christmas story read from the bible.  And then we tucked the kids into bed, one with much more anticipation than the other.

Then the adults watched While Christmas while eating appetizers and cookies.  And most of us fell asleep.  Just like always.

First thing in the morning, the four of us opened stockings from Santa on Mommy and Daddy's bed. 

Then we went down the hall to join the others in opening stockings from Gommy and Papa on their bed.

And then came the tree.  Wow.

Sam went straight for his Mack Truck (from Cars).  He started asking for it in early October.  I was worried he'd blow right past it once it was there, but he stopped and played with it for a while.  Actually, he played with pretty much everything as he opened it.  He didn't even have any meltdowns.  He had a great morning.

Annabelle had help opening her gifts, of course.  She enjoyed her big Santa gift (the crawl-through house), but was all smiles when she pushed the button on the push toy from Uncle Matt and Aunt Kate.  She even danced to the music!  (Unfortunately, now that its put together she is afraid to actually walk behind it.  Not so excited about the walking, this one.)  She made it through the entire present opening session before heading up for her first nap.

A cinnamon roll Christmas tree, a lazy time getting ready.  More cooking.  My Uncle Tim joined us for dinner, and I had to trick my son into eating Beef Tenderloin.

The rest of the week was really nice.  Chris and I got to go to a movie, he went to a second and I went out shopping.  Ahh, free babysitters!  The kids played and played with all their new toys.  We played board games (grown up and candyland!) and hung inside to avoid the cold.  Both littles enjoyed all of the grown up attention, but Baby Belle continued to show her preference for Mommy.

Did I mention that we drove?  It took us 21 hours to get there - ugh!  Sam is turning into a great little road-tripper, although we did learn he has a tendency towards motion sickness.  He cannot watch a video on a hand-held device (he was using Chris's iPod), but does fine watching a DVD player placed between the front seats.  Fortunately he is old enough to tell us when his tummy hurts and we were able to avoid a potentially disgusting situation.  Annabelle struggled a bit more.  She's in that awkward stage where she wants to be moving around but doesn't understand why we're STILL driving.  And she's rear facing, so there's nothing to do or look at.  This means grown ups get to crawl back to tend to her.  And I think we scarred her - she is starting to fuss every time I put her in the car seat.  Really too bad the AAP now recommends remaining rear facing until 2!  But we made it home several hours faster and I'd do it again to have our car, be on our schedule, take what we need, etc.

There were still a few presents to be opened back home in Texas.  One was the wagon from Grammy and Papa.  It had been sitting in the front room, inside its shipping box, for weeks.  Where are we going to put it?  We told Sam it was for Chris's office, and he believed it.  So a few days after we got home he asked if we were going to take it to Daddy's office.  As we opened it we asked him what he though it was.  "Ahh!  It's for Children!"  So cute.  They didn't even wait for the wheels to be put on before the climbed in.  Unfortunately it won't stop raining, so we've been riding it around our small house...

I should have done this sooner to have more details, but there you go.  Christmas 2012.  Merry Merry!