eleven months

Allie Faye turned eleven months old a couple of days ago!  She has learned so much over the past month.   She started dancing and if she likes something that she's eating or if she hears any kind of music, she starts bobbing her head.  She learned how to press the button that opens and closes the garage door--now after she gets it, she does a little jig every time.  It's pretty darn precious.  She's still not walking but every day she seems more confident as she walks around holding on to things.  She has stood on her own a FEW times but isn't comfortable standing without at least balancing her elbows on a ledge or an open drawer.  She still loves sorting through things.  She opens every drawer and cabinet she can reach and will pull out the things she doesn't think belong in there.

She wakes up every morning between 6-7.  On the weekends, she is still taking 3 naps.  Usually the morning nap is the longest.  She goes to bed between 7-8 every night.  The way she sleeps has changed a lot this last month.  She's like a little Mexican jumping bean throughout the night.  She's on her belly, then on her back, then on her side, then on her back, and so on and so forth throughout the night.  She's gotten snuggly with her blankets lately too.  Usually they're tucked under her but truly, I never know how I'm going to find her in the morning.  She's really good at entertaining herself in her crib when she wakes up.  She picks her sound on the Sleep Sheep and reads her book to her friend.  (She has a lot of friends in her crib.)  It's wonderful when I'm alone in the mornings getting ready for work.  I try not to leave her too long but for 15 minutes or so, she's totally cool with it.

It's becoming more and more difficult to get Allie to sit still long enough to finish her bottles.  Usually on the weekends she gets 4-6 ounce bottles but she almost never eats everything.  We give her breakfast, lunch, and dinner so I'm not too worried that she's not finishing the formula.  This month she's been eating lots of sweet potatoes, blueberries, edemame and apples.  She also typically gets some of whatever we're eating.

She's now wearing 12-18 or 18-24 month clothes.  She's still wearing size 3 diapers.  We put her in a plain white onesie every night for bed since it's so hot here now.  We've been sending her to daycare in plain white onesies mostly now because of how often she was coming home with stains in her clothes.  Hopefully that's just a phase??  (Veteran moms will probably laugh at that.)

This past month, we finally bit the bullet and turned our dining room into a faux playroom.  It's nice to be able to keep her contained in a large area and know she can't get into anything she's not supposed to.  It looks like a Toys-R-Us exploded in there, but better that it's all in one spot rather than everywhere in the house, right?

Carson and I were able to sneak away for a few days to visit Portland with some friends.  On one hand, we REALLLLLY missed her.  We thought about her and talked about her constantly.  On the other hand, it was SOOO nice to be able to travel just like we used to.  While we were gone, Carson's parents were able to teach Allie how to drink from a straw.  I don't know how they did it, but I'm so glad she knows now!

I absolutely adore this little baby and I love watching her grow and learn.  I can't believe in just a few short weeks, she will be a year old!