"She's a Butterfly" {11 Months}

Carly is two days into her 11th month and in just 29 days she will begin her second year of life.  I'm sad to see the baby stage go but completely excited to take on her toddler days with her.  I can just imagine the fun we will have together!

She is a delight to hang out with day in and day out.  Still the greatest, most rewarding and fun job I've ever had.  She doesn't seem to have an interest in walking...so I think she might just crawl forever!  A couple months ago she was cruising so well we thought she would be off by Christmas, but she has far missed that deadline. ;)  I realize that walkers are much, much faster than crawlers, so I will take her on all fours a bit longer.

Here's what our Carly is up to this month:

• Is very good at playing with the apps on the iPod and enjoys swiping the screen
• Wants to talk on the phone essentially all day long, and if she hears a familiar voice she grins from ear to ear
• Loves watching videos of herself
• Can say; Mama, Dada, Hi, Ya, Icky (ah-gee), Jacob & JT (well, I assume she could still say his name)
• Continues to use sign language very well and claps, says more please, all done, so big, amen (this is a new one), hi and bye
• Enjoys being thrown, tossed and "dropped"
• Has become quite the little climber...so watch out!  She has gotten herself in some predicaments and tries to do some very unsafe things...
• Finds a consonant and rolls with it for a few days, telling all her stories using that letter.  Our favorite was the week that she puckered her lips and all day long said, "Doo, doo, doo, doo, dooooooo"
• Found the cupboards in the kitchen and very much enjoys exploring in them
• She knows how to get down from the couch, a chair or the bed by turning around and putting feet first and sliding down until her feet hit the floor
• Has learned how to throw a tantrum and practices this new skill about once or twice a week.  We shall see how it evolves and when Brian and I will start discipline.  Probably not this month, though
• reads, Reads, READS!  She loves to read her 10 favorite books and particularly enjoys the ones with flaps to uncover something else.  She has memorized most of them--last week as I was reading to her one of the pages says, "this baby wants her mama."  I only read, "this baby wants her..." and paused.  To my delight she said, "mama!"  Brian and I were SO impressed!
• Is delighted if I let her unravel the toilet paper, but she knows she is not suppose to.  The look she gives right before diving in is pretty funny.
• Took a hiatus from taking a bath for a while and is back at it in our big tub...and loves it!
• Is one of the friendliest babies around, flashing her toothless grin at anyone passing by :)

Her schedule has surprisingly stayed fairly consistent with what she was doing a month ago.  She consistently takes longer naps every 3 weeks for about 5 days and then returns to her 30-40 minute naps.  She's always been inconsistent on that...so I'm over it.  I will, however, likely pray everyday that my next baby is a good sleeper as it has been a point of stress this year. The only other difference is that she dropped one of her feedings last week.  She is down to nursing 3 times/day.  I think its been very interesting to just let the evolution of weaning work itself out.  We shall see what these next few months will look like....especially considering she is still getting up in the night to nurse.

5:30am-nurses and goes back to sleep--in her own crib...the sleeping with us ended when we were too stimulating for her--she goes back down without a peep.
7:30am-up
8:00am-breakfast
9:30am-snack
10:35am-11:15am-nap (consistently sleeps about 40 minutes at a time)
1pm-nurse
1:30pm-lunch
3pm-snack (this lady eats all day long)
3:30pm-4:10pm-nap
6pm-dinner
8pm-get ready for bed...usually asleep between 8:15pm-8:30pm

I'd say that covers it!  Here are a couple of 11 month photos!

Carly is becoming quite the butterfly as she begins to step out in the world and explore and learn all on her own.  How exciting!! :)