Mostly the Kids: Ellen, 11 months (4/11/2012)

Eleven Months – 4/11/2012

Dear Ellen,

It’s beautiful outside, and you are blooming right along with the plants this spring. The months are speeding by, and I can’t believe we are on the back end of your first year! As always, time is flying by. I have already started thinking about your first birthday party and how we are going to celebrate with you.

My Favorite Thing: You are such a joy to have in our family, and I can’t wait to see what the coming months bring as your babyhood transitions into toddlerhood. Your personality is really developing, and you are becoming both more independent and more particular. Your attention span is growing and you can sit and focus on one task for a longer period of time.

Daily Activities and Playing: You are still not walking, but I can tell that your balance is getting better. You cruise along the cabinets and ottoman still, but you are starting to just stand up by yourself and stay standing for up to about a minute. I expect for you to start walking any day now! You have gotten really proficient at “filling and spilling” with assorted containers and objects. I like watching you concentrate on finishing the task before you, and you usually make sure that you have put all available items INTO the container before you start to unload it. You have also started wanting to read more. You either stand at the bookshelf in your room to peruse the selection, or you find some books on the floor and read by yourself for a while. You also have more patience when we are reading a book to us, looking at each page and carefully turning the page when it is time.

Sibling: If you could talk, I am sure you would tell us that Ian hung the moon. You love to watch him and talk to him, and he talks right back to you! You really like it when HE imitates YOU. You two laugh together and have started wrestling… although it is a little one sided as Ian has a definite size and balance advantage.

Eating: Your daily schedule has remained the same with 4 6 oz formula bottle feedings and 4-5 solid food meals per day. You still don’t always finish every bottle, sometimes leaving up to 1 or 2 ounces, but then you typically make up for that with increased water and solid food consumption. I am having trouble keeping track of everything that you eat… I call you my Little Garbage Disposal because I can almost guarantee that you will eat anything I put in front of you. If I give you something new, you will usually take it out of your mouth and look at it, but then you put it right back in and chow down. Some of the many things you eat: yogurt (you like it with banana and cinnamon), egg yolks with shredded Monterrey jack or cottage cheese, salmon, tilapia, chicken (usually dark meat, slow cooked or shredded), ground beef, any kind of legume (black beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, etc), rice, carrots, sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, cucumber, zucchini, cooked bell pepper, just about any kind of fruit, bread, cheerios or KIX dry cereal, veggie straws … the list goes on and on. You are so easy to take to restaurants because you will eat just about anything off of my plate.

Sleeping: Night time sleep continues to be very good and consistent. You go to bed close to 8 PM and generally wake between 6 and 7, sometimes requiring a wake up call. At day care, you only take one long nap per day, right after lunch, and then again on both the morning and evening commutes. On the weekends, you still consistently take a mid morning nap and a late evening nap. You still use a pacifier and like to have a few favorite blankets. Usually there are no problems with you going to sleep, but if you resist going down for a nap or bedtime, I can usually put a toy in the crib with you and you will play with than for 5-10 minutes before settling down and falling asleep.

Special Events: Your first Easter was a success. After church, we went to Gram and Pops’ house to eat a delicious meal and then do an egg hunt. Unfortunately, it started to rain right after we snagged a big family photo (The Nokes were there too), so the egg hunt was indoors. You didn’t participate much this year and mostly just crawled after one or two eggs, so I am looking forward to the fun to be had at next Easter!

I didn't get any photos of the kids in their Easter attire because I was singing in the choir this year and Brandon was in charge of getting them ready in the morning, but I did redress them a week later for the 11 month photo shoot. Ellen is wearing this dress out... I just love it so much!