Olivia at 11 months: She’s getting sick of these monthly photos

Happy 11 months to this little sweetheart! (Don’t get too excited. This was literally the only smile I got out of her.)

It would seem the only way I could get her to pay attention and not rip off her 11 month sticker was to give her her little book to chew on. Otherwise this happened:

Yes, these monthly photo shoots are a bit more of a challenge than they used to be. I mean, she used to just sit there and now it’s all I can do to get a decent picture.

It was a sunny, cool fall day, but still… the smiles never came.

Oh well. You can’t win them all, I guess.

Still. She is adorable. Even if she never wanted to smile. Or really look at the camera.

I finally got a picture of her standing though. She’ll do this for like 10 seconds now. She’s getting so close to walking.

I can’t believe I have just one more monthly update post. I can’t believe she will be a year in just one month. How did that happen? This is the month that I’ve noticed her looking more like a toddler than a baby.

Anyway, let me tell you what we’ve been up to this month before I dissolve in a puddle of tears.

We celebrated my 31st birthday earlier in the month.

Chris made me a fall spice cake from scratch, which was amazing, and we celebrated at my sister’s house with tacos. Because I love tacos.

And we made it out to the apple orchard which was so much fun!
 
Olivia started back in ECFE again, her last free class we can take there.

Nicknames: Ollie, Monkey, Livvie, Olive
  
Weight: 20 lbs 9 oz
Length: 29.5 inches
Head Circumference: 48 cm 
Diaper size: 3 
Clothing size: Mostly 12 month clothes due to the fact that it’s cold out and her 9 months are mostly summer outfits. She can still fit in them though if it’s nice out. 

Eating: New foods tried: Spaghetti and meatballs, tomatoes, spicy tortellini alfredo, Asian glazed drumsticks, cinnamon. Still eating breakfast and dinner and snacks. Olivia has decided she doesn’t want to wear bibs and rips them off. This is quite annoying. Her sleeve bib is the only thing that stays on so I may be buying more of these. She still nurses once overnight and about every 3-4 hours during the day.

Sleeping: She went through a little week long regression of waking up between midnight and 1am and then again at her usual time between 4-6am. But then she went back to her normal wake-up anywhere between 4 and 6:30. She will then go back to sleep until 8:30-9. Still napping about two hours in the morning, and an hour to hour and a half in the afternoon… or not at all. Seriously. There have been SEVERAL days when she won’t take an afternoon nap.

Naps are for babies, Mama.

Milestones: She’s been cruising furniture, and wanting to push her activity table while she walks, but isn’t really showing an interest in walking. She stands on her own for a few seconds, carefully letting go of whatever she’s holding onto and balancing there until she daintily sits. She seems to really understand a lot of what we say now and will look Very Seriously at you when you talk, trying to process what you’re saying. She is climbing stairs (kind of) and clapping her hands, and even dancing a little now. She finally caught on to putting the balls down the chute in her giraffe toy. She’s waving again to people. Definitely has her stranger danger, but it’s more like she pretends to act shy and bury her head in my shoulder, but then whip her head back around at the person and wave to them. Being that this does the same thing to me… I think it’s that she likes the attention from it.

Speech: She is babbling like crazy! At the beginning of the month, she went through this screamy stage for a few days and I tried to be patient through it because I knew this was going to lead into a new development thing for her and sure enough, her screaming stopped and she became happy again and the babbling started. Like she is really talking, but.. the words don’t make a lick of sense. Last night at the park she excitedly blurted out, “Geeg kiki nam!” Obsessed with saying, “Nnnnnnn!” and “dada!” She’s also been imitating us when we say “ah!” And we’ll go back and forth with that.

Health: Well earlier this month she felt warm a few nights, whether it was a cold or teething pain. I’ve been using the gum-o-mile we have and that seemed to help. We also had to use Motrin and Tylenol at night to help her sleep. The weird thing is, she had a slight runny nose too, so who knows what was really going on. Then a week later, Chris and I both got some weird stomach bug the day before my birthday. I never threw up, but I spent the whole night sitting up on the couch sipping water and trying not to. I get sick like this, like, every five years, and I’m glad I wasn’t hurling all night, but ugh. I hate feeling like that. And I was so worried Olivia would wake up, because how would I manage to nurse her feeling so nauseous? That day, we slept during her two naps and then lay on the couch the rest of the time and dear Olivia was so good at entertaining herself out in the living room with us. I swear, I’ve been sick more since I had her than I have in the last 5 years.

Teeth: Still just the two teeth. I thought she would be getting more with all this teething, but nope. We have started brushing them and that’s something for her to get used to. 🙂

Likes: Turning pages of her board books when you read to her, looking at her books, rolling around on our pillow top bed. Eating apples. Really, eating in general. Swinging, being outside, watching Daniel Tiger. Watching other babies and kids. I can also safely say she likes her Ergo. She’s been in it quite a bit this fall, including when we took the bus downtown to have lunch with Chris.

Dislikes: Getting her hands and face wiped after dinner. Having things taken away from her.

Undecided about: Getting ready for bed. Sometimes we can catch her on a good night now where she isn’t wailing and flailing her arms. Wearing socks and shoes. Walks in her stroller. I think she gets bored unless she has something to chew on or eat.

Looking forward to: Halloween! I can’t wait to put her in her costume and carve pumpkins. Also, I’m looking forward to getting more things checked off on the birthday party to-do list. So. Much. To. Do. And I can’t WAIT to see her one year photos we took with our favorite photographers. She was a few days shy of 11 months, but November doesn’t exactly scream beautiful weather and scenery, so October it was.

Overall, it was a great month. Fall is my favorite season and it’s been so beautiful out. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to take my stoic baby out on a walk.

44 weeks

45 weeks

46 weeks

47 weeks