Miranda is 11 Months and Walking 2015

While we were staying in Charlottesville, Miranda turned 11 months old. But have no fear! I packed her month sticker!

My sticker says 11 months!

Her most noticeable change is that she started walking! She took her first steps on February 24, a few days after turning 10 months old, and just a few days later she was practically running around the house, turning corners with ease and even carrying heavy toys around with her!

Running with the bottle, March 4.

Now that she can walk she has a better vantage point from which to attack-tackle James. This might look cute in pictures, but she is BRUTAL to James. The problem is James encourages it and even laughs most of the time, but every now and then she really clocks him!

The anatomy of a tackle

The other amazing thing is that I was finally able to put her down for naps alone! She resisted this just like James did as a baby, but once I night sleep-trained her she got used to the idea that I wasn't going to pick her up after I put her in her crib until she slept. Besides, James used to throw up from anxiousness if I put him down for a nap. I found the fact that Miranda didn't do that to be very encouraging. My life is so much better now that she has a little alone time, and she actually naps better. Plus James hated being quiet while I held her, now he can be a little more active while she's in her room with the door closed.

In her sleepsack on a morning we woke her to get her on Daylight Saving schedule

Skills and personality: This baby has mad skills. She says dada (first word), mama (for me and for milk), and for a little while she said baba for ball. That's gone away now though.

"Baba"

She crawled, danced, and walked in that order. Her dancing is officially awesome. She drops her butt and bounces to the beat. She prefers funk music. She also claps when she really likes music. 

She points for things she wants. A lot. She's kind of running the place with her little index finger, actually. She also gives high fives though that's been going on for a long time.

She plays and copies us and James. She scribbles. She loves getting her picture taken and sometimes tries to see the result of the picture on my phone or camera.

Doing a little baking...

Stole James's Leapfrog but appears to be using it correctly

She has her own little sense of humor. She thinks she's funny. She kind of is. She's a little mean which is part of her humor, and she's very stubborn. She understands "no" and also that it doesn't apply to her.

Pretending to feed James a bottle.


Love this expression!

She's been giving hugs for a long time, but while we were in DC she started making kissy noises which I take to mean she is giving us kisses. So far I've only noticed her blow kisses to me and Kevin.

Best friends.


Maybe.

Love her like crazy!

James is 10 Months Old 2012

Holy cow, James's birthday feels like it's just around the corner and I haven't made any plans yet!  Will you guys come to my place the weekend of April 28th to celebrate?

James at 10 months

James is 10 months old as of Monday and 44 weeks as of Wednesday. And wow, I think he's officially a "toddler" already. "Infant" doesn't seem right for a child who walks and gets into so much trouble.

Moving- James is walking quickly!  He zips from the living room down the hall into our bedroom faster than I can get up to follow him.  We mainly keep all the doors closed, but sometimes he manages to wiggle into a room and shut the door behind him.  This takes a while to remedy because he usually just sits behind the door and I don't want to hurt him, so I can't just knock him out of the way.

Sleep- James has been sleeping through the night for a full month now! James sleeps in his crib from 7:30 p.m. to 5 or 6 a.m. I'm off the night shift now, so I'm doing half the morning shifts.  (After I wrote this, he slept horribly on the night of 2/21 so I had to get up at 4 a.m.) Now that I'm spoiled with him sleeping at night, I've moved on to complaining about how we have to hold him while naps two or three times a day. James, it's time to learn to sleep in the crib and give your mother a break!

Eating- James eats anything and everything. His favorite foods are still apples, bananas, oatmeal, wheat bread, mango baby food, yogurt, and sweet potatoes. He's tried a little chicken here and there but it doesn't rock his world.  Though he liked chicken better when it was Pad Thai-flavored.  That's right, he's being raised to be an international food lover. He's experimenting with a sippy cup but hasn't quite figured it out yet.

Nice try at eating

Growth-  James had a quick doctors appointment this month with no vaccines or blood work. (Lucky him!) The doctor measured him at 31 inches tall (perhaps an extra inch than he deserves) and 22 pounds and 10 ounces. Even at 30 inches though, he's reached half my height already! He's in 12-month shirts now because of his arm-length but in different size pants depending on the cut. I had to put all his 9-month stuff away yesterday and it was a little sad.  James has two top teeth and two bottom ones, and three new ones coming out next to the ones he has.

Look, 4 teeth!

Social- Nothing much has changed here. He wants constant attention from both me and Kevin, simultaneously.

Language- James definitely understands the word "no." Whether he chooses to respect it is another thing entirely.  He still doesn't really say any words, but the doctor said that since he's being raised bilingually we can expect up to a four month delay on the regular timing of things.  So he probably won't be saying anything until he's at least 14 months.

I've taken a little break from reading to him because he's obsessed with eating the books.  I've hid most of his books and replaced them with "bath books" than he can chew on without consuming.

 

Enjoying the photos on the fridge (paci backwards)

Games, Toys, and Trouble-making- James still loves his cause-and-effect and music-making toys. He also likes trying to pass a ball back and forth.  He still plays his own made-up version of croquet.  He still loves to pull all our books off the shelves, opening drawers and emptying the contents onto the floor. He's gotten really tricky at stealing the TV remotes from us.

Holding Rousseau

Favorites- He still loves the Itsy Bitsy Spider so much we have to sing it sparingly so as not to drive him crazy with joy. He continues to rock his pacifier backwards as he thinks the hard part is better for teething.  The paci also doubles as a rattle he shake is the air.

He likes photos-- looking at them and having them taken. He enjoys admiring himself in the mirror even more. He loves loves loves peekaboo and now that he's walking around, we sometimes dart into several different rooms while playing.  He wrestles on the floor with his dad. He's super quiet during walks which we take as indication that he enjoys them.  He hates the shoes we got him and immediately tries to tear them off.  I don't blame him though, he can barely walk in them.

He loves darting into the tupperware drawer when I open it and running away with as much tupperware as he can handle. More than he can handle... and I'm left following a trail of tupperware down the hall.

On the run, and licking the tupperware

James is 9 Months Old and Walking 2012!

James at 9 months and his first day stumble-stepping day

James is 9 months old as of last Friday and 40 weeks as of this Wednesday! That means he's been out about as long as he was in. James acts like he has a copy of our baby book and suddenly springs to action checking off milestones at the end of the month. A lot of the interesting changes happened starting on his 9-month birthday and the days following, so they should technically go in my next update, but I'm going to cheat and tell you now.

Moving- James is walking! It all happened much faster than I imagined it would.  One moment he was lunging from furniture to furniture ("cruising") just like he has been for a month, and then he's stumbling around on his own. He stumbled forward a few steps Saturday night, then repeated his trick all day Sunday, going just a step or two before falling. By Wednesday he was walking the short length of the kitchen without falling. Wednesday night I got him on video walking down the hall. I love his little zombie arms.

Wednesday evening before bed

Sleep- Guess who's sleeping through the night! This has also been going on for less than a week, but in the name of positive thinking I'm calling it a done deal. James sleeps in his crib from 7:30 p.m. to 5 a.m. He had some really bad nights a week ago, and bringing him to bed was not helping so we made sure he ate a lot and Ferberized him from about 4 a.m. to 4:45 a.m. and since then he's just needed one little pat down about every other night. I'll take it! Now he just needs to start napping in his crib. Up until now we have to hold him while naps otherwise he cuts his naps short and is super grumpy all day. Well, more so.

Co-napping at 38 weeks + 5 days

Eating- James eats anything you give him, and doesn't let anyone eat without sharing with him. His favorite foods are apples, bananas, oatmeal, wheat bread, and sweet potatoes. He also eats green bean puree, bits of egg or chicken, bean soup puree, and anything else we share with him. He still doesn't know how to feed himself from the bottle, but he seems totally uninterested in learning.

Growth-  He didn't have a doctors appointment this month but when I measure him, he's about 28.5-29 inches tall. The doctor said he was 30 inches tall last month, but I had him at about 28 then. Measuring him isn't really a science though, it's more of an interpretive art since you can't make him stay still and straight, and he grabs for the tape measure.  He's still wearing 9-month clothing, so he's probably about average in size for his age. James top two teeth are about halfway out now.  He has those and the two bottom ones.

This was 3 weeks ago, the teeth are past the gum line now 

Social- Nothing much has changed here. He wants constant attention, and prefers that I sit on the floor with him.  If both Kevin and I are with him, he wants constant attention from both of us.  It drives him particularly batty when one of us leaves the room because he can't figure out how to be where we both are simultaneously. Usually he chases the one leaving the room.

James playing with his dad (37 weeks + 5 days)

Language- James seems to understand some simple stuff I say to him in Spanish, and seems to understand less in English, but it's not entirely clear what he does or doesn't know since I'm pretty sure sometimes he gets it but ignores me. Especially if I'm telling him he's not supposed to do something.

He still says zero words, but sometimes he seems to be trying to copy the sound we're making. That might be in my head because he almost never gets close to the word.

He enjoys being read to a little more than he used to, and he'll sit through short books to the end. I trace the words with my finger as I read to him so he gets the idea of what I'm doing, and sometimes when I'm done he traces words with his finger.  He even looks at his books on his own sometimes, occasionally turning the pages. I make him wear his pacifier when he's doing this because his favorite thing to do with books is try to eat them.

James looking at his books on his own (37 weeks + 5 days)

Games, Toys, and Trouble-making- For Christmas, James got a bunch of toys that teach cause and effect.  These are mostly his favorite because he can get them to play music. At first, he'd accidentally make it play music and then freak out when the music stopped.  We'd reach over and put his hand on the button or lever that made music and guide him to push it.  Now he can handle all the toys himself: a music box, his work bench, a little orange monkey, a play kitchen, and a shopping cart. Kevin sings all the songs as well.

James playing with his work bench (36 weeks + 6 days)

He also likes trying to pass a ball back and forth.  I roll it to him, and he either drops it in my general direction, or sometimes, not quite understanding the game, he crawls over and delivers the ball to me personally. It's cute.  He also hits the ball around with a mallet in his own made-up version of croquet.  If the mallet can't be found, the toy hammer does just as nicely.

With all his new freedom of movement, some of his games involve systematically destroying the order in our home. He's discovered we own hundreds of books, and likes to pull them off the shelves. He opens drawers and starts emptying the contents onto the floor. He walks overs to our television and circumvents the many obstacles we've set up so that he can try to pull all the wires on our electronic equipment.  Freedom is great, isn't it James?

James pulling all our books off the bookshelves (37 weeks + 6 days)