11 months

Oh my baby Rose!!! She has grown up so much lately. She is talking constantly, babbling and making sounds on the insides of her cheeks. It is so funny though because she looks into our eyes and seems to be really talking  to us and inviting us to converse with her. She started doing it very very loudly yesterday in church from the very back row where we were sitting. Raimo went up to sing with the men for Father's Day and she was saying "DA DA DA DA BABABa" really loud. Awesome. We think her first word was duck. She was really on a roll with that one, and responded to a few different duck things we have in our house with "Duck (sounds more like Duh really fast) and even with some "Quack" sounds. She is also really into laughing. This afternoon I was laying on the bedroom floor with her, and I pretended to start laughing and she opened her mouth wide and started laughing back as though I had just told her the funniest joke. I can go back and forth with her, laughing and laughing and she just thinks it's the best! She goes to bed now at 8 pm and wakes around 6. Sometimes I have to stumble into her room around 5 and find a binky/ encourage her to go back to sleep. She takes 2 naps, occasionally 3, that are about an hour long. She sleeps so well in her little bed, but that stubborn girl refuses! if she is not in the mood to go to sleep and will climb up the side and holler at us until we come back in. She doesn't give up, even after she has exhausted herself from crying!

She is eating a lot more of what I call human food. I still give her pureed baby stuff most of the time, but she is much more interested in whatever we happen to be eating. She likes bread, potatoes, tomatoes, pork (just a tiny tiny taste), pears, ice cream (duh), crackers, cookies... I can't think what all we've allowed her to taste. She will crawl up to our kitchen chairs, climb up and stand on her little tippy toes, and just beg like a puppy till we give her a bite. This continues throughout any meal until we stop eating.

She still has very little hair, but it is starting to grow in blonde and a kind of gets fluffy after a bath. I put those sweet hairs against my face all the time. She is still a little peanut. She has a few 3-6 month and 6 month things in her drawers, though she is growing out of them one by one and is mostly in the 6-9 month stuff. We are just switching up to size 3 diapers because she was filling up her night diaper and leaking. She is well-known (by those who know her) for her hilarious facial expressions. It's hard to catch them all on camera, but she is a girl of many faces. She squinches up her nose and smiles--that's a cute one. Lately she has started this little pout where she furrows her brow and purses her lips so far forward. It always gets a laugh. She still does the "o" with her mouth that she did as a tiny baby. She can also shake her head "no" though she does it with a smile. She has no idea what it means. I didn't realize how very unique every baby is until I had one of my own. She has had so much personality even from her early months of life.

This month has been different in that she will occasionally put her head on my shoulder and let me snuggle her or rub her back. She is still pretty stiff and non-cuddly, but those few moments are so welcome and so nice after wrestling with a strong (and strong-willed) baby! She still loves that pointer finger and will point/ finger things, and stick it in my mouth or the mouths of people standing close by (haha).

I cannot believe I will have a 1 year old next month. I am starting to think that she is going to be a wild toddler. She is already extremely active, opinionated, and fast! I'm sure it will be wonderful in its own way. I love my baby girl though and am going to enjoy this time before she starts walking!