11.5 months old

The countdown to the big day is on! It's so hard to believe my baby is almost 1. How did that happen? She's so big now and so full of life! Let's see if we can update a little...

~~She's wearing size 12/18 month clothes

~~She's still wearing size 3 diapers and they fit nicely

~~She has officially grown out of her size 2 shoes but some size 3's are still too big

~~She is drinking less and less fomula

~~For breakfast she is eating, dry cereal, waffles, or scrambled eggs

~~She drinks milk from her sippy cup

~~ She gives high 5

~~She claps

~~She does "sooo big"

~~She plays peek-a-boo by lifting her shirt or dress up to cover her face

~~She loves to be chased

~~She dances when people sing or she hears music

~~She watches Yo Gabba Gabba, Sesame Street, and Barney

~~She just recently started eating Lucky Charms and Trix

~~Her bedtime is 7:30pm

~~She wakes up at 7:30am

~~She took five steps

~~She stands alone

~~She crawls super fast

~~She cruises like a pro

~~She can climb the stairs

~~Still loves her binkie

~~Still eats stage 2 baby foods. I sometimes give her them if I feel like she hasn't eaten very healthy that day

~~She spits food out if she doesn't like it

~~Recently she has been sleeping on her back (maybe because it's hot out now)

~~No longer uses the jumperoo or exersaucer

~~The skin on her face/chin is allergic to baby wipes. She breaks out in a red rash

~~She can walk using her push toys

~~She keeps trying to dig in her toybox and falls in

~~She waves hi and bye when someone waves to her

~~She started a mommy and me music class at the YMCA in April and she LOVES it!

~~She went on her 1st vacation- New York city

Party planning

I've become slightly obsessed with planning Alexa's party. I've had a theme and colors picked since January. I've had a guest list written up for months and I even started making decorations a month ago. In my free time I like checking out party planning websites and I stalk the pictures just to brainstorm ideas. I've always loved throwing parties but celebrating this little ones first year of life has brought my party planning to another level. Last month when I started cutting things out with my cricut I was excited to be making things. This month I do it with a bit of a sadder face. It's so hard to believe that she's really going to be one. When I was doing things so far in advance I felt better about it all because I knew I was going overboard and doing everything super early. Now I know I really need to get on the ball so the closeness of it all is starting to scare me. It seems like just yesterday I was getting her dressed and ready to come home from the hospital. All of the emotion is just still so fresh in my mind. I remember the pride I had as I walked her in the stroller down to pick up Abby and Nathan from their last day of school. I remember how excited they were to see her for the first time outside of the hospital walls. They had this "can't believe she's actually ours" look on their faces. We pulled together as a family in those first few months and it made us all stronger. The love we all share for her is a common thread in everything we do around here. She has made us all happier. I can't wait to see what this next year brings. I'm sure in another blink of my eye I'll be writing another post but then it will be about her approaching 2nd birthday. I hate to even think it!

I'm kicking myself in the butt these last few months as I've been a real slacker with her baby book and even just updating her calendar has become a task. She's doing new things and making news faces and sounds everyday it's just become so much harder to record. She's just a ball full of silly energy. Most recently she's been a real scaredy cat. Anytime someone opens the front door she stops what she's doing and quickly scrambles to a standing position and tries to climb up off of the floor and onto the nearest person. She'll grab and reach for you until you reach down and scoop her up. Loud noises scare her. Quick and sudden movements get her scrambling also. A total goofball I tell you! This past week I had been giving her whole milk in her sippy cup in the morning since her spitting up had become almost nonexistent. Well that all took a turn for the worse on Friday night at Nathan's boy scout banquet. I had been letting her snack on just about anything small enough for her to eat. As we neared the end of the night I let her have some of my oreo cake. Not even five minutes later I was wearing half of it down my jeans. She had thrown up all over herself and my pants. And this wasn't just a baby formula pukey smell. This was a full grown manly tummy yucky smell. Sour milk to be exact! I just about threw up in the hallway cleaning her up. To make a long story short...she hasn't had milk since. I am however hopeful that she does not have a milk allergy. And I guess I should leave you with happy thoughts of my bundle of joy. One of her newest tricks is by far my favorite. She has become a dancing queen! Anytime music comes on the TV or even if Nathan busts out a beat Alexa and her booty are shaking. If she's no where near something to pull herself up with she crawls like lightening to the nearest piece of furniture so she can pull up and bust a move. I laughed so hard yesterday I actually had tears streaming down my face.

Ok. Well of to dreamland for me. It's already 1:30am. I have to be up in 6 hours to get the rugrats ready for school. Oh yea and hopefully we'll get a few good 11 month photos in.

Daredevil

So the littlest munchkin has learned to climb up the steps. At first, I'll admit, I was excited to see her learning something new. Now? Not so much! Today I let her climb up four steps hoping it would take some of the fun out of it and she'd be over it. Boy was I wrong! She's doing it more then ever! Even after falling off the bottom step and bumping her head..nothing stops her! I must get myself to BRU this weekend and pick up another gate. It does however stink that our wall doesn't start until the second step so she'll still be falling off the bottom step. This is way better then falling from the 5th step right?

I also took a few minutes today to take her 10 month onesie pictures. I know, LATE! She's already 10.5 months. Better late then never is my motto. She looked as adorable as ever.

We've started to receive her JB birthday cards in the mail. I think it's really starting to sink in now that she will inevitably be turning one very shortly. I've been so swept up in the fun of party planning that sometimes I forget that she actually has to leave babyhood and enter toddlerhood. Boo-hoo! can't be too sad though. I've treasured every minute of these last 10.5 months. Every night time cuddle. Every boo boo. Every smile. I don't feel like I've missd a thing. I make a conscious effort everyday to appreciate every little things she doing. Oh for instance...on Friday as I was cooking dinner she decided it would be a great time to pull out every single pot and pan that we own. She loves opening the cabinets and drawers. She has even started pulling up and leaning on the oven door. Again, a trip to BRU to baby proof the kitchen. For so long I thought she was never going to crawl and now here she is standing on her own, cruising everywhere and a ball full of energy.