My Sweet Britta Alice,
How is it possible that you are nearly one?! This has seriously been the fastest year of my life. It's really incredible. Every day you are becoming more and more of a big girl/toddler and less and less baby. This month was mostly a month of building on your "big girl" skills. You've done great!
You learned how to pull to stand...and got a major ouchie!
You were close last month (pulling up to your knees), but this month you learned about to pulling to standing. Big girl!
Unfortunately, this new skill did not come without issue. At the end of May I got the dreaded midday call from daycare (oh man, does that immediately get my heart racing!). Magna shared the exciting news that you had been pulling yourself on one of her play tables...but after doing so one time you fell hard and bit your tongue. REALLY bad. Poor girl! Magna said it bled quite a bit, and wanted to give you some tylenol since she could tell it was bothering you.
It opened a up a couple more times that week when you ate anything really hard or textured. Each time it bled a little, but not as bad.
The sore itself stuck around for a LONG time...a couple weeks. It looked really painful...worse than any tongue bite I've ever given myself. Thankfully, past those first couple days it didn't seem to bother you too much. And the incident certainly didn't stop you from continuing to pull yourself up!
You became an absolute PRO at crawling...
Like I said last month, you learned to crawl right as turned 10 months. True to form, once you got it, you got it! (That's how you've always been...you take a bit to get something, but then you're off and running - or in this case, crawling!).
More than ever you are in to EVERYTHING. You are getting FAST. You delight in pulling all the books of the shelves, crawling on to Luther's bed, and bee-lining for Linnea's room and the bathroom. Silly girl!
We still walking is a few months off for you. You still have a lot of confidence to gain in terms of supporting yourself, and standing up on your own. But for now you are really enjoying your new found freedom.
You are LOVING finger food!
Like I said last month, what a difference from a few months ago! We went for a couple months thinking we were never going to get you to eat food. And now, just a few months later, you are eating anything and everything! More and more we are just giving you what we are eating (or some sort of variation of it), and you love it.
We are still doing purees, especially if we're out and about and in a pinch, but you are showing less interest in them. You just want regular food! Some favorites recently: fish, mashed potatoes, chicken, pasta (especially ravioli), and avocado. More on this later, but more finger food means WAY less milk.
You learned to dance...
Don't get me wrong, you wiggled and boogied a bit before this. But this month you learned how to dance on command. It is quite the delight to your sister (and to me too, if I'm being honest). You genuinely seem to like to listen to music and move your body to the beat.
When you dance, you bob your head up and down, clap your hands, and wave your arms. Linnea loves to say, "Please dance!" to get you to dance. Love my little boogie baby!
You've grown and changed a lot too...
We still haven't had you weighed since your 9 month check. I can definitely tell your growth has leveled off. You are still growing (of course) by much slower than the last few months. You seem to be growing taller...stretching out. I'm really not quite sure what to expect for your weigh when we bring you for your 12 month appointment. Maybe 25 or 26 pounds? We'll have to see!
You're still wearing 12 and 18 month clothes, although fewer 12 months clothes this month (partly due to size, partly due to season - though some of Linnea's old clothes are still fitting you. I've actually started pulling out some 24 month and 2T clothes. Although sometimes a little big still, they often fit better than the 18 month stuff. It's nice because for the most part, those clothes are seasonally appropriate (Linnea wore them the Spring/Summer before she turned two). It's fun to pull some old favorites out of storage and see them on another cutie!
You're still in size 4 for diapers. They're fitting pretty good, so no switch it sight at this point.
You continue to be our jolly, sweet baby. Now that you are bigger (less fragile) Linnea is more and more rough with you. We try to remind her to be gentle with you, but you are good about taking it and holding your own. You love the attention from her!
Not much upsets you, though as you get bigger and have more freedom, your limitations get you frustrated.
Like I said earlier, you have really taken to finger food, which continues to create a dramatic drop in your milk intake. It picked up after last month for a bit, but then really took a nose dive. You've had some days at Magna's that you've basically had a bottle boycott. Again, it alarms me a little bit, but I know that it's all really normal. You're obviously still healthy, happy, and growing, and that's what's most important.
We're still giving the sippy cup a try, but you're not too interested. Magna's reported better success at her house, but still not great. We'll keep trying...
Bedtime is about the same. Most nights we start to get ready for bed a bit after 7:00. I feed you, and then you're down around 7:45 or 8:00. You have continued to show flexibility around bedtime if we're out doing something in the evening, which is much appreciated.
You had a GLORIOUS stretch of several nights in a row that you slept through the night! It was awesome! Silly me, thinking it would last. It didn't. It's frustrating because there's no rhyme or reason to what gets to you sleep through the night (i.e. it doesn't matter when we put you down, how well you eat before hand, etc.). I enjoyed the nights you slept through, but I'm happy (relatively speaking) to get with you in the middle of the night.
This month you pretty much dropped your morning nap entirely. It got down to 20-30 minutes. Magna said it always took you a bit to fall asleep, so she gave it a try without, and you did well. You still take a morning nap on Fridays with Grandma and Grandpa, and occasionally on the weekends (just as needed). You take a good nap in the afternoon...usually 1:00-3:15 or 3:30 or so. This is generally shorter on the weekends, but it never seems to impact you too much. On my birthday you showed great flexibility - we were gone for the day, and you managed well with car naps, and little snoozes in the baby carrier. Awesome! This will serve us well when we go to Seattle, I think.
You are simply awesome, Britta. You bring so much joy to our family. You are sweet, silly, kind, and curious. We all adore you beyond what I could ever express.
We love you SO much!
Mama (and Daddy and Linnea)
