Willa is 11(!!!) Months!

Willa's 11 month mark was yesterday and I totally forgot about it until about 4:00 p.m.  I blame it on the heat.  She was born in the Autumn, so it stands to reason that it should feel more Fall-y if she is already 11 months.  

Look at that giraffe next to her.  There were big changes this month!

She's got quite the personality and loves to smile at everyone and everything.  She is happy in church as long as she can stand on the pew and smile at the kids sitting behind us.  She's very flirtatious and likes to stare at people until she catches their eye, then turn her head and hide abashedly.

We've got a little mover!  Her little arms finally got strong enough and her very laborious army crawl turned into real crawling.  She is EVERYWHERE and I love it.  She is so happy being able to go where she wants.  She's starting to learn that there are places she shouldn't go and things she shouldn't touch.  She slowly starts crawling there and then lunges and speedy crawls towards it as soon as she sees us coming to get her.  It is very charming.

I love these last two pictures.  They sum up her personality.  She is so excited to see Ryan and is trying to get him and the camera.  I kept sitting her on the couch and she would immediately lunge forward and start crawling to Ryan.  She gets so happy.

Attack!

Overall, she is still so much fun and so good.  She still sleeps from about 7:15 pm - 6:45 a.m. every night and takes two solid naps.  She loves her pacifiers in her crib.  I keep about four of them in there and she likes to repeatedly take them out and put them in until she falls asleep. Sometimes when I get her up she has a pacifier in her mouth and one in each hand.  

She is not a very good eater, unfortunately.  She is very picky and it is maddening to figure out what she will eat that day.  If we put something on her tray that she doesn't want, she looks at us and then very deliberately picks it up and drops it off the side while keeping eye contact.  I think a lot of it is texture and a lot of it is just her not wanting to try something new.  If we allowed her, she would eat peaches all day (but wouldn't we all!) and nothing else.  Right now she will eat peaches, bananas, peas (sometimes), chicken noodle soup, chicken nuggets, green beans, eggs (sometimes), whole wheat bread (sometimes)  and that's about it.  Oh, and she really likes oatmeal for breakfast.  I cook some Quaker oats, then put a little bit of brown sugar and a lot of cream on them and she loves them.  She has them every morning.  I always try new things and can get a couple of bites in before she starts dropping it on the floor.  I'd rather cook food for her rather than buying a bunch of processed stuff, but yesterday I bought a bag of chicken nuggets out of desperation.  I only have so much patience for preparing several different things and having her toss all of them off the side of her tray.

She is still my running buddy most mornings.  When it's really hot outside, I put a water bottle in the stroller for me and a sippy cup for her.  I feel like we're kind of bonding together as I chug out of the water bottle and she drinks from her sippy cup.  She's gotten very proficient at the sippy cup. Right now we're just putting water in it; we don't really drink a lot of juice here, so I figure that she doesn't need to either. She can eat the actual fruit instead of drinking the juice.  I'm planning on weaning her straight to the sippy cup. When I stop nursing, I just give her the milk in her cup and not bother with a bottle at all. 

There was a little break between Ryan's projects so he was home for about a week and Willa has had a lot of fun with him.  Now that she's more active, she likes playing with him more.  Sometimes she will even reach for him if I am holding her!  She gets very excited to see him when he is home.   

She's just such a little joy in our life.  She is so much fun, I don't think she can get any more fun, but then she does!  If you ask her to give you a kiss, she will open her mouth and lick your cheek.  If you ask if she is done eating, she will pull at her bib.  It's just amazing to see her start to understand things and communicate.  She still doesn't have any teeth, but she has had two little bumps in her gums for the past month.  Last night I felt in her mouth and could definitely feel a little sharp thing cutting through so I think it will be here any day.