11 Months

Here we are just one month away from Abby's first birthday.  It's exciting and sad and fun all at the same time.  She just gets cuter and more fun everyday.  She has the most happy, bright and fun personality and a little social butterfly talking to anyone and everyone.  She starts babbling from the moment I pick her up out of the crib and continues all day long.  I think I'm going to have a little chatterbox on my hands.  Here are some fun things she's been doing the last month.

• Still sleeping through the night for the most part but we've had a bit of regression due to some first year molars trying to make their way in.
• Another reason I think she may be struggling is that she has started to wean herself from nursing during the day.  She usually only nurses once or twice and takes a bottle of formula the rest of the time and is happy with it.
• She continues to love food and will eat just about anything I give her.  Her new favorites are string cheese, craisins, yogurt, organic animal crackers from Costco and just about anything we are eating.
• She has really had a growth spurt this last month or so too.  I don't know how much she weighs but she fits into almost all of her 12 month clothes now and is officially in a size 3 shoe.
• She is a speedy crawler and I have to be really careful once I set her down because she can get farther than I think really fast.  
• She has learned to climb stairs.  We went to Seattle to visit my cousins and my aunt has a very long staircase.  The first time she found it she was pretty wobbly and I had to watch her closely.  One time she got away from me and when I went to look for her (literally like a min) I found her at the top of the stairs.  About gave me a heart attack!  She also does the monkey crawl on hands and feet when she is wearing a dress or doesn't like the surface she is crawling on.  It's pretty cute.
• She is now obsessed with letters.  My friend gave me a preschool prep DVD to borrow and she watched it everyday.  Now anytime she sees letters or words she starts shouting "E"!  She also says "A, C, G, J, N, O and Z.  It's pretty funny because J and G sound like Juh-ay and Juh- ee and N sounds like nnnn and Z sounds like zuh-ee.  She has seriously amazed me at how quickly she has caught on speaking and letters.  Babies are way smarter than we give them credit for I think.  I also read a lot and talk a lot to her just like I would anyone else and I'm assuming that is part of it as well.  Little smarty pants! ;-)
• We also Abby take some of her first steps this last month.  She took about 8 between Bud and I one day but has recently become very cautious and will only take one or two here and there.  Hopefully I can catch it on video soon.  But I catch her standing on her own all the time.  Such a big girl!
• She loves her daddy and loves to sit on his lap when he plays an occasional video game.  She has even fallen asleep a few times in his lap watching.
• She is a very busy girl and loves to get into or onto anything she can.  She has figured out how to turn on the tv, change the channel and turn up the volume.  She is facinated by our phone charger cords and if we forget to put them up or shut our door she finds them and tries to suck on the ends.  Luckily she hasn't been shocked the little stinker!  I'm pretty good at keeping the bathroom doors and toilet lids closed but she has attacked the toilet paper a few times.  She likes to stand up and hold on to my legs when I'm in the kitchen which makes doing things kind of hard sometimes but I know she just wants to see what is going on.

Hanging at the pool

Animal Sounds

Trying to stay cool

A little tired

Falling asleep watching daddy play

 Walking!