Olive is 11 Months Old

Oh, Olive. You are such a big girl.

You are becoming more like a big girl and less like a baby all the time. Milo still calls you an "itty bitty TINY baby" (he calls one of the other kids at Kristin's house a really big baby--a kid who is closer to two than one).

You mostly eat table food. You're very particular about what you eat. If we are offering something that you like (yogurt, for instance), but you see something you'd rather have one someone else's plate (a bagel, for instance) you refuse to eat another bite of anything BUT the something else.

You are getting so good at drinking from a sippy cup, appropriately tipping it back and rarely spitting all the water out. I can't believe it's almost time to switch from formula to regular milk. No more bottles? What? I think I need to soak up some bottle cuddly time with you while I still can.

You're quite the adventurer. You climb. You test the limits. You have propelled yourself into the bathtub (and cried about it), something Milo never did. You climb into the kid-sized rocking chair and stand up, making my heart race with nerves. You climb all over our laps, attempting to stand on our legs, our stomachs even.

Still, after months of thinking it would be any day now, you are still, STILL not really walking. You have taken a few steps, up to maybe three or four at once, even, but you always catch yourself and drop back to crawling. For once, I checked the archives. Milo walked at 11 months and 3 days. Really walked. None of this "a few steps here, a few there" thing. I'm sure he crawled after that still, but I even have video proof that he had taken off by 11 months and 1 week. Not that these Two Completely Different People ought to reach their milestones at the same time. It's just that I was completely convinced that you were going to walk by eight months, and here we are at eleven.

You're wearing 18-month clothes and they're not even big on you anymore. You're in size four diapers. I don't know how much you weigh, but you're getting heavy to carry around for too long. Especially since you are always curious about what's going on below, and you lean over to get a better view, making my arms and back work that much harder.

Your hair is amazing, as always. It is starting to lay down more on top, though the back of the top sticks up as usual. Your hair is also getting thicker and really covering your scalp. Still not enough hair to stick a barrette in or anything. Let's not get crazy.

You do not like to have your nails trimmed. Unless you're extremely distracted by something, like the TV or your brother, you twist and writhe and scream and shake your hands around when the clippers come out. Sigh.

In general, you shriek a lot more than I remember Milo doing. You express yourself verbally and loudly. You know quite a few words: Mama, Daddy, no, kitty, Milo, all done (sign language), more (sign language), hi, byebye. You blow kisses. You say "mmmuh" and lean in for real kisses. You wave. You give high fives. You hug. You understand "no no," "no touch," and lots and lots of other things. (You don't like to be told no, of course.)

You smile when smiled at. You start to laugh when you see us laughing, even if you don't know what's funny. You love being upside-down and being tossed in the air (thrown while right-side-up of course).

You adore Tara, our nanny, and for this I am grateful. It does make Mommy a little sad, though, when you reach out your arms for Tara while I'm holding you. I like to think you just know that this is the transition time so you're trying to make it easier for all of us.

Sometimes you hit things for no good reason I can see. Sometimes those things are our faces. Sometimes it is your own head. Sometimes it's the table or a toy. And you hit hard. It definitely hurts when you whack me in the head.

You got a monkeys-in-a-barrel sort of toy for Christmas and you adore those little plastic monkeys. You also like the babies that came with a dollhouse we inherited. And a light-up, singing remote control is also popular. Mostly though, you don't seem crazy about any particular toy so much as you are crazy about attention. You don't like to be set down. You want to be carried around. You want to be played with. You want to chase Milo and play with him. You want us to play peekaboo and tickle you. And that is all fine by me. Unless I am trying to cook dinner.

You like petting Zadie. Thankfully, Zadie is very nice to you.

You're sweet, sometimes laying your head down on my shoulder just for a snuggle or a hug. You're funny, and I love laughing with you. You're maddening, too, as well as demanding, persistent, and loud. But I wouldn't change a single thing. Except your wake-up time, maybe (definitely). 5:45 is still too early, even though it's an improvement over 5:15. But still. Give your tired parents a break.

Being upside-down is the best.

Andrew tried again later to take Olive's picture because we didn't think we had gotten any great shots. She was tired. Big difference between a wide-awake happy girl and a very sleepy girl, huh?

What? Eleven months old? How can that be?

At eleven months, we still have one more month until Milo's next check-up, but I think he weighs between 20 and 21 pounds. No idea how tall he is. Tall enough to peer over the arm of the sofa.

At eleven months, Milo has begun to point at things he wants. For awhile, he just grunted and bounced in place when he wanted something. Now he points. Who taught him how to point?

At eleven months, Milo has figured out how many of his toys work. He rolls the timer on his kitchen set to hear his favorite song. He opens and shuts the tiny fridge door. He stacks the colored rings. He can make the ball popper start. He takes the puzzle pieces out and claps them together. I'm sure it won't be long before he can put the puzzle pieces back in the board.

At eleven months, Milo can cruise the furniture. He will stretch out an arm to get from the chair to the coffee table. His favorite routes are back and forth in front of the coffee table, and back and forth along the hearth and TV.

At eleven months, Milo will walk holding onto just one hand. We keep encouraging him to take his first steps, but he hesitates. He will stand independently, and can slowly lower himself to the ground, but he doesn't want to walk without support.

At eleven months, Milo likes to blow spit bubble. "Mmmmuuuuh. Mmmmuuuuh. Mmmmuuuuh," he'll say, over and over and over, with a very serious expression on his face. And these giant bubbles of spit spew forth from his mouth. Then the drool starts running down his face, soaking his shirt. He's pretty much in a drool bib all the time these days.

At eleven months, Milo has no patience for the spoon. He will shake his head no when we offer him food on a spoon, but will eat the same thing if he picks it up off the tray himself.

At eleven months, Milo is now riding rear-facing in his new convertible car seat. We've only been using the new seats for a few days, and things are going fairly well. Milo doesn't seem to love getting in the chair, but I think it's just because he isn't used to traveling this way. Even after just a few days, his protests are lessening.

At eleven months, Milo likes to crawl all over us to play. He likes to lean into us, then throw himself backward. Fortunately we caught on to this game, so we're ready to catch him before he hits the floor.

At eleven months, Milo likes veggies and meat, especially when they're mixed together in little meatballs.

At eleven months, Milo will sit in restaurant high chairs, but he leans his head back as far as he can, so he's looking at the ceiling. This makes me extremely nervous that he's going to choke.

At eleven months, Milo babbles and babbles. Sometimes he makes high-pitched screaming sort of noises, but cute ones.

At eleven months, Milo swipes his hands back and forth across his high chair tray when he is done eating. This is typically followed by throwing any remaining food on the floor, so it's usually our cue to clean him up.

At eleven months, Milo is a huge snuggler.

At eleven months, Milo still has just two teeth.

At eleven months, Milo likes to hang upside down, be tossed onto the bed, and run around with Daddy.

At eleven months, Milo doesn't twist and turn as much on the changing table. Not sure if it's because he's really any different or because we've started giving him his paci when he's on the table.

At eleven months, Milo definitely loves his pacifier.

At eleven months, Milo does not have a lovey.

At eleven months, Milo sleeps primarily on his tummy.

At eleven months, Milo still takes crappy naps at daycare and excellent naps in the arms of his grandmothers.

At eleven months, Milo's morning nap is beginning later in the morning. I wonder if he is beginning to phase it out.

At eleven months, Milo experiments a lot with new sounds. One of them is his new laugh, a low-pitched, fast growly sort of noise, like "Heh heh heh." Very fake-laugh sounding.

At eleven months, Milo sleeps through the night. And I'm going to say that without any caveats. About two or three weeks ago we just decided we weren't going to get up with him anymore. After a few nights of no problems, and one night of a solid two hours of crying, he's done really well. Aside from occasionally being ready to get up at 5am, I love his new sleeping pattern.

At eleven months, I want to keep Milo this age for a few months. He's awfully cute right now. I'm not ready for him to be one year old yet.