Rhys @ 11 months

I can't believe in one month we will be celebrating a certain little girl's 1st birthday!  This year has flown by incredibly fast (even if some of the days felt like the longest ever due to lack of sleep and cranky babies!)

Rhys is generally a happy baby!  She cries when she wakes up in the morning (always starving), and she'll fuss if she is hungry at meal-times or if she doesn't want to get in the car, but she generally calms herself down quickly...usually sucks her thumb.

She has started "talking" - if you talk to her or if she sees something she wants, she starts sort of grunting "uhh" to communicate with you.  She's also starting to sign!!  She's been waving bye-bye for a while (I think that was part of last month's post?), today when she finished lunch I asked if she was "all done" and she waved her hand!  This past weekend she was "giving kisses" too.  I had my face close to hers and she leans in with an open mouth and tries to kiss!  We went for a quick visit to Grandma & Grandpa's the other night and they were telling her bye and went in for a kiss, and she opened up to give them kisses right back!

She is suuuper close to taking her first steps - definitely not ready for a full walk, but she is constantly standing, cruising around furniture, pulling up to her toys, pushing her doll stroller and she'll hold my fingers, but most of the time she is barely holding on.  If she really wants something she sort of lunges towards it but forgets to move her feet.  Guessing she'll start baby steps around her birthday. (although, I totally thought that with Natalie and it took her 2.5 more months! so who knows!)

One of Rhys' favorite activities these days: emptying out the wipes container.  I've caught her doing it a few times now; today I actually grabbed the camera before I stopped her.  She was in luck too - Daddy just refilled it this morning.

Rhys is still nursing in the morning and before bed at night.  I gave up pumping during the day at work about a month ago - too much work for such little results.  Rhys was using up my freezer supply pretty quick, so I asked the Dr. about introducing cow's milk.  He said it was fine if she hasn't had any reactions to dairy products.  So, last week she got about 25% cow's milk mixed in with mom's milk.  This week the ratio is about 50%; next will be 75% and she'll be onto cow's milk during the day by 11.5 months.  The transition is a few weeks quicker than with Natalie, but not too far off.  I'm pushing for her to take a sippy cup, but she's not too happy about it.  I guess I shouldn't be too surprised after the fit she threw over bottles initially....hopefully by the time she is getting only cow's milk, we will be rid of the bottle. That's the goal, but might not happen.  We shall see!

As far as solids, the girl loves to eat!  She'll usually try something at least once, she may not take it the second or third round, but she usually eats it the first time.  She's had chicken and tri-tip this week - gobbled them both up!  Loves yogurt, raspberries, blueberries, peaches, banana, pretty much any fruit she's given.  Also loves green beans, peas, and carrots.  She's not too sure about eggs (yolk only) - they are hit & miss.  She'll usually eat bread, but the 2nd or 3rd chunk end up on the floor.  I need to re-try pasta with her.  She kept spitting it out when I tried before, but it might have to do with the self-feeding; with the exception of yogurt, she wants to do everything herself.  I was holding off on pasta again until she had a few teeth, but that doesn't seem to be happening, so maybe I'll try cut up pieces and see how she does.  She really likes Cheerios, especially out of the snack-traps.

We've been doing decent in the sleep department!  Rhys is down around 7:30pm and up again around 6:30 / 7am.  Natalie's been going down around 8/8:30 and wakes up whenever Rhys decides its time to wake up.  This has been the only downfall of them sharing a room so far.  But, it's good for them, right?  I thought by now they would both be used to the other noises, but guess not.

We are still dealing with the clingy phase, but it does seem to be getting a little better.  For a while I couldn't even set Rhys down, but now she'll usually tolerate it for a while, especially if she isn't hungry or tired.  She plays independently with her toys until she realizes I am gone...then she tracks me down and clings to my leg.  Makes house chores interesting; today, for example, I had to vacuum the house with her on my hip.  19 lbs of baby while pushing a vacuum is no easy task!  She's definitely a mama's girl.

Our house generally looks like a toy tornado went through it.  Between Rhys and Natalie, I'm not sure who is faster at taking all of the toys out of the toy box!  Constant battle to keep things neat, but I suppose its just our phase of life right now!

Stats at 11 months:
Height: 27 inches
Weight: about 19 lbs
Diapers: Size 3
Clothes: Size 12 mo
Shoes: Size 2