"No Way" We All Say!

Sweat Pea Beauty, you're eleven months old.  Your little personality is just exactly like it's always been, but you have so many new ways of expressing it these days.  You are sweet, sweet, sweet, very busy, very deliberate, and very specific in your wants and desires.  For example, you will bring a book to me and insist that it play a song.  The problem is that not every book we have plays music.  This makes you quite angry.  I also think you've been teething this month.

You have so many cute things to say, and a lot of them are real words.   You say, "Mama" and "Dada" but not very often.  You love to say, "hi" and 'bye bye" while waving and you do both of them at completely appropriate times often before anyone has said it to you, told you that's what happening, or prompted you to say it.  You also wave and say "bye bye" when you know we're about to take you to your room to go to sleep.  You will say "do(g) do(g)" for dog if we ask you to.  You constantly say "dis, Dis(h)" which I think sometimes means "this" or "do this!"  You say "ah ah!" for "uh oh!" whenever you drop something, whether on purpose or by accident.  And you say "ba ba" for "bottle."  There are times that you walk up to me and tell me something, and it really sounds as if you're saying a little sentence in your head.  Often if I specifically tell you to say a certain word, you try to and get pretty close to age appropriate ones.

You are walking like a pro.  You even get excited and jump up and try to run.  You can walk around carrying multiple objects.  You can easily stop, lean over, pick something up, and keep going.  You can step over the baby gate threshold--the works.  You didn't start the month off like this at all.  It's crazy how differently you got around after about a week of "practice."  You also climb really well, including into the living room chairs.  They are now facing the wall because I could not figure out another way to keep you from climbing into them and falling out when I wasn't in the room.

You try to wrestle with Spencer, and you love to walk or run and then throw yourself onto a cushy pillow or blanket.  You go crazy when we let you play on a bed.  You think it's really funny to put your hands and head on the floor while you're still standing on your feet.  You look like you're about to do a forward roll.  You want us to look at you between your legs and laugh with you.  You love to bounce (something else you try to say), and you love to dance.  You sway from side to side, moving your hips and your hands and arms.  It's so cute!  You are into every cabinet and drawer, and you get them open and emptied in record speed.  You have shut your little fingers in them quite a few times this month.  You stalk the bathroom for any chance to play in the toilet.

You've been a mama's girl lately, and this has been quite a change.  While you've always loved me, and "preferred" me when given a choice, you've been much more vocal lately when I'm not as close as you'd like and you've been much more affectionate when we are together.  You give the sweetest, tightest, most on purpose hugs I've ever had from a baby (I don't think these are brand new to this month, but I don't think I've written about them yet).

You love purses, shoes, necklaces, and bracelets.  You will also find clothes and insist I put them on you.  You've tried to put your shoes on, and you've tried to put Spencer's shoes on him.  The other day, there were a few dresses in a target sack, and you kept handing it to Gigi and fussing at her.  I told her that you wanted her to help you put the dress on.  Gigi wasn't convinced that's what you wanted, and she tried to help you play with it all a couple of different ways, meanwhile, you continued to fuss at her.  She finally put the dress on you over your other clothes, and you immediately settled down and admired it.  Whoa.  Just whoa.

While your screaming to protest things you don't like is not a new thing this month, your temper tantrums are.  You've now developed a full-body reaction to disappointing situations.  If I'm trying to pick you up to take you away from something you want, you've learned to quickly sit down and then throw your arms up in the air so that I can't easily pick you up.  You then spin yourself around on your bottom and flail your arms around.  If you're really mad you'll scream and cry while you do this, if you're not as mad you'll just wrinkle up your nose and snort and fuss.  The first time you did this little maneuver I couldn't help but laugh.

Now, you'll get jealous if I'm holding Spencer.  You have fussed and screamed until I put you where ever we are or until I make room for you on my lap.  You climb onto both of us if you can get to where we are.  You get incredibly angry if we are eating something that you are not also eating.  You scream, cry, and pitch a fit until you are given some of whatever anyone else is eating.  When your grandparents come over, you unsolicitedly wave "hi" to them and fuss until they pick you up and give you the attention you're due.

You will take 6 or 8 ounces of formula at a time at least a couple of times a day now.  Which is long overdue and very convenient.  You'll even hold your own bottle while I change your diaper; but after a minute or two you decide you aren't very hungry and that it'd be a lot more fun to shake and pour it out everywhere.  You slept through the night once this month, but as it turns out, I think you were getting sick.  You ran a fever a day and a half after that, and, whatever the case, you've not done it since then.  I'm not very surprise, but I am disappointed.  I do think you've been mildly to moderately uncomfortable due to teething this month.  You got another bottom tooth this month, bringing your total to four; and I noticed a a few days after you turned eleven months that your upper right lateral incisor has broken through (before either of your top front teeth).

You've let me add new songs to your evening lullaby serenade.  You are still as squirmy as ever.  You really want to be held and cuddled while you alternately sip on your bottle and suck on and throw your paci on the floor all while laying on your stomach.  The idea that a few of these actions and positions are mutually exclusive of the other ones is not one that you're open to considering at this point. Eventually our daily wrestling, rocking, feeding, cuddling, jabbering, laughing, crying, lunging exercises come to an end, and I lay you in your bed.  You usually cry for a few minutes and then if you don't get your leg stuck in between the slats of your crib or have a dirty diaper, you go on to sleep.  If you're exhausted you will take your bottle while being relatively still, with your arm and hand covering your face, and you'll fall asleep that way.  Bedtime probably goes like that twice a month or so.

You wake up once a night and take 8 or 6 ounces of formula from your daddy.  If you're sick, you wake up all night long, and if you're getting sick or only slightly sick on the way to being sicker, you sleep all night (this has now happened twice that I'm sure about in your eleven months).  You've had ample amounts of Tylenol, Benadryl, and Ibuprofen (all well within weight appropriate dosing guidelines).  It seems to help when you're definitely sick and possibly when we think you might be bothered by teething, but it's really hard to know for sure.  You still have a stubborn patch of eczema on your cheek near your mouth.  Mupirocin and the humidifier seem to help it.  Everything else seems to do nothing or make it worse.  Sunscreen and avocado definitely make it worse.

You're just as precious as you can be, Evelyn.  I hope someday you know how much your mommy loves you.