happy 11 months, Penelope
Just one month shy of her first birthday,
cracking us up, and making each day even brighter.
Hereโs whatโs going on at 11 months:
-P has been able to stand freely for a couple of months now, and just recently started taking a few steps. Sheโll stand with the biggest smile on her face, walk 2-3 times, and (thankfully) catch herself on the floor with her hands so she doesnโt faceplant. She does like to โwalkโ if we hold her hands, and is still crawling all over the place.
-A huge change from this past month is that we dropped the dream feed. Ever since she was about 6-8 weeks old, weโve woken her between 10 and 11pm to change her diaper and feed her. Itโs a strategy from The Baby Whisperer and Iโm convinced that the dream feed, in addition to a solid routine, helped the girls sleep through the night fairly early. For the past few months, when weโve opened the door to dream feed P, she would wake up from her sleep, stand up in the crib, and start jumping and cheering while holding onto the railing. In other words, there was nothing dreamy about this feed. It was a โwide awake partyโ feed.
Since sheโs been sleeping through the night, and eventually the dream feed felt like it was inconveniencing her more than anything -she started drinking less and less of the dream feed bottle- we decided to drop it and see what happened. I couldnโt remember when I dropped it with Liv, but had a feeling it was before she was a year old. Either way, dropping it thankfully didnโt affect her sleep at all. And the good news is that we no longer have to stay awake to dream feed her, even though letโs be real, we still go to bed at midnight anyway.
-She is a cuddle bug. She gives the best hugs, and enthusiastic kisses with a MUAH at the end.
-I think she will always think Olivia is the coolest. While theyโre in their carseats, Liv will make faces and talk to her, and P laughs the whole time. Itโs amazing to get to watch them grow together, and see how their connection changes and becomes stronger each day.
-Meal time continues to be so much fun, and I love introducing her to new foods.Weโve had a couple of freak spit-up incidents lately, but Iโm thinking itโs just because sheโll often crawl or jump around immediately after eating. Itโs hard to keep her still now after meals!
A huge change: SHE HAD DAIRY! Weโve had these baby breakfast pouches in the pantry for a couple of month, which had brown rice, fruit and organic yogurt in them. (I guess to yogurt is super pasteurized so itโs shelf-stable.) One morning, I was just like, โYou know what, letโs go for itโ and was ready for a quick drive to the peds if needed. I gave her a tiny bit mixed with her morning oatmeal and watched her like a hawk. She wanted more!! I held off until the next day, and gave her the rest of the pouch on its own. She was totally fine. YESSSS. The peds said that a majority of babies outgrow their dairy allergies by a year, so fingers crossed this is the case. She seems to be ok so far, knock on wood.
Some new favorites:
salmon
chicken
whole eggs (before I was just giving her the yolks)
banana-egg-oat pancakes
in addition to her usual staples of stone fruits, berries, bananas, beans, avocado, sweet potato, red potatoes, broccoli, peas, and pouches.
Weโre still mixing purees with baby led weaning, and Iโll have a post coming up about how we mixed the two since Iโve had quite a few questions about it!
-Miss P is babbling a ton, but not a lot of official โwords.โ
On the list:
Mama
Da-da
Ay-ya (Olivia)
Beh-beh (Bell Bell; for Bella)
Bye
Hey
YAYYYYYY
and uh-oh
She can also replicate animal sounds really well, and I love when I ask her how big she is, she puts her arms up and says, โBIIIIIIG!”
She is such a sweet, fun, mellow, joyful little star. Canโt wait to celebrate one year with her!
xoxo
Gina
Some 11-month faves:
Carters jammies (we go through so many!)
Minnie Mouse
Our Honest diaper bundles <– referral link (I wish we would have done this with Liv!!)
Eric Carle and Llama, Llama books
This silicone placemat (we take it everywhere with us)
You must be so relieved that she’s turned an eating corner! Congrats on dropping the dream feed! We’re hoping we’re on our last canister of formula!
Oh man, she is Toms clone – and SUCH a cutie! Happy babies have such a way of lighting up a room!
she is 100% a baby tom hahaha. <3
Such a cutie! She looks like a happy baby. It’s funny my toddler was so mellow as a baby (no reflux issues like my others or random.crying events.) And has been way more work as a toddler. I think you will have the opposite, the hard parts behind you!
i hope so!! we had to fight through it there for a while, but now, she is as happy and pain-free as can be, and i’m so thankful
She is such a little cutie!
She is so sweet! ๐ where did you find those adorable onesies?
i ordered the stickers from amazon. they’re just plain white onesies with the sticker on front
She’s so cute!! Looks like she has quite a personality already!!
she is a nut!
Random question — do you have recommendations on protein powder to use while pregnant? This would be my first venture into the world of protein powder, not sure what to look for! Thanks in advance ๐
i just tried to get my proteins from food (eggs, chicken, seafood, goat greek yogurt, etc) as much as possible, and didn’t use a ton of protein powder. i liked the vega protein and pure hemp from trader joes. they have an egg white protein from trader joe’s that i LOVE- it’s just egg whites. that would be a good one!
Adorable…. both your girls are. ๐