happy 11 months, Penelope

Just one month shy of her first birthday,

Penelope at 11 months

cracking us up, and making each day even brighter. 

Penelope at 11 months  

Hereโ€™s whatโ€™s 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. Sheโ€™ll stand with the biggest smile on her face, walk 2-3 times, and (thankfully) catch herself on the floor with her hands so she doesnโ€™t faceplant. She does like to โ€œwalkโ€ if we hold her hands, and is still crawling all over the place. 

Penelope walking

-A huge change from this past month is that we dropped the dream feed. Ever since she was about 6-8 weeks old, weโ€™ve woken her between 10 and 11pm to change her diaper and feed her. Itโ€™s a strategy from The Baby Whisperer and Iโ€™m 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 weโ€™ve 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 โ€œwide awake partyโ€ feed.

Penelope standing

Since sheโ€™s 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 couldnโ€™t remember when I dropped it with Liv, but had a feeling it was before she was a year old. Either way, dropping it thankfully didnโ€™t affect her sleep at all. And the good news is that we no longer have to stay awake to dream feed her, even though letโ€™s 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 theyโ€™re in their carseats, Liv will make faces and talk to her, and P laughs the whole time. Itโ€™s 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.Weโ€™ve had a couple of freak spit-up incidents lately, but Iโ€™m thinking itโ€™s just because sheโ€™ll often crawl or jump around immediately after eating. Itโ€™s hard to keep her still now after meals!

A huge change: SHE HAD DAIRY! Weโ€™ve 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 itโ€™s shelf-stable.) One morning, I was just like, โ€œYou know what, letโ€™s 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.

Weโ€™re still mixing purees with baby led weaning, and Iโ€™ll have a post coming up about how we mixed the two since Iโ€™ve had quite a few questions about it!

-Miss P is babbling a ton, but not a lot of official โ€œwords.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, โ€œBIIIIIIG!”

She is such a sweet, fun, mellow, joyful little star. Canโ€™t wait to celebrate one year with her!

xoxo

Gina

Some 11-month faves:

Oxo sprout high chair

Bugaboo Runner

Carters jammies (we go through so many!)

Baby dolls

Minnie Mouse

Our Honest diaper bundles <– referral link (I wish we would have done this with Liv!!) 

Eric Carle and Llama, Llama books

Xlyophone

This silicone placemat (we take it everywhere with us)

Wooden walker

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13 Comments

  1. Cassie on October 3, 2016 at 12:00 pm

    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!

  2. Sandra on October 3, 2016 at 2:01 pm

    Oh man, she is Toms clone – and SUCH a cutie! Happy babies have such a way of lighting up a room!

    • Fitnessista on October 3, 2016 at 4:06 pm

      she is 100% a baby tom hahaha. <3

  3. Jess on October 3, 2016 at 2:21 pm

    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!

    • Fitnessista on October 3, 2016 at 4:05 pm

      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

  4. Erin @ Her Heartland Soul on October 3, 2016 at 4:27 pm

    She is such a little cutie!

  5. Casey on October 3, 2016 at 5:50 pm

    She is so sweet! ๐Ÿ™‚ where did you find those adorable onesies?

    • Fitnessista on October 4, 2016 at 9:42 pm

      i ordered the stickers from amazon. they’re just plain white onesies with the sticker on front

  6. Mari on October 3, 2016 at 6:49 pm

    She’s so cute!! Looks like she has quite a personality already!!

    • Fitnessista on October 4, 2016 at 9:42 pm

      she is a nut!

  7. Katie on October 13, 2016 at 2:18 pm

    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 ๐Ÿ™‚

    • Fitnessista on October 14, 2016 at 7:04 pm

      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!

  8. Reenie on October 18, 2016 at 1:27 pm

    Adorable…. both your girls are. ๐Ÿ™‚

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