11 Months!

11 things about my 11-month-old, Cadence.

 

1. Sleep. She’s not sleeping through the night anymore. I can’t really blame her—we unknowingly created the perfect storm of disruptions this past month. We moved her to a new state with a new climate (warmer, dryer, more day-light), a new house with new noises, textures and light, while at the same time, she decided to grow these new things called teeth (6 teeth in 8 weeks!!!!!), and on top of all of it, she decided to (mostly) quit nursing. Ugh, ALL of us are exhausted around here. We’re ready for this kid to just sleep already!

 

2. Yelling. She’s a noisy girl! Her most used noise is her ear piercing yell. She’s decided that she can use this noise for any reason. She’s awake, YELL! She’s happy, YELL! She’s hungry, YELL! She’s sleepy, YELL! Adelaide took her toy/food/whatever, YELL! We’re trying to show her other ways of communicating—sign language, words, pointing, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I’m really, REALLY hoping this is just a phase and she’ll stop yelling at all of us soon.

 

3. Talking. When she’s not yelling, she actually has a few words that she uses consistently and correctly—”mama”, “dada” and “up”. It’s fun watching these early efforts at communication. She’s learning so much, so quickly!

 

4. Breasfeeding. The biggest development this month has been her sudden abandonment of breastfeeding. One day she just refused to breastfeed, at all three of her day-time feedings. I was shocked! I thought I’d be nursing this kid well into her second year and then forcibly weaning. Instead, she’s the one weaning me! She still prefers to nurse when she wakes up in the middle of the night, which at the moment is 2-5 times/night. So I’m still getting my baby snuggle time, which is making the transition easier.

 

5. Sippy cup. In related news, she’s drinking from a cup! And she actually sucks the liquid out, instead of chews it out! How amazing is that!! She did it for the first time when Dana was in town. I think she was just hungry enough that when I offered her the food pouch (that I previously had to squeeze into her open mouth, or spoon feed to her) she grabbed it, wrapped her lips around it, and SUCKED!! I was shocked, amazed and ecstatic! Dana even took video of it, to prove that she did it, incase it was an isolated incident. Luckily it wasn’t, and she will now drink/eat from just about anything. No bottles though…we just skipped bottles and went straight to sippy cups.

 

6. Food. She is almost entirely self-fed now. She doesn’t seem to have the patience for spoon feeding, so I’m trying to let her feed herself. She still doesn’t care for solid fruits , but we’ve gotten her to eat a handful of veggies. Her favorite solid veggies are green beans, squash and sweet potatoes. Her most favorite foods, though, are anything crunchy/made of bread. Pirate’s Booty, Cheerios, Goldfish, graham crackers, toast, etc. I never truly appreciated how good of an eater Adelaide was/is until Cadence came along. She is going to be a tough one when it comes to healthy eating!

 

7. Physical development. I don’t have any pediatrician stats for weight or length, but milestone wise, she is right on track to start walking soon! She stands, ON EVERYTHING, and just recently she’s started standing without holding onto anything! She’ll crawl over to the couch, or table or whatever, use that item to stand up, then let go, and just stand there. Often she’s examining a toy in her hands, but sometimes she’s just lookin around, taking in the scenery. I’ve tried getting her to walk while holding her hands, but she almost always sits down immediately and starts crawling to her destination. I’m sure this will be similar to our sippy cup experience where she just starts walking out of nowhere. I hope I can catch her first steps on video, like I did with Adelaide. Those videos are my absolute favorite!

 

8. Water obsession. I don’t think I’ve mentioned Cadence’s water obsession here on my blog yet. This kid looooooooooves water! Bath time is her absolute favorite. And she is totally hypnotized by the toilet, which, for the record, is not great. Adelaide totally ignored the toilet. We’ve never had an issue with her putting things in the toilet, or wanting to flush it incessantly. She just coexisted with it. Not Cadence, oh no. If she sees Adelaide or I walk into the bathroom and turn the light on, she races in, to see what’s going on. First she check out the tub to see if there’s any water in it. Once she’s figured out it’s not bath time, she move on to the toilet, often trying to push her sister out of the way so she can get a better look at that glorious bowl of water. I see toilet seat locks in our future!

 

9. Books. Cadence, like Adelaide, was introduced to books as soon as she was born. Cadence, however, does not eat the books, like Adelaide did. Thank goodness! Instead, she likes to pull them down off the shelf and the open and close the covers. Open, close, open, close, open, close. Her fascination with opening and closing the books tends to disrupt story time, but we’re pushing through it. It’s really wonderful to have a child who just like to interact with the books, and not eat them.

 

10. Clapping and waving. Cadence now claps on demand. Whenever she gets excited or hears other people making happy noises, she stops and claps. It’s so fun! And she’s starting to wave consistently. Mostly after the person saying “hi” or “bye” leaves the room, thats when she waves. But still, it’s waving! And it’s so cute!

 

11. Sliding. Since Cadence as been so active and standing/climbing so much, I’ve started taking her and Adelaide to the park more, to help her burn off some of that energy. Our neighborhood park has a cute little climbing structure, aimed at toddlers, so it’s perfect for Cadence! It has a small double slide, which is Cadences favorite! I set her on the lowest platform, and she crawls her way all the way to the top platform and then wants to go directly down the slide. She hasn’t figure out how to turnout and go down on her tummy yet, but she will sit herself at the top of the slide and hold her hands out for me to grab, and then wheeeeeeeeee! Down the slide she goes. Huge smiles are enjoyed and then we do it all over again. This girl really knows how to find the joy in life!

 

Here are some pictures of Cadence from this past month. Enjoy!