My sweet baby girl... I won't be able to call you that for much longer. How is it possible that you are eleven months old? Just one month short of being one year old. It is simply amazing to me to think you've been on this Earth with us for this long. I feel like in the blink of an eye you went from my sweet, tiny baby to my big one year old girl!
Kerigan, you are the sweetest little girl I could have ever dreamed of. I love that you are fiesty and loud and know how to get what you want, yet you have such a sweet side. You always know when I've told you "no" or not to do something. You will head for it and look at me, stop, and shake your head "no." It is the funniest thing ever. Your brother would smile and go straight for it! I love that you actually stop and listen to me. Let's always keep it that way, okay? Ha!
You are so silly. You make the funniest faces and have the best expressions- I wish I could explain how funny you are. Your little personality is just the best. Ga Ga thinks you act like her grandmother (your great, great grandma), so sometimes we call you "Mabel!" It is pretty funny. You will clench your fists and grunt and growl at us! You put emphasis on certain things as you babble, and it is like you are just telling us off! Ha! You make us laugh... all.the.time.
You are saying some new words this month. You now say "dada/daddy" (your first word), mama, Ga Ga, Bubba, bye bye and uh oh. You talk a LOT! This comes as no surprise since your mama loves to talk! Ha! You imitate things we say and do.
Your big news this month.... you have taken steps!! For the longest time you've been cruising around things and hanging on, afraid to let go. You have the strength and you definitely knew how, but you just lacked confidence.
You started out walking around the room like this with Bubba or your lion (walker).
Andrew loves to drag you around! You don't seem to mind.
You took four steps between Ga Ga and Mommy one day, but you never did it again until finally, just today, you stood all by yourself for a long time and took several steps towards me. You got the most precious expression on your face!
Like "Look out Mommy! Here I come!" I think you were proud of what you were doing!
Thank goodness I had the camera right there because you decided you were ready, and you just took off.
This is another famous expression... Mommy was trying to get big smiles out of you and you weren't having it, so I had to call Bubba outside and this is what you did when you saw him! Ha!
You gave him big smiles, as usual. He's the only one who can really get those genuine smiles out of you. It is just precious for me to see how much the two of you love each other.
You are so enamored by him!
Big open mouth kisses! Sweetest.thing.ever.
It is so funny because Andrew goes back and forth between being nice to you and being a little naughty! He always loves you, but I think sometimes he just gets so excited and wants to rile you up! Ha! When I have to put him in time out for making you cry, it just cracks me up because you crawl yourself right over to his time out spot and start bugging him!
You want to be right by him at all times, even if he has just made you mad! You want to play with what he is playing with, and do what he does. Sometimes this is okay with him, other times he just wants his space, but most of the time, you are sweet to each other and share. There is definitely an unmistakeable bond between you!
You are totally done with baby food. You want nothing to do with it anymore. You have realized that real food tastes better and that's all you want! Maybe it's because of all those chompers coming in! Your top two teeth are through, and cute as ever! You also have a third one on top, and I think more coming because you cannot keep your hands or things out of your mouth.
We have started you on a real schedule of breakfast, lunch and dinner. You usually just eat what Andrew or we are eating. You still take 4 8oz bottles a day, but I am thinking that is going to change soon when we switch you to real milk!
You are still a little inconsistent with your sleeping schedule! Now that summer has started and mommy is home from work, you like to get up at 5:00am! There were days during the year when we needed you to wake up and you were still sleeping! Silly girl.
You are starting to take a longer morning nap from about 9-11am. You are so funny when I bring you upstairs I put your paci in and you snuggle right in and cling to me for dear life! Ha! You know I am going to lay you down and you think know if you do this to me I will hold you for longer! You have figured out how to work the system, sweet girl! But I secretly love it. When I put you down for nap time or bedtime you are so cute because you play with your hair to fall asleep. You rub your hand all over your head and your little eyes get so droopy. It is the cutest thing ever. You also like me to stand there and rub your back and I usually have to do this until you fall asleep or you will stand right up and fuss if I leave! No matter how tired you are! Luckily you only do this at nap time, at bedtime you are always ready to go down. You also take an afternoon nap usually between 1 and 3, sometimes 2 and 4.
You consistently take your bottle around 7:00pm and go right down without a fuss. You do sleep through the night, so I can't really complain, but come on, girl! 5am?? The past couple days you have stretched it to 6:30, so I am thinking I'll have you trained just in time to go back to work and school again! Ha!
I like taking pictures of you with my old things... this was another one of my little chairs I used to sit on when I was your age. In fact, I stood up and took my first steps from it!
More big smiles for Bubba! He was holding your hand while you stood up!
Your sweet little smile...
My all time favorite picture of you... your face just says it all! That face is YOU. It speaks volumes about your personality, your sweetness, how funny you are...everything! I could seriously stare at it for hours. I love you more than words, baby girl! I can't wait to see you meet Minnie Mouse this month, you are obsessed with her! I'm so happy you get to come on this special trip with us. Now let's show everyone what a good traveler you are, okay? Ha!
I'll be scheduling a few posts for when we are gone because I know I'll have lots to share when we get back! Somebody's birthday party is right around the corner and Minnie is taking over the house right now! We can't wait to celebrate our girl!
We love you to the moon and back, baby!
(And I love how your smile at 3 months and this month are still the same, even after all this time. That is your great big, happy smile! I love it! You are the happiest baby ever!)
