The Wally, 11 Months

This outrageous little lady is 11 months old today.  How is this possible??  She also has a new title: The Wally.  This name was lovingly bestowed by her brother Noah.  The other day at his swimming lessons, he said to his teacher, "Look! The Wally is over there!"  Obviously his teacher had no idea what he was talking about, and it made me laugh.

Sally Wally is as happy as ever, but, man oh man, is she a menace.  She is so busy--always moving, always wiggling out of my arms.  Changing her diaper is nearly impossible with her twisting and kicking.  Church is completely unbearable because there is no way she is staying in a pew.  She spends a lot of time out in the hall with one of her parents.  (Honestly, is there any point in going to church when you have children age five and under??)

It's crazy to me that she was such a chill infant, content to just sit and watch the family.  Now she will do anything but sit!  She doesn't even like to be held, and she certainly won't snuggle. :(  The only time I can occasionally get her to cuddle with me is when I feed her a bottle and she's tired enough to fall asleep in my arms.  That's my favorite.  Once she's sleeping soundly, I put her against my chest, put my head on her hair, and rock her just a few minutes longer before I lay her down.  Heaven.

When I recently took her to the childcare at the YMCA, they told me that they had never seen a busier baby.  Haha--I'm glad to know it's not just me!  But as long as she's free to roam and destroy, she's a really happy girl.  The only times she screams in protest is when she's contained in her highchair or carseat.  She just wants to be free!  (I must add that this sometimes makes mealtimes and car trips very unpleasant for the rest of the family.)

She spends a lot of time at my feet throughout the day.  She destroys things while I work.  While I do dishes, unload the dishwasher, pay bills, or get ready for the day, she is always underfoot.  I never want to forget looking down to see her grinning up at me.

She crawls at lightning speed and doesn't have any interest in walking yet (why would she when she can crawl faster than I can jog??).  She doesn't like the feeling of the floor on her bare knees, and since it's summer now and she is often wearing shorts or skirts, she pretty much always bear crawls.  Cutest thing ever, with her little bum up in the air.

She does like to take steps while pushing her walker and toy lawn mower, but I haven't really seen her cruise furniture yet, and she doesn't stand without holding on to something.  So I think walking is still a few months off.

She is a friendly baby and is willing to go to anyone without a fuss.  She is easy to leave with babysitters, and I've almost never seen her display separation anxiety.

She has become a good sleeper.  She started sleeping through the night 12 solid hours around 8.5 months, and in the past few weeks, she's even become a good long napper.  This is new for her, and I hope it lasts!

Something else new for her is that she has suddenly started taking a binky.  The other day we had some friends over, and she kept trying to steal the other babies' pacifiers.  She would grab them, pop them in her mouth, and crawl away super fast.  She would never take a binky as a little baby, and I even tried about a month ago and she still wouldn't.  But after seeing her try to steal our friends' binkies, I decided to give her a pacifier and see what happened.  Sure enough, she took it and kept it in her mouth and loved it.  What in the world??  So now we are going to let her have it when she sleeps.  It really helps her to self-soothe and settle down.  Where she used to protest when I laid her down, now she just lies there content and watches me go.  I certainly hope it lasts!

She has the cutest little expressions.  She tucks her bottom lip under sometimes, and Ryan says this is something that I do.  (I doubt I look as cute as her when I do it!)  She also scrunches her nose and sticks out her lips when she has allergies or a stuffy nose--it's adorable.  I really need to get a photo of  it.

She is an amazing eater.  We never really gave her baby food or purees but went straight to table foods around 7 months.  She eats what we eat--all types of meat, fruits, vegetables, pasta.  Her current favorites seem to be blueberries, deli meats, and mozzarella cheese.  She didn't get her first tooth until 10-months old, and even before that, she was gumming down hamburgers.  So crazy!

But sometimes her willingness to eat anything gets her into trouble.  She constantly eats paper and toilet paper despite my best efforts to keep it out of reach, she once ate goose poop when we were at the park before I could get to her (yes, goose poop!  I almost threw up as I scraped it out of her mouth), and one evening she grabbed a roly-poly bug and popped it in her mouth in one swoop before I could stop her.  Good grief--I mean can these things taste good?  MENACE!

She still only has one tooth, and it kills me.  It sticks up out of her bottom gums like the cutest little snaggletooth when she grins.  And she grins A LOT.

She has become so playful in the last month or so--always laughing, always playing "peek-a-boo" and "chase" with us.  I love getting down on my hands and knees to let her chase me.  She laughs uproariously and tries to tackle and wrestle me.

She is getting so smart and interactive.  She puts my phone up to her ear and pretends to talk on it.  She takes her brush and tries to comb her hair.  When I print things out, she grabs the papers from the printer and holds them up toward me.  When she's with a group of people and everyone laughs, she chimes in with a little social laugh too.  I can't believe that she is starting to understand the world.

It seems like she is trying to say some words, though at this age it's hard to tell what is just gibberish and what is intentional. She sometimes seems to say "Hi" to people as she waves; she sometimes calls for "Noah!" after I do (doesn't sound anything like "Noah" but it's the same two-tone inflection that I use, and she looks right toward his bedroom when she says it); and she sometimes seems to shout "Dada!" first thing in the morning.  Again, none of this is definitive sounds quite yet, and maybe it's just in my head, but it's obvious that she is starting to communicate with us in her own sweet way.

I don't want her to grow up!  But I've said that before, and yet every stage is just as much fun as the stage before, in its own way.  So instead of feeling sad that time is passing so quickly, I am trying to just savor every phase  We sure love our little princess, The Wally!  In fact, we are completely smitten.

Love you, Sweet Baby Girl!!!!