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Ali-gator, holy cow, you’re one! We celebrated your first birthday in Emerald Isle, NC with your grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins on my side of the family. It was a small but special party at a beach house with party hats, noise makers and balloons for all. You devoured a chocolate cupcake with strawberry frosting. (More posts about all of that coming soon.)

This past month has brought an explosion of language. You’re repeating words and sounds all the time. We’re still surprised when we ask you if you want another a drink of water and you say “yeah” or if we over you a bite of calzone and you say “tank you” all on your own. You’re obviously understanding so much now and learning new things everyday. You’re really getting into music. Any time you hear a beat, you start bopping. You’ll sing back to Daddy when he sings you tunes or try to sing along with the song. When you do something good, we often clap and say “yay!” so now you do the same for us. Yesterday when I changed your diaper you clapped your hands and said, “yay!” Good diaper changing job, Mommy! You are still super friendly when we’re out and about which means you draw people like a magnet with your smile and “hi!” Keep it up and you’ll have no trouble making friends.

You’re still an excellent eater and sleeper. Your sixth tooth came through the week before your birthday. You’ll try anything we offer you, but won’t open your mouth all the way anymore until you’ve had a taste. Some foods like scrambled eggs or green peppers sometimes get spit out. We’re quite impressed that you love strong flavors and unusual textures like artichokes, olives, dill pickles, pancakes with syrup, pepperoni, and fried okra (a new favorite from vacation). Peaches might be your current favorite food. You can polish off most of one all yourself in one sitting. For the most part, you eat whatever we’re eating, which is really convenient. You sleep a lot—8pm to 9am most nights and 2-3 hours worth of naps during the day. You went through a period of resisting sleep time by crying but we pretty much ignored you (sorry!) and now you’re back to happily going to sleep, snuggling up with Little Lucy before you fall asleep.

You’re walking with assistance and crawling like a pro—you’re quick! With that has come with some new needs for discipline and we’ve had to start saying “No!” and redirecting you a lot more lately. However, you’re getting it! You often respond to, “Do not touch the tv!” or “Do not play in Lucy’s water bowl!” on the first time now, without us having to physically move you away. You are a very bright girl. Often before you do something prohibited you’ll look at us to see if we’re watching you and we can tell you’re making sense of it all, thinking, and learning to enact some self-control. It will get easy as you mature, dear daughter.

Getting these monthly pictures had gotten more difficult each month as you’ve become more active—so I’m officially done. 10 monthly portraits from 3 months old – 12 months old. That’s the best I could do. It’s so fun to watch you grow!

My dear daughter, at 11 months old you are quite obviously transitioning into toddlerhood. You haven’t impressed us with too many new words this month, instead you’re all about new motor skills. You’re officially a crawler now, which means we’re all getting more exercise chasing you into the next room before you discover something we haven’t childproofed yet. Lucy is also getting more exercise. Our lazy old cocker spaniel has been keeping her distance from you for the past 9 months and now she has to keep jumping up to move away, narrowly escaping your grasp. I don’t think any of us is sure what you’ll do once you do catch up with her. From your back, you flip over so quickly and start crawling that it was almost impossible to get your photo this month! You were pulling up to a stand before you learned to crawl so now it’s a very smooth process: crawl across the room to the cabinet/door/table/chair/dogfoodbag/etc. and pull yourself into standing position. That also means you’re spending a lot of time standing up in your crib. I’m not sure what you hope to accomplish by this. Usually we let you get tired (or bored) for a while then go back and lay you back down and remind you it’s time for sleeping. That’s working so far. You’re cruising a bit also, moving with more and more fluidity from the coffee table to the play table to the person who is spotting you.

Even more amusing than all the mobility are your new dance moves. It started with clapping. At first you would clap the back of your left hand with your right but within a week you mastered the palm-to-palm clap. You also love to move your head side-to-side to the music—any music. Daddy introduced you to beat boxing recently in an attempt to show off your dance moves. Not only did it work, you love it! You’re even doing your own version of a beatbox. A couple days ago you were having your own dance party in your car seat, going “tah tah tah” and swinging your head around like Ray Charles, occasionally throwing in a few claps or a “yeah!” You’re adorable and such a good time! Thank you for entertaining us everyday, making us smile and laugh.

Your hugs and kisses are arguably the greatest reward to being your mom. You’ve added a back pat to your hug, which is the sweetest thing. You were upset over some teething pain the other night and as I hugged and rocked you, you started patting my back as if to say, “You’re doing a good job, Mom. You’ll get through this.” I should note that you now have 5 teeth through. That one on the top (left of center) was a doozy—the first tooth that’s caused you obvious pain. The 6th has been stubbornly working it’s way to the surface but it’s still not through.

I’m breaking the white onesie protocol this month and photographing you in your bathing suit because we’ve been going in Grandma and Grandpa’s pool as much as possible. Despite the hard time I’m getting from Daddy and Grandma, I’m determined to teach you to float on your back this summer. After months of trying to teach you to hold your breath to no avail, I realized I could more easily teach you to blow bubbles. You’re getting it! I’m not trying to push swimming on you because I love it; it’s for your safety. But I do hope you’ll be my pool buddy for many years to come. Happy 11 Months, Ali-gator!   

Precious daughter, you are 10 months old. It’s getting harder to remember how small you used to be. You look so different now that you have a beautiful head full of black curls. This month has brought an explosion of new tricks. You’re now rolling both directions and slithering/pulling yourself along the floor which means you’re all over the place. Looks like crawling is going to happen any day now. You eagerly pull yourself up to a stand if I offer you my hands. I haven’t seen you attempt to pull up on a table or chair yet but I’m sure it’ll be soon. You can stand on your own, holding onto something, for several minutes before you fall now. As I suspected, now that you’re moving around a lot you are starting to even out and get more slender and muscular. The 18 month pants that fit snuggly around your waist last month are now a little loose. You have an arsenal of silly expressions, ready to pulverize anyone’s bad attitude. Your favorite seems to be Oh!/Whoa! with big eyes and O-mouth. You do this when you notice a new thing—The ceiling fan? Oh!—or meet new people—Hi, Baby. Whoa! You’re so funny. Sometimes you play peekaboo with your arms. Our favorite new trick is your baby wave. Sometimes you mimic our sing-song “Hi-eye” and other times you say “Diya diya diya diya” (for bye-bye) as you wave, because you haven’t mastered “b” yet. It’s super cute when you put it together and it sounds like “Hi Dada.” Strangers love the waves and Oh! face—please don’t stop making people’s day; you have the gift of contagious joy. You are still a great sleeper and eater and so easy to take out. You’ve just cut your fourth tooth—two on the bottom and two on the top now. You’re still loving peas, carrots, green beans, cheerios, apple sauce, peaches, pears…pretty much anything we offer you will eat. You even had some black olives, artichokes and mushrooms off my veggie pizza the other day! You are a very special girl and a delight to your dad and me. Now that you’re standing up a lot, I’ve started putting shoes on you more often. These are one of the 3 pairs that stay on your feet. (Mad scientist hair courtesy of the pool.) It’s exciting to watch you grow and change and learn right before our eyes.

Update for my own records: At your 9-month checkup (at 10 months + 1 day old) you weighed 19.1 lbs (50%) and measured 29″ tall (75%). You really have stretched out!