Thursday, July 7, 2011

20 at 11.

Liza is 11 months old today.  

And, now I will proceed to brag, um, document, all about my precious little baby girl:

1.  She began walking at 10 months and now full-force walks and is getting very fast.  I anticipate running by her birthday.

2. She signs "dog" properly and has her own signing version of "more",  "all done", "water" and "cat".  She also waves bye-bye.

3. At 7 months, she said "ca(t)" all day long but her obsession has switched to all things dogs.  She now says "do(g)" and I'm pretty sure she says "a(ll) go(ne)" but I need somebody else to make that one official.  She also says "Dada" and "Mama" but not super consistently and sadly, the mama is only when she is crying and devastated.

4.  Which brings me to the fact that the baby cries all.day.long.  Her little world falls apart on a regular basis.  Head in her hands, drop to the ground, sobbing hysterically.  It's pretty dramatic and she is not easily convinced that everything is a-ok.  

5. She is a climber.  She hikes up that little right leg a million times a day and is beyond excited when it actually catches on something for her to climb on to.

6.  She jumps on command.  

7. She is a peek-a-boo pro and has taken the game to a new level never before seen in this house.  

8.  Henry brings her the most joy in her life but also causes the most pain.  It's heartbreaking.

9. Liza gets off the couch all by her big girl self.

10.  She has a 6th sense that alerts her when I am in bed and comfortably reading a back issue of National Geographic.  Be it 11 or 8, she knows and she takes her cue to wake up and need her mama.

11.  She nurses every 2 hours during the day.

12.  Two words.  Crap napper.

13.  She nurses quite a bit during the night but seems to be sleeping longer stretches on her own.

14.  We still get comments about how beautiful she is every time we are in public.  I've gotten better about gracious thank-yous rather than vigorously nodding my head in agreement and saying, "I know!  Isn't she beautiful?".

15.  She "plays" at the park now.  The stairs are her best friend and she is so bold as to walk up holding onto the low rail them rather than climbing like a baby.

16.  At home, her favorite things are: the fridge, the dishwasher, the trash can and the recycling bin.   Obviously, it's pretty hard to be productive in the kitchen with her underfoot.

17. She is starting to really like books.  She likes getting the board books out of the bins, turn the pages and point to the pictures.  I think she is a genius.

18. She is highly opinionated and it is a sad sad scene if you want her to do something she doesn't want to do.

19. Walks are still mostly with her in the baby carrier.  She tolerates the stroller for a while but once she is done, she is done.  I tell myself this is a good thing because it gets my heart rate up while walking fast but secretly, I would much prefer her little butt to be happy in the stroller.

20. I love the way her dresses can double as shirts as she grows.  She wears a range of sizes from 0-3 months to 12-18 months.  Little girl clothes are cute and I really like putting her in cute outfits every day.  It's almost ridiculous.

I am pretty sure she is the sweetest, most loving, most brilliant little baby girl that has ever walked this earth.  Love her.

7 comments:

KazVik said...

So sweet! I am glad you are enjoying your little girl. #14 made me laugh, since I tell you that every time I see her.

Anonymous said...

Hey Laura! I read it all. She is precious. You know, strangely a lot of her behaviors (both 'advanced for her age' and her frustrations-mostly), remind me of Thomas. I don't know about Henry, but Luke was more chill and let us do ANY/EVERYthing for him. Thomas, on the other hand, from the get-go, very young, like Liza's age (and younger, and I'm sure this started with Liza younger too)-he was constantly frustrated. I was always like, what is it with him? Is he just going to have anger issues? Then (2-3 years later) he was seeing things Luke could do and it was driving him MAD he couldn't yet b/c he couldn't understand the concept of age and how though to Thomas, Luke looked his age, 20 months can make a HUGE difference, no? I would encourage doing as much physical stuff like climbing stuff at the park while you hold her, guide her while she tries to do things Henry does. She probably wants to be able to do all the things you're doing in the kitchen, with the dishwasher, etc. Get her holding pencils and crayons and do activities that Henry can do.
This isn't to presume I know what your child needs, I'm sure you know that. I've just thought a lot about it with Luke and Thomas and thought I'd share.
Wish I could be closer to see those two grow! You know Luke and Thomas are moving to Birmingham, right?
Love to you and your beautiful family (Y'alls xmas card is still on my fridge ;)

Laura @ Our Messy Messy Life said...

Vika, I will never turn down a compliment on her. And, I love looking at your precious little boys too.

Jeffrey, Henry is certainly not chilled and never has been but Liza does certainly seem to get frustrated that she can't do everything he can. She tries and then gets mad when she can't do it. I didn't know they were moving.........miss you too!

Amanda @ Gratefully Growing in Grace said...

We are right there with ya with the climbing and napping and the drama... oh, the drama...

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe it's been almost a year already!!! Where has the time gone??

The Quinns said...

Laura, ditch 'gracious thank you's' and stick with the vigorously nodding and agreeing- she is gorgeous! As for the falling out on the ground drama- can we get a video please? Come on, you know you want to document that for future use!

Laurin said...

Oh, I love your posts!!! It does sound like she is a straight up genius and she is obviously beautiful... you have give the head nod on that!! Your kids are too funny with the d-r-a-m-a. Love it!