Violet at 11 months

Violet is 11 months old today! This has been such an eventful month, filled with lots of milestones for her.

She became mobile the day that she turned 10 months old. She's still not crawling, and she's not even army crawling. I describe what she does more like doing the butterfly stroke on the floor. She dolphin kicks and pulls herself along with both hands at the same time to get where she wants to go. She is amazingly fast. But I'm getting to the point where I feel that, if she must be mobile, she might as well crawl on all fours. Otherwise, she's pretty much a human dust mop when she's on wood or tile flooring.

Having a mobile baby with an older sibling has its pros and cons for sure. Parks are a big hassle, because she just wants to scoot all over the place and put things in her mouth. When Jack was a baby, we didn't even bother going. But they are pretty unavoidable with an older child. And of course, at home, Jack has a lot of little toys that are potential choking hazards. Unfortunately, baby-proofing means restricting his access to certain rooms as well. We have a gate between the living room and the kitchen, and he's always messing with it. But it is so nice to have him as an extra set of eyes and hands. I can feel comfortable leaving her in a room for a few minutes if he is there, because he will pull her away from things that he knows she shouldn't have or alert me when she's getting close to playing with things that she shouldn't put in her mouth. He will very often lay himself down between her and a place she shouldn't go.

"I'm her gate!" he'll tell me.

He is frequently a "gate" between her and the edge of my bed when they are both playing on it. It makes it MUCH easier for me to get dressed in the morning.

Violet is also starting to communicate a lot more. I swear she is able to make the signs for "more" and "milk." She also knows to raise up her arms when she wants us to pick her up. She shakes her head when I ask her yes or no questions, although it's not entirely clear to me that she knows which is which. She pretty reliably yells "Mem!" when she wants me and says "Dada!" when she wants either Jack or her daddy. I can't really remember if she was doing this before this month (I think she was), but she likes making motorboat noises with her lips.

We're starting to get better at giving her a well-rounded diet, although I do think we tend to depend on carbs like bread and crackers in a pinch. They're just so easy and not as messy as fruits and vegetables. But she loves blueberries, grapes, green beans, broccoli, carrots, and sweet potatoes. She doesn't seem to like the pureed stuff as well; she's more about finger foods.

We are still breastfeeding. I need to teach her not to - ahem - play with her food. Because she thinks it's pretty hilarious to pull off and flick me while she's nursing. She does it and then she laughs and laughs.

She has a pretty sunny disposition. It's very sweet and fun. Nothing and nobody makes her laugh like her brother. But she also loves the cats and playing peekaboo. I find that it's easier to take her out on playdates than it is to have her at home. She's still very Mommy-centric, and when we are home, she wants me to hold her all the time. But when we are out with friends, she's pretty self-sufficient, entertaining herself with new (to her) toys.

She finally has enough hair for pigtails and ponytails. It's a bit of a pain to put them in, but she's so cute in them. Of course, heaven forbid that she get anything that Jack doesn't have. When he sees her with pigtails or hair clips, he asks for them too.

Sleeping has always been a bit of a challenge with her, and it continues to be. We had two glorious days in a row last week when she had a three-hour nap and actually slept through the night. But she must have been stocking up, because she really hasn't napped in the week since and has had several wake-ups at night. I think she may be getting close to crawling and is too excited to sleep.

We moved her to a big girl car seat (and Jack into a big boy one) a couple of weeks ago. It's a little bittersweet to think that we will never have another baby in the little infant carrier.

Just three days ago, she figured out how to push herself up to a seated position from her belly. It's so nice that I don't have to "rescue" her from her stomach anymore.

It's been so much fun watching our sweet baby grow and develop. Even though this is our second time around with (most of) these milestones, it's amazing how much you forget and how different each child is. I can't believe that she will be one in a month!