Evie - 11 Months!

Precious Evie!  I can't believe you're 11 months old!  One year is just around the corner, and yet I feel like we just got home from the hospital!  You have become so much more independent this month--walking (never crawling), insisting on feeding yourself, being willing and even excited to drink out of a bottle and also holding it yourself (I know this one may seem silly, but it's HUGE for you!).

You took 5 steps on your 10 Month birthday, 11 steps on May 3 and 21 steps on May 4;  I don't think you've crawled once since that day.  Watching you walk around the house makes me so happy--not because you're walking, but because I think you have such a happy walk.  You also usually have a huge smile on your face as you wander about.  I so love the pitter patter of your tiny little feet.  Speaking of, you wear Size 3 or Size 3-6 Month shoes.  It was a little tricky figuring out a solution for you when wearing your pajamas because none of yours have the rubber gripping on the bottom of the feet to keep you from slipping on our wood floors, but you seem to have gotten the hang of walking in them much better.


You wear Size 3 diapers and either 6 Month, 6-12 Month or 9 Month clothes.  You now take just 2 naps a day--one from about 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. and one from 2:30-4:30 p.m.  You've also learned how to chew on your crib rail when you're not sleeping.  Thankfully, those are now covered up so you can't do it anymore.




I would say the one thing that characterizes you most this month is that you LOVE soft things!!  You like to pick up an article of clothing (Caleb's shirt, your pajamas, etc.) and carry it around the house.  Frequently, you'll pull down the dish towels that hang in our kitchen and leave one on the floor, while you carry the other around the house.  You also LOVE stuffed animals!  You get so excited when you see one and will let out these devious sounding giggles, give it a big open mouth kiss, bury your head in it and squeeze it in your arms.  You'll often walk into your room by yourself just to get either your lamb off your rocking chair or your giraffe or bunny off your table.  You walk back out of your room looking so proud with your stuffed animal in your arms.

You still get crazy excited over your blanket.  If you're crying because I put you in your car seat, you will immediately start laughing instead if I give you your blanket.

This month you started doing this really adorable cry.  When you get really upset and are crying, your bottom lip will quiver, which you can hear as you cry.  It sounds so pitiful and yet is so incredibly precious!

For a month or two now,  you've absolutely loved to eat shoes.  Definitely not the most sanitary habit, but if there is a shoe on the ground anywhere in the house, it will quickly find its way into your mouth.

For the most part, you will only initiate kissing Caleb and Wally (our dog).  They get the full on, open mouth kisses.  Everyone else is lucky to steal a kiss from you before you turn your head away, smiling.  It's kind of ironic to think back to how much you wanted kisses so early on (even as early as 2 months).


You LOVE to eat, but you definitely prefer to feed yourself (though you don't seem to mind as much if Caleb is the one feeding you), which has essentially eliminated jarred baby food from your diet.  I'm still trying to think of a good way to incorporate the jars we still have into your solid foods so they're not just sitting on our pantry shelf.  The foods that you've especially loved this month are Cheerios, green bean casserole, spaghetti, sliced turkey, cheese and bread.

You got sick at the end of last month/beginning of this month and had your first ear infection (left ear).  You were a little more clingy than normal but not really fussy.

I started weaning you this month, and you dropped your third nap at the beginning of the month as you adjusted to the weaning process.  In the beginning of weaning you essentially refused to take a bottle which meant you were skipping your last feeding of the day and going to bed a little earlier.  Thankfully that only lasted about a week, and you've since become a champ at taking a bottle and even drinking out of it by yourself.  It's so funny to me how crazy excited you get when you see your bottles now, when less than a month ago you wanted nothing to do with them.

You went through a spell of not saying "Ma Ma" this month, which made me sad, but you started saying it again at the end of the month.  Sometimes you'll hold your mouth in this really cute position--it looks like you just finished saying the word "oh" and then you keep holding your lips in that semi-pursed/open position.

You went swimming for the first time this month.  We didn't have a swimsuit for you yet, so you just wore your brother's old hat and t-shirt.  Seeing you in that hat, especially, reminded me all the more how much you resemble one another.  You loved the water and didn't seem to mind at all that it was a little chilly.



I think this picture shows your personality so well--so joyful and carefree.  We adore you, sweet Evie, and praise God for blessing us with you!

Click here to see more pictures of Evie.