Samantha 11 months

Wow! We can't believe how quickly a year can go by...it seems like just yesterday that we were dressing up our baby bump for Halloween. Now we are starting to plan her first birthday party!

Samantha seems to become more and more independent everyday. She can keep herself busy playing with her toys, our kitchen gadgets, gardening supplies or a bowl of fruit for 20-30 minutes which seems like such a long period now. When she is really into what she is doing she will sing "Aaahhhhahhhhhahhhhh," in a precious sing song voice. We need to get it on video so we don't forget it.

She is very into climbing right now and will go up and down our front and back porch steps over and over and over....amazingly, she has very little fear of falling.

She loves to eat and is expanding her "likable foods" weekly. She is doing great on deli meats and cheeses as well as fruits and breads. Most vegetables go in and then come right back out. Her favorite these days is watermelon and she will shove 3-4 pieces in at once, chew them for a bit and swallow the juice then spit out the leftover fruit. It is not uncommon for her bib "trough" to be full of food at the end of a meal. She LOVES her feeder cup (great idea Sally) and is so content to eat puffs, cereal, etc in the car on trips out. Love it! We have given her a few tastes of McConnell's frozen yogurt and she loves it. She will try to hold on to your hand between bites to make sure the spoon doesn't get too far away.

She still doesn't love her sippy cup but will drink from it when she is thirsty and there is no other option. We now only offer her a bottle first thing in the morning and before bed. She loves to steal sips from your glass and will make the cutest little fish lips to signal to you that she wants a sip.

She is still napping twice a day at 10:00am and 3:00pm for just about 2 hours. She almost always wakes up very happy and will sing and play in her crib for 10-15 minutes before we get her. She goes down very easily at 8:00pm and sleeps until 6:30-7:00am. We are enjoying these days while they last until #2 comes along and game over...

We have a wonderful nighttime routine which consists of taking a short neighborhood walk with the dogs and she goes in the Baby Bjorn with Pays. She loves to look for the moon and check out the neighbors seasonal decorations. It is a great way for us all to wrap up the day.

Her top left tooth has made its appearance but its right sided partner is taking its time coming through. Poor thing! You can see that it hurts her and when she is tired she will bite onto a hard surface out of frustration but then start to scream because it hurts. It is pitiful!

She is still crawling, FAST, everywhere and doesn't have much interest in standing alone or taking steps with us holding onto her. It will be interesting to see how long this stage lasts...