Spreekt u Engels?: October 2015

Zoe turned 11 months a couple days ago and we celebrated in Prague. There were some big developments again this month. At one point a few weeks ago, I looked at Zoe and realized that she's not a baby anymore. That was an emotional feeling!

Some new developments this month include one tooth on the bottom, getting from sitting to standing without assistance, saying "dada" more clearly, giving big, open mouth kisses, and recognizing her name and the name of her family members.

This month Zoe has started to favor Cole over anyone else in the house. I can't lie...it's a little sad for me, but I love that she loves her daddy. Even though she likes to be with Cole, when she is hurt, scared, or tired, she still wants mommy. She loves to be where we are, but she has become a little more independent, exploring more on her own. I often leave her to play with some toys only to find her in another room playing with something she found along the way. She still often shrieks when we pick her up.

We're still on a four hour schedule, but we have begun the process of weaning from nursing. This is both emotional and freeing for me, but Zoe seems to fine with it. She now eats three solid meals a day and usually a snack. We have dropped one nursing so far, so she is now nursing three times a day. One thing is very clear: this girl loves to eat! She will eat almost anything I give her at any time. She really likes to be able to hold and chew on food, so I am trying to find more things I can give her that are not pureed. If she sees me eating something, even from across the room, she will immediately start chatting (putting it mildly), and come to me to have a taste of whatever I'm having. She'll also try to pry my mouth open if I'm holding her while I'm eating. Like I said before, she has one little tooth in the bottom. She hasn't been too fussy with this tooth, so I'm hoping the rest come in as easily.

Some of Zoe's favorite things to do are play peek-a-boo, shake her head back and forth while squealing, watch and laugh at her brothers, read "Bear on a Bike," play this little piggy, and listen to us singing to her. She loves to be around her brothers and play with their toys, which has started to cause some problems when she tries to take what they're playing with. She also still likes to be bounced, hang upside down, sit on our shoulders, look in the mirror, and wave. This is the first month that she has enjoyed reading books without moving around or grabbing them from me and opening and closing them. I love to see her smile when I ask if she wants to read "Bear on a Bike." She does not like when we take things from her that she wants (she screams), wipe her nose, waiting for food, and being confined by her brothers when she wants to move.

At 11 months, Zoe weighs 17.4 lbs (7.9 kg, 19 %) and is 28.5 inches (72.4 cm, 40%) long. She's still babbling a lot, but not any new discernible words other than mama and dada. She still has a temper and reacts very strongly to things. I mentioned last month that I often found her tantrums funny, but that has changed this month. We have started working on teaching her that she can't throw a fit to get what she wants. She has a lot of personality and, for the most part, is very pleasant to be around. I should have mentioned this last month, but she has started to really respond to her name, or names (she has a lot of nicknames around here).

There haven't been any changes to Zoe's sleep schedule. She still sleeps 12-13 hours at night and takes one or two naps per day. We had to lower her crib this month because she actually fell out of the crib one day at nap time. She is the first one of our children to ever fall or crawl out of the crib. I'm really surprised, considering how wild the boys are, that she was the one to fall out of the crib. Thankfully, I don't think she landed on her head because she didn't have any red marks or bruises on her head, or anywhere that I could see. She goes to bed really well, but has to have her pink, fuzzy blanket. She still loves to snuggle with Cole or me when we hold her with the blanket. I have noticed over the past month that she likes to gently rub the palm of her hand over her blanket when she's tired or nursing. She also likes to have the palm of her and softly rubbed.

Zoe is still strong willed and decisive. For example, when she wants to go somewhere, she will fling her outstretched hand in that direction. If she wants to go to someone specific, she will climb, push, try to jump out of your arms, etc. until she has reached the desired person. She will also push your hand away from her or out of the way if she doesn't want it around. Just today, I was rubbing her head before nap time and she reached up, grabbed by hand, and put it down (completely off her body). I am completely convinced that, even though she doesn't cruise yet, she is just going to start walking one day.

Zoe still does her little scoot/crawl all over the house. She has gotten really fast and good at finding me wherever I might go during the day. I have started calling her meerkat because, once she gets to me, she sits on one leg and extends the other with her arms outstretched. It reminds me of a meerkat. Although I have seen her cruise (a few steps) once or twice, she really doesn't move once she's standing...even if we try to hold her hands and help her walk.