This kid of mine

I'm sitting alone...on a Wednesday morning! Dave just took Elinor to dance class and instead of doing the dishes that some how piled up overnight I'm sitting her on my computer and watching shows I've missed.

Elinor has been so hilarious and awesome lately. Except for the those moments when she thinks it's funny to run away from us. Her vocabulary has really taken off. She even has corrected some of her cute words that she couldn't pronounce. I hate it! The other day we walked into the mall and she insisted on a bagel (which she always does and I have no idea why). I asked why she keeps getting it in her head that she gets a bagel at the mall. She told me "no not in my head, in my mouth". She is a smart little one.

Between writing this, I booked an appointment for a haircut. How awesome you can do that online but I was rushing to finish everything and booked it for tomorrow instead of today ugh! I guess I will just fit it in tomorrow instead. We are getting family pictures taken on Friday. We have only taken our own, so it's exciting!

I guess it's time to move on to those dishes.

12 month check up

Elinor had her one year check up last week. Even though she has slowed down a lot on eating, she is still an average weight. I was getting a little worried. I think maybe because her first molars are coming in but still when you sit down to eat meal after meal and she refuses it makes you worry. She still is nursing which has picked up since her signing. Maybe she is filling up on milk and that's why she doesn't want real food. Either way she is growing!
The Dr asked about her speech. I told him the couple of words she says "mama, dada, bubba (pacifier), pup pup (puppy), get, ishh (fish), key (kitty)". We told him she also signs a lot of words. By 12 months, babies should be saying between 1-5 words. He told us (which I didn't know) that signs count too. That was another thing I had in the back of my mind was if she was saying enough. I read so many blogs and mommy message boards. It's easy to question what you know is ok. All babies are on their own learning path and I need to keep remembering that.
I'm going to add her stats on the 12 month post that Dave wrote to keep everything together. Go back and check if you are curious.

12 months (told by Daddy)

I can't believe my little girl turns 1 today.  She's growing up so fast its kind of depressing but at the same time also more and more fun every day to see her learn and do new things.   I don't see her all day like Caitlin does, so every morning or night now it seems like I'm telling Caitlin "Hey she just made a new word" or "Look what shes doing!" usually only to be told it's not as new as I thought.  But she is figuring out new words now almost every day.   And she's putting signs together to form sentence fragments.   She must have been pretty hungry earlier this week because she signed "more" "milk" "please".   She's actually abusing the "milk" sign a lot now that she figured out she can get wants she wants quicker with it.   Being able to express to Caitlin that she wants to eat right away is making for veeery short feeding times with not much time in between them.    She also seems to be eating less real food recently but I'm convinced its because her molars are coming in and her mouth hurts, despite her not seeming to be in any pain.   It hurts both of us just to look in her mouth and see the poor baby's gums all messed up.     

She's running all over the place now too.   It seems like she went from a few steps to running around nonstop all day in just a week.  One of her new favorite thing is going up stairs.    The other morning I was watching her while Caitlin ran into work to pick up Henri, and Ellie must have been bored/mad after a while because she was standing at the front door crying and trying to get out.  I decided to walk the halls with her until Caitlin got back so we ran up and down the hallway and took the elevator to the ground floor and I showed her the stairwell.  She immediately started climbing and didn't stop until she got to our floor.  We live on the 5th floor!   I can barely walk all the way up myself so I don't know how she did it. She wanted to keep going up the steps to the roof but I had to stop her.  

Even though she's changing every day and developing faster and faster she's still my little peewee.  I can't wait to see what she's like by birthday #2, which is probably when I will write on Caitlin's blog again.

11 months 10 months 9 months 8 months 7 months 6 months 5 months 4 months 3 months 2 months 1 month

EDIT by mama to add-

Elinor is now 29in and 20lb 3oz!

11 months

 November 1st, Dave told Elinor "This is the last month you have never seen!". How is my little baby a month away from being one?!! Since we have been back from Japan she has started so many new things. Actually when we got home there was a day or two where she had totally stopped talking and was acting funny. The next day she started babbling in sentences. Badaga ba mahh blama!

 She loves music, especially beaty beat beat by yo gabba gabba. She mimics all the moves from it. Same with a lot of other songs like itsy bitsy spider and happy and you know it. She claps (usually on beat) and dances the second she hears music. Her head starts nodding and she starts rocking her middle back and forth.

Ellie also mimics little things we do. When eating dinner she likes to have a spoon because we do. Yesterday we bought new pillows and were laying on the ground trying them out. We had sat up and were talking when she walked up to the pillow and laid her head down. We all lost it and then she thought it was a game of laying her head down for laughs. She likes to play the where's Ellie's belly game grabbing her belly but now wants to see our bellies in return.

I have been signing to Elinor pretty much since she was born. She signs "more", "all done" and "milk". I think she is starting to try her own version of please. I'm working on signing potty with her every time she goes so she will put it together. She has been shaking her head yes for awhile but recently started shaking her head no. Of course that is hilarious to her. For speech, she says Mama, Dada and Bubba(her pacifier). She has said baaa and what sounds like woof. Randomly she has said kitty when looking at cats but isn't consistent with it. She has said aaahhh daaaa for all done but not every time.

 And big news, she started walking on Sunday. She has taken steps, no more than 4 before Dave left for tour. Well Sunday she just decided to go for it. She woke up and took 9 steps in a row right away. She would stand right back up and try again. Now It is a week later and we have a walker.

I love her more and more everyday. She has such a big personality and makes us smile.

10 months 9 months 8 months 7 months 6 months 5 months 4 months 3 months 2 months 1 month

10 months

We had her 9 month check up a little late since our Dr was on vacation. So Elinor was a little closer to 10 months. She is now 27.5in and 18lbs 15 oz. She had been walking and standing on her own a lot but after her appointment she completely stopped. I think the shots hurt her legs. She is just now starting to try to walk again.

 I know babies little bodies pop a lot but Elinor's hips kept popping. She also would swing one leg around when walking. The Dr ordered an X-ray which came back perfectly normal. I was a little nervous waiting those couple of days for the results but so happy everything is fine.

She had been doing so good at night with our new schedule but with Dave gone I think it is affecting her. She pulls down a picture of us and points to him saying dada all the time. I can't wait to see her face when we see him. We leave in 5 days for Japan to meet up with him! 

Courtney helped me take her pictures yesterday morning. We did them as soon as she woke up so she would hopefully actually lay on the blanket. She rarely stays still anymore. 

This one is blurry but I love when she makes this face.

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9 months

 I know I say it every time but where did my baby go?? She is so funny and has such a huge personality. She is pointing at everything and wanting to walk so bad. She has been pushing around anything she can to walk. At a second hand store I finally bought her an actual push toy. When we got home she walked back and forth using it all night! She tries to clap but misses her hands and just hugs herself.

 Elinor is so talkative but a lot of people don't appreciate what she is saying because her voice is so high pitch and loud! She loves to squeal and say buh bye to people. Still no mama. On Saturday she did say maba a couple of times and that was the first ma ever. She seems to try to repeat a lot of things we say though. Saying it in the same inflection.

 We took these pictures before naptime so she was a little crabby. Her favorite thing to do right now is to chew on a book. We gave her a book to get a couple more pictures. When you can get the book out of her mouth she loves loves to read. Mostly touch and feel and lift the flap books.

 Since she was sick two weeks ago her eating solid food has slowed down. Everyday it seems like she eats a little bit more. She still will try everything we offer her but she won't eat too much of it. Now that we are home I hope to start offering more variety in meals and snacks.

 Her top teeth are in now and besides extra drool and a runny nose, there wasn't much fuss. It seems like her other bottom tooth on the side is on its way in. A friend told us about the baltic amber necklace and after having it for a few months, I love it.

Oh and she never sits still!

7 months 6 months 5 months 4 months 3 months 2 months 1 month

8 months

 Someone asked me how old Elinor is the other day and I said 6 months. It didn't even hit me I was wrong until the next day. She is now on the move! I go into the kitchen and all of a sudden there is a little head peeking around the corner at me. She is also pulling herself up on everything. She always lets go while standing and is pretty good at balancing. Sometimes she falls to her bottom and acts like she is hurt but if  you ignore she just pulls up again just as happy as before. I think we reacted too quickly when she would fall back from sitting so she expects us to run to her when falling.

 Elinor has finally slept through the night a couple of times! The first time I woke up so confused and then worried something happened to her. To fall asleep lately she plays with my hair while eating. Which turns into pulling my hair out. She also started playing with her own hair since it is long enough to get ahold of now. She still takes about 3 naps a day. The one in the middle of the day is tiny but she rarely doesn't take it.

 She went through a couple of days where she didn't want to eat much solid food but now she is back on track eating 3 meals a day. I'm always surprised at what she likes. We had spaghetti squash casserole the other day and she inhaled it. Same with anytime we have had quinoa. For dinner tonight I gave her a whole peach and she ate almost all of it!

 This huge personality is starting to come out of this little baby lately. She is so silly. When Dave comes home from work she starts going frantic giggling and hiding her face in my shoulder. She will peek out at him waiting for him to come get her and giggle hiding again. She sits and plays with toys now and is back into reading books. I love when you read to her and she starts to reach to turn the page.

this is Dave's favorite picture of her. He kept looking at it and laughing so hard

I forget why she started to fuss but it was fake and lasted 2 seconds

7 months 6 months 5 months 4 months 3 months 2 months 1 month

7 months

 7 months! Elinor is still not crawling forwards. She goes in circles and backwards. A couple of times she has inched forward. But put her sitting next to anything and she will pull up. The other day I put her against a low wall and she just started cruising along on her own. A few random times she has also got herself from her belly to sitting.

Taking pictures of her this time was so difficult. She would not sit still and I know it will only get harder from now on. She thought it was so funny. 

She still loves to eat but sometimes she decides she doesn't want anything to do with certain foods one day and then love it the next. We will just keep offering different foods every meal and hopefully she will try everything eventually. 

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6 months 5 months 4 months 3 months 2 months 1 month

6 months

How is this baby already 6 months?! She is now 16lbs 9oz in the 64%, 26in in the 62% and her head 44.5cm in the 94%! Poor big headed baby. 

Elinor is sitting up like a champ. No crawling yet but the other day she pushed herself backwards across the livingroom to the wall and got stuck. Since then there hasn't been much movement. Ellie gets excited when she sees her friends now. Every morning when we get to work as soon as she sees Henri she starts giggling. Same with Dorie and some other friends we have. A couple of weeks ago she started reaching for who she wants. I love it! Another big milestone, the day after she turned 6 months a tooth started to pop through. We are still waiting for it to come all the way through. She is still going on the potty every morning and also sometimes at night and on the weekends. She did poop in a big potty at the library a few weeks ago! 

As for eating, baby led weaning is going great. She loves everything we have given her (avocado, mango, broccoli, asparagus, quinoa, soy yogurt, watermelon, cucumbers, tofu, smoothies, and more). Only downside is if we are eating ice cream or something we don't want her to eat she gets frantic. We just have to start waiting until she is asleep to enjoy some treats. 

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5 months 4 months 3 months 2 months 1 month