arden rae - eleven months

started writing this update on the 15th, going to try and not include anything since then!

Less than a month until my little caboose is one.  Fastest year yet!

Arden's personality has changed and developed so much in the last month.  She is still a rather tolerant easy going girl, but this pint size baby can throw quite the tantrum if she isn't getting her way.  She is angry if something gets taken away from her, if we close a door to somewhere she was hoping to go, or if she isn't getting the food she wants.  There are some foods she LOVES to eat.  I think those foods (cheese, mac n cheese, spaghetti, really varieties of noodles and breads) have contributed to a decent weight gain over the last few weeks.  Nothing official but I think she is right about 16 pounds, which I think might land her somewhere between the 5th and 8th percentile.  Quite the jump for our peanut!  I look forward to having an accurate measurement at her one year well check.

When in public people generally guess that Arden is between six and eight months old based on her size.  At this point it has almost become entertaining.  I mean I'm terrible at judging ages of kids, adults, I just stink at it, so I'd be wrong no matter what.  But strangers always look so shocked when I say she is actually ten or eleven months.  Can't blame them at all, she is wearing mostly 6-9 month clothing, though the 6 month onesies still fit just fine.  She is wearing a Carter's 6m in these photos.  An exciting development is that shoes are now staying on her feet.  Unless she throws them off on her on of course.  Still wearing a size three diaper.  Our tooth count is now at four, with the fourth one just barely peeking through the gums.

I'm getting a little nervous about weaning Arden.  For the most part she does well with solids, but thus far has shown little interest in a cup.  We've only put water in a straw cup and a regular sippy, and she will play with them.   But doesn't really drink anything.  Maybe in the next couple of weeks I'll try to put some breastmilk in there and see what happens.  With the weight gain issues we've had I can't imagine weaning her without knowing she'll drink enough milk.  I'm not in a huge rush to fully wean either, I'd be happy to continue nursing a few times a day.  But right now we're still at five to six times a day and I'm sort of over that.

Her growth motor skills are also taking off.  Arden figured out how to get into a seated position on her own about two weeks ago, and has been trouble ever since! :)  She is pulling up on everything, has more or less mastered going up the stairs, tries to climb everything.  She hasn't really figured out how to cruise along furniture but will transfer between places.  But if she were moving along a bench or something of that nature she tries to turn and actually walk while only holding with one hand, which usually doesn't end well.  Her preference is to grab my hands so she can actually 'walk' wherever she'd like to go.

I can't really decide if Arden has said her first word or not.  She has three very distinct sounds that she uses for words, but they don't really sound like words.  She 'says' hi, peek, and "tis tis tis" which is her version of tickle tickle tickle.  If we were to count one of those, I would say her first word was tickle!  So funny.  She still rarely says mama or dada, and it doesn't really seem to be in context.  But if I ask her where Daddy is, she definitely looks for Christopher.  She gets really excited and 'talks' about the Christmas tree, and tries to say 'ho ho ho' for Santa.  She also will try to meow for a cat, say woof for dog, and knows an owl says whoooo.  I think she also makes an 'ah ah' sound for monkey but it is hard to tell.  Arden LOVES to wave at people, she puts her arms up in the air when we say touchdown, and has very recently started blowing kisses.  Sometimes she will also lay her head on the floor and pretend to snore.  So cute.

Arden's favorite toys seem to be... anything that is not one of her toys.  Typical.  She makes a mad dash into her sisters' rooms and scours for all the choking hazards she can find.  Hatchimals, LOL doll accessories, stickers, beads.  She loves them all.  Oy.  She really enjoys putting things in a container and taking them back out over and over again.  But her favorite thing to do right now is see what she can find that fits down the 'hole' in the living room.  The spot where I believe you'd turn on the gas for fireplace?  She'll find something, and start trucking it as fast as her little army crawl can take her to see what happens when she puts it in.  I think we've lost a handful of small toys, and even a fat crayola marker to that hole.  I'm hoping it loses appeal sometime soon!

Bath/shower time is also a huge hit.  If Arden isn't trying to crawl into one of the girl's rooms, she is heading for the bathroom.  She gets very jealous if the big girls are in the shower and she doesn't get to go in.  She has even started to notice the sound of the water coming through the pipes, so if Chris takes the girls up to shower while I'm with her down stairs, she gets excited and tries to make it up to the bathroom.  After a particularly messy spaghetti night we popped her in the kitchen sink to wash her off.  When we got her out she was SO MAD.  So mad.

I wish I could pause time.  Arden, I love you sweet baby girl.