A Letter to Periwinkle at Eleven Months

Dear Periwinkle,

Eleven months. Is that it? Only eleven months knowing you; your smile; your sweet, sleeping face? Impossible. You bring such joy to our lives every single day that it seems a part of us must have been missing before you came into the world. And lately you have been bringing that joy in such fun new ways.

What's up, Mama?

You can now wave and say, "Hi!" in this adorable, chipper voice. One rare night when you fought going to sleep, I was holding you and you just kept waving and saying, "Hi!" like that would somehow save you from bedtime. "Look, Mama, I'm doing that thing that always makes you smile! See, I'm waving!" It didn't work. Mama won that battle. But it was damned cute. We're working on "Bye" now, although you will wave and say, "Hi" as we leave a place. Daddy says we should have taught you "Ciao" instead, since that works both ways. We'll get there.

This past week you also brought "Uh oh" into the picture, out of the blue. You'll say it and then drop something (wrong order, sweetie). And sometimes we'll just hear this little voice from the backseat saying, "Uh oh." Always with a slight pause in between. Daddy and I just crack up sometimes because it is just too cute we can't take it anymore.

Red Sox girl (to Daddy's chagrin)

You also learned how to high-five at daycare. I'm hoping since you are getting good at these hand gestures you'll soon start doing some of the baby sign language too, especially "all done" and "more." Sometimes you don't want your whole bottle anymore and you slap it away and we end up with formula everywhere. A simple hand gesture would be much cleaner, thank you.

So much hair!

You've also started sticking up your pointer finger. I'm trying to get you to associate that with the question, "How old are you?" so maybe by your birthday (in only a MONTH) you'll be able to proudly raise that little chubby finger in response. We'll see how that goes.

You also seem to be using that finger to actually point at things. You pointed at the Cat in the Hat stuffed animal Grandpa G got you but then seemed apprehensive when it got closer to you. You two are still in negotiations about physical boundaries, it seems.

Pointing at the Cat in the Hat

Another foe is the big orange ball. It started out in the pool but has come inside since your brother really likes it. But we keep it away from you because if it gets to close to you, you cry and cling to us. We get it, baby girl, we'll keep you safe. Except in "Chloe's Color Book" (thank you Citrus Lane) there is a big orange ball, and you always point to it when we get to that page. Always. And almost never do you point at anything else in the book. It's as if you are working up to the REAL orange ball by touching the one in the book. You'll get there.

Exploring

You are now a pro at walking around holding our hands. You pull up on your crib constantly and are starting to make your way around it on your own. You pull up on basically anything you can. A few times, you've been standing holding my hands when you let go, and you stood on your own for at least five seconds before you fell onto your rump. I don't think you even realized what you did, but I was so proud.

Not the safest choice for pulling up

You're also quite the prolific artist. In your new daycare room, where you are doing quite well and are apparently the "boss", even of kids older than you (that's my girl! Taking after Mama!), fingerpainting is a near-daily activity. You've painted apples, leaves, handprints, and a snake. I guess it's time to buy some art supplies for our house!

Turn off the flash, Mama, it's 6am

This month we went to the Big E in Massachusetts with Grandma and Grandpa. You saw lots of big animals and were very brave around them, and also quite fascinated by them. You also went to the doctor. You are now 20lb 13oz and 28 inches long. You got your flu shot like a champ. The doctor said you are perfect.

I'm so proud of all your accomplishments this month. You are so engaged with the world around you and you just soak it all up. Keep learning, little girl. Learning is pretty awesome.

Love,
Mama

Starting to "read" books

Six Month Doctor Visit and Progress with Solids

We finally got to the pediatrician this week. She tried to really push mushy food on us, but other than incorporating oatmeal into our baby-led weaning, we're sticking with our plan. We won't serve them anything mushy unless we'd eat it the same way (mashed potatoes, soups, oatmeal, etc). So this week they tried chicken and rice soup. Indigo was all over it; Periwinkle just looked offended.

I was getting the feeling that she didn't like spoons at all, as she'd rejected yogurt previously, but tonight we tried natural applesauce. The spoon finally clicked for her, and she got very excited about it. She definitely got some down. I committed a BLW faux pas by holding the spoon for her, but by the time I got to Indigo I got with the program. I fed him one spoonful so he knew what was going on. Then I put the spoon in his hand and guided it to his mouth. The next spoonful I loaded up for him and handed him the spoon. He exuberantly aimed it toward his mouth and missed spectacularly. I helped him out, then placed his hand closer to the spoon end to help with his aim. He then went for it again and made it into his mouth, but way too far in. Cue gag reflex. The next spoonful he seemed to get right. I would say applesauce was a hit for both of them.

Tomorrow we will try some oatmeal (from plain oats, not the sugared up packets I enjoy). We're focusing on the spoon foods for a few days because I'd like daycare to give them solids at at least one meal a day, and I highly doubt they'd feel comfortable giving a hunk of meat or cheese to the babies, which I understand. So we'll let them deal with the mushy solids and we'll keep trying with the solid solids at home.

Indigo is getting two teeth in, so I'm hopeful he'll get the hang of biting off a bit and chewing soon. Periwinkle seems to be lagging behind him a bit, although she did enjoy sucking on an orange slice this morning.

But the great thing with BLW is there's no rush. The motto is "Food is fun until 1!" Then we'll start worrying about making sure they are getting certain amounts of solids. Until then, it's about learning how to deal with the solid foods they are presented with, and letting them feed themselves. Indigo is obviously going to do just fine with that, even with the spoon! I was really very impressed with his hand-eye coordination at his first meal with a spoon!

So the rest of the doctor's appointment went better than the solids discussion. Indigo is 27 inches long (65th percentile) and weighs 16lbs14oz (35th). His head circumference seemed a bit more in line although I can't remember what the exact number was. His percentile went down so he's more average now.

Periwinkle is 25 inches long and weighs 15lb 4oz. She's my little lady. She enjoyed rolling around on the table while waiting for the doctor, which is something she's been doing like crazy this week. She even slept most of last night on her stomach, although she did eventually cry for us to come turn her over. I'm confident she'll figure out rolling the other direction soon enough. She even scootched forward a bit on the table in a pseudo-crawling motion! Crazy!

So she's rocking the movement, and Indigo is rocking the eating, and we're just so excited to see their progress.

I've also begun trying sign language. The kids have really started noticing our cats, so I try to sign the word for cat when I can get their attention during their cat-baby staring contests. I also try to sign "mommy" when I am holding them, "all done" when they seem ready stop playing with whatever they are playing with or when the bottle or applesauce is gone, "more?" between bites of solids, and my made-up sign for "bedtime" that might actually be the real sign but I'm not sure. I also want to start signing "diaper" but as that sign happens at the waist it's hard to do it when I'm holding them. It'll take several months but soon they will understand what I'm signing and soon be able to sign back, hopefully eliminating some communication frustration before they learn to speak.

So lots of fun stuff going on here! Here are some cute pictures from the past week or so: