Monday, April 20, 2009

Set the countdown clock

Amelia turned 11 months old today. That means that in one month, she will be a toddler, a little girl, a child, a kid. . . everything that is not a baby. She only has one more month of firsts and then it's on to the repeats. Maybe I shouldn't think about it too much today. I have a whole month to prepare. Of course, I've already had 11 months to prepare, but whatever. One more month will have me ready. I hope.


At 11 months, Amelia is an absolute character. She spends most of her days laughing indiscriminantly, pointing at all things that catch her fancy, and speaking to herself and others in a language both amusing and confusing all at once. She is a total mimic of all inflections and interactions and has become more and more outgoing over the past month. Rather than completely freezing up around new folks, she now warms up in just a few minutes and charms the pants off anyone who hangs out with her. She waves to strangers in the store and laughs when they talk to her. She's discovered the lovely "w" and says "WOOOOOOW" and "WHOA" all day. When the timing's right, it's hilarious. . . "What do you think of Mommy's new dress, Punkin?" "WOOOOOOW"


A few weeks ago, Amelia's pretty successful army crawl disappeared for the real deal. Since discovering the all-fours crawling method, she's become more of a handful around the house. Every door must be closed--or she will close it, with herself on the wrong side! She uses sign language for meal time and gives "big hugs" on demand. And Miss A loves to dance, sing, and read above all else. Just like her Mama. She learns new things literally every day and I struggle trying to keep up with her, to be honest. Her capacity to learn exceeds my capacity to teach, I'm afraid. Yesterday, she pulled herself up on the couch for the first time, much to her delight. She tries pulling up and standing on everything. She even stands up from crawling, leaving her hands on the ground in a baby version of Downward Dog, the annoyingly awful yoga pose. I keep waiting for the day that she just pushes herself up and stands there.


As far as eating, Amelia is a true champion. God love the girl's appetite. She will take any food in any package at any time. Considering some of the ills we dealt with, her appetite has always been amazing. She eats full dinners of rice, chicken, and veggies or pasta, ground turkey, and marinara sauce. Not pureed, but the actual foods. She's putting those 8 teeth to good use too because you can see her push her food to the front and chew with those beautiful lips pushed out. . . She can eat just about anything--and does. Except dairy of course. I am still crossing my fingers and hoping to high heaven that she will magically grow out of this dairy allergy nonsense. I keep thinking about all of the other options I would have for her to eat if she could eat milk products! Not to mention the nightmare of having a child who can't participate in the food of social gatherings, school lunches, and ice cream outings! The horror. I should know because I did it for 10 months. Yesterday, I gave A a few bites of chocolate pudding and she had no reaction. Tomorrow, I shall try maybe some butter on her morning toast. Wish us luck!


Amelia is still a crap sleeper. I don't want to talk about it.



She's also pretty difficult to get a picture of without an exceptional shutter speed and excellent focus, neither of which accompany my camera.



Here are the first attempts:













Here are the closest to keepers that I managed.



2 comments:

Sha and Michelle said...

too cute!!! And look how tall she is!!! "11 Freaking Months"!!! LOL. I like how you word things :)

I love the expression on her face in the third photo. It totally says - "I'm gonna get you!". hehehe

Gina Carlin said...

Adorable pictures! I love the way you have Amelia Jane's hair. What a sweetie.