The 'Southern' Bells: eleven months.

She's eleven months old. And beautiful and sweet and funny and smart. The best baby girl I could ever ask for. I love to hear her giggle when she plays peek-a-boo. I love her blue eyes. I love that she's started giving open mouthed kisses. I love her fuzzy strawberry blonde hair. I love her.

At eleven months:

*Hollin eats everything! Pretzel sticks are her favorite snack. She likes crackers, bananas, peaches, yogurt, grilled chicken strips...basically every fruit and veggie we've given her, she's eaten. She was weird with mashed potatoes, which is funny because Zane hates mashed potatoes. This past week she has been refusing most bottles and completely stopped nursing last week. She's definitely getting enough calories, though, because she is loving real food!

*She has four top teeth and two bottom teeth.

*She started officially crawling the 'normal' way a few weeks ago. She is pulling up on everything and has learned to crawl up the stairs. I'm having to keep a much closer eye on her these days.

*She goes to sleep around 7 or 7:30pm. Sometimes she wakes up in the night, but usually just fusses a little and goes back to sleep. She wakes up around 6:30 or 7. Still loves her yellow blankie. We also started putting her in a sleep sack again because the nights have gotten cooler and she doesn't stay covered up. We think she was waking up more at night because she was cold. Most days she takes a short morning nap and a longer afternoon nap.

*I found a baby doll in her room the other day and she LOVES it. "Baby" rarely leaves her side now. I realized that all the toys she plays with are Zane's, so Buzz Lightyear is probably the closest thing she's had to a baby doll. She's such girlie girl. When she see's "Baby" she squeals with delight. She loves on her and tries to feed her. She can point to Baby's eyes, nose, and mouth when asked.

*Words: dada, byebye, mama (rarely), hi (and it sounds very southern! Maybe we won't tell her she was born in Wisconsin), and bottle. 'Bottle' really makes us laugh because she actually says 'bottle' in low, kind of mumbly voice and she says it over and over. She says it when she sees a bottle, but I think she also uses it to mean any kind of food. She loves to play patty cake and peek-a-boo. When we sing the ABCs, she 'sings' along and it even sounds like she has the tune.

*She's wearing 9 to 12 month clothes and size 3 diapers. She never wears shoes. I have ordered her some shoes and boots for the winter. I'm sure she'll be walking soon and her little feet will be cold....however, I have not had any luck getting her to keep them on yet. I put some boots on her the other day and she kicked and screamed until she got them off.

*When I leave her with childcare at the gym she usually cries. I don't think it lasts long. They told me the other day that once I give her to one of the girls there, she won't go to anyone else. It's like she's thinking, "My mama trusted you with me, so you're stuck with me!"

She looks so big in this picture!