11 month letter

Dear Miss B, 

You have had a crazy month of development!  It seems like everyday this month you were doing multiple new things.  It started to be so much to remember that I had to start taking notes! 

                                             

You have been my sidekick more than ever this month.  We get each other's jokes, make each other laugh, go on adventures, and you are really starting to communicate with us!  It almost feels like you have accepted that we are your parents and this is your life, so you are starting to settle in to a comfortable "routine".  You are a social butterfly.  You love to be out and about or have people over to our house.  You will wave to every person we pass as if to say "hello world!  Breckin is here!"  This, of course, invites strangers to "ooohhh and aaahhh" over you and all of your cuteness.  Your eyes continue to be an amazing color of blue green, your hair is getting "longer" (and blonder???), and your posture is so on point it looks like we have you in an etiquette class.  

You have experienced your first fiesta (aunt Nana and uncle charbonnet's baby shower for Isla), your first birthday party, your first Easter, a visit from Nana and Happy and a surprise visit from cousin MariElena and Joe!  You high five, brush your teeth, and flush the toilet.  You can say Bubba, Dada, Mama (you say this the most), Ba (bird), and alot of other sounds.  You are still at 8 teeth!  

  You have shown much more independence during playtime.  We have started to use the dog gate to block the kitchen off, so you have free range of the living room, record player room, dining room and your room.  You love to explore these areas.  You pull out every record from the shelf multiple times a day (this makes your daddy mad), mess with the knobs on all of the drawers,  crawl under the dining room table, pull up on everything! (bench, couch, tv stand, ottoman, bar, shelves, record player stand, doggy gate...), mess with your stroller, rummage through your toy box, pull down all of your books (and turn the pages and look at them!), pull out all of your jammies, shirts, and pants out of your drawers, crawl around hoarding as many toys as you can carry, and love on all of your stuffed animals. Just recently you started to push around your walker and walk across the room!  It is so fun to sit back, watch you explore and learn new things.  

 While you are usually on a tear to pull everything out of every drawer you can find (the first time you did this was with my underwear drawer!), you will also occasionally put things away.  You love to throw your blocks, but I have also caught you putting your blocks back on the block wagon.  You like to put things inside other things, and you will even throw your diapers away for me.  You try to put your wooden rings on their stick, but unsuccessfully so far.

You can follow some commands.  "Breckin, will you show ________ your books?", "Breckin, where are your dollies? Have you played with your dollies yet today?", "Breckin, have you done pajama inventory yet today?" "Breckin, will you give your dolly a kiss and a hug?" "Where is mommy's nose?",  "How big is Breckin?"

You are an absolute Peek-A-Boo expert/genius.  You will start a game of peek-a-boo every chance you get.  You will hide under/ your clothes, blankets, behind my legs, the ottoman, the couch, your plate at the table.  And your comedic timing is impeccable.  You hide your face for just the right amount of time before the big reveal.  You think this is hilarious!

 Pulling out all of mommy's undies

You have mastered the point.  You will point to the sky when you hear a helicopter, plane or bird.  You point outside when you hear the garbage truck pull up.  One time, I was nursing you down for your nap  when the garbage truck came.  From a dead sleep, you raised your arm up, pointed outside, and then carried on with your nap.  For a couple of months, you had been impossible on the changing table.  Almost every time we went to change you, you would cry, squirm, and throw a fit.  One day, you pointed to the shelf above the changing table after I had changed your diaper. I held you up to the shelf and you pointed to the diaper cream.  I handed you the diaper cream and you smiled and laughed as if to say "At LAST! I have wanted to hold this for months!".   Ever since, if I hand you the diaper cream before your diaper change, you are usually content.  You still demand to take a look at the shelf after every change and point to every item while I say out loud what they are.  In fact, sometimes I feel like your own personal, tall, walking taxi cab.  You'll ask to be picked up and then immediately point in some direction that you want to go.

 You are eating pretty much anything.  Your favorites are eggs, meat and cheese.  If these are on your plate, they go first.  You have to be in the right mood for fruit, but you will usually eat banana and mandarins.  Your not as into veggies as you once were, but you will eat them after all the eggs/meat/cheese are gone.  I have started to give you more smoothies where I put things like spinach, goat's milk yogurt, banana, rasberries, blueberries, and coconut milk.  I also have been putting spinach in your eggs and call it Power Pellets!  You love to drink water, and you are very good at drinking out of a straw.  Going to restaurants with you is more challenging.  Keeping you in a highchair is tough.  You are constantly crawling out at home and at restaurants.  We try to keep you constantly entertained with silverware, napkins, keys, wallets, credit cards, food, and water.  It is almost easier to let you just stand up in the booth while you eat.

You still nurse frequently.  Always when you wake up and when I put you down for sleep and periodically throughout the day.  When you are nursing and not tired, you will crawl all over me, get yourself into a downward dog position, turn your head from side to side, and move nonstop...all without ever losing your latch!  No signs of slowing down and I am happy about this.

 Your sleeping has been so much better recently.  The majority of the time you will go down around 7/7:30 and sleep until 4:30.  Then your daddy will bring you back to our bedroom and you will nurse/sleep until 6:00/6:30.  There are definitely nights where you wake up earlier.  Daddy tries to rock you back to sleep on those nights or brings you back to our bed.  It is getting a little easier to sleep with you.  You do not insist on being latched on to me the entire time anymore.  You will nurse for a little bit, detach yourself, and throw yourself onto your back.  Usually, you crawl around until you are either upside down or sideways in the bed before you settle in for sleep.  You are down to one nap a day.  I'll put you down around 10-11, and you will sleep anywhere from 1-3 hours!  It keeps us landlocked for most of the day, but I have to say this is better than the no nap stage you were in last month!

 You moved these diapers over and used them as a step stool, determined to get this lotion that was just out of your reach.  You succeeded!  It was awesome. 

You seem to be a girly girl right now.  You love to play with women's necklaces and sunglasses.  You insist that I put chapstick on you when you see me use it.  And you are REALLY into purses.  You like to put my purse around your neck like you are wearing it.  You insist on holding my purse while we are at the market.  And, of course, you like to take everything out of purses...mine or anybody else's you can find.  

 Your cuddles linger for just a little longer these days.  I love these moments.  When you come in for a hug and give us a squeeze or pat us on the back.  Although you have given us a few kisses, you will hardly kiss or hug your daddy or me on demand. Your bubba Leon and your dollies/stuffed animals??? Now that is another story.  You ALWAYS give them hugs and kisses.  On your own or when we ask you to.  It is the sweetest thing ever.  Leon is still your best friend.  You still tug on him and mess with him, crawl all over him and sit on him.  But you also lay on him, talk to him, give him love pats, hugs and kisses.  You love him so much.  Leon is usually a good sport and just lays there.  You love your dollies and will squeal with delight when you hold them.  You squeeze them to your chest and give them kisses.  Love these moments!

 You still hang out with all of your birth class friends, but your best friend is probably Wilder.  You two are so cute together. You play, tug at each other, babble, steal each other's toys, and laugh at each other.   Mom's groups are totally different these days than even a month ago.  We got a play yard (baby jail) for the outside patio to help corral the babies.  Otherwise, we were chasing you kids all over the yard trying to keep kumquat seeds, leaves and rocks out of your mouths.  You are fine with this for a little bit, but you, little B, do not like to be caged in!  Speaking of outside, we are outside ALOT.  We go to the park or the beach from time to time, but we hang out in our backyard mostly.  It has been a heat wave here in Southern California (and we do not have AC), so we have been outside mostly to escape the sauna of our house!  We broke out the kiddie pool that was leftover from a commercial that your dad produced and shot in our backyard.  We water the vegetable garden, herb garden and all of the flowers, or we just lounge on a blanket and play with toys.  You are getting much better about putting rocks in your mouth, although you still like to slide a kumquat seed in from time to time when I am not looking. We taught you to throw rocks/leaves/seeds down on the ground instead of eating them, so now you will pick things up and "Throw it down!".  You love to pull up on the stairs outside and have mastered crawling up the steps so we really have to watch you close!

 At Wilder's FIRST birthday party!  Your first birthday party to attend

Your personality is showing more everyday.  I feel so lucky to have the sweetest, smartest, cutest, funniest little nugget to hang out with everyday.  One of my favorite things about you lately is your coyness.  You will have something that is "off limits" (say...a piece of toilet paper) and you will look at me with these coy eyes and I will say "Breckin Adaaaaaair...." and you will laugh, keep the item out of my reach and crawl as fast as you can (which is super fast!) in the other direction as if you are running away from me.  It is so funny!  Another time you were holding a kumquat outside and you were taunting Leon with it.  You would hold it up for him and when he got close you would quickly pull it away all while cracking up laughing.  You are a hoot, my dear.

You turned 11 months old on Mother's Day, and it was the best Mother's Day yet!!  We love you more than words!

Love,
Mommy and Daddy