Once

E's 11 months old!

This month went by so fast and I can't believe E turns one in just a month! Time is slipping away from me. It doesn't feel like she has been with us that long.

As usual, E has been up to lots of things. She continues to babble all day long and we have realized how much she understands. When we say clap or yay, she claps. She also seems to know her name because she turns, looks and smiles when we call it from across the room. E has also started to try and imitate our sounds. Once when we were clapping and cheering, I said, "Yay!" and she also made made a yay sound. Another time we were pointing out objects around the room and I said, "Door knob" and it totally sounded like she tried to say it back. It may be in our heads, but it's fun either way. She still loves the "dadada" noise, but doesn't seem to have associated it with Matthew yet. She also makes that noise when reaching for her beloved Ducky.

Some of her favorite babbling phrases seem to be "I do" and "I know." They are often well timed so we laugh pretty hard. And when we laugh she laughs! She has started giving this funny, cheesy smile where she scrunches up her nose and shows all of her teeth (She now has 5 teeth with a 6th attempting to emerge).

E is pulling up to stand like no body's business. It is definitely not a struggle any more. She has also started to spend more time on all fours. Most of the time it is when she is about to pull up to stand, but there have been a few times when she has actually crawled to a toy. Typically she only goes half a foot or so on all fours. Her preference is still scooting on her tummy and she is fast!

E got on top of the box, but had trouble climbing all the way over it, so she decided it was easier to crawl with it under her tummy

Near the end of the month she started to really get her head into the scooting motion. She would throw her head forward as she pulled her arms closer to her body. This abruptly stopped one day after she got a little too into it and bumped her head into the floor hard enough to leave a small rug burn. She cried and I tried not to laugh.

E has also started to cruise along the couches. She only just started so she isn't fast and doesn't go too far, but even within the last week she has become faster. It is so fun to see her move more and more. It also keeps us on our toes!

With all of her increased movement, sometimes it can be challenging to change her diaper, but we have discovered that she will stay still if we give her something to play with. Her favorite object to hold and play with while we are changing her is her hair brush.

We have noticed that E has become a little more clingy than usual. One minute she'll be crawling around, playing with toys and the next she'll she coming up to one of us and crawl up us and become upset until we hold her. She has also showed a few signs of stranger anxiety, but she doesn't cry; even when they hold her, she just looks at them suspiciously.

E continues to love looking into mirrors and with her new ability to pull up and stand, she has enjoyed peeking at herself in the mirror hung on the bathroom door.

She continues to love making clicking noises and has recently enjoyed sticking her tongue out.

Unfortunately, E has also picked up some frustrating habits as of late. Our girl who would eat anything without batting an eye is no more. She continues to enjoy any and every fruit we give her, but for some reason she will now spit out the vegetables. It's not every time, but increasingly. I think the most frustrating thing about it is that she will eat a few bites just fine and then all of a sudden decide she doesn't like it anymore. We have tried a few things like adding cheese, mixing them with other foods and chopping/pureeing them which seems to help (sometimes), but it does get tiring especially when she refuses to eat anything even when we know she is still hungry.

Most of the time E is good at sharing her food with Mommy and Daddy, but one day she thought it was really funny not to share. I tried to get a little video, but the moment had passed and she actually shared with me.

E's hair is growing and growing and is now just long enough for her to wear a bow in her hair rather than a bow on a headband!

For the last little bit I have been using a washcloth to clean E's teeth, but for Christmas she got a toothbrush in her stocking and loves to brush her teeth. She actually keeps her mouth open fairly well and lets me clean them! We even came up with a song to sing while we brush. It goes like this (to the tune Row, Row, Row Your Boat):

Brush, brush, brush your teeth,

brush your little teeth.

Brush the bottom, brush the top.

Brush until they're clean!

E loves to look out the window at the snow and cars as they pass by. She and Daddy can stand there and talk about it for a long time.

She still loves to crawl up and face plant and bite her black bear or Ducky. Often she rolls around and wrestles with them and yells into them. (I'm glad she isn't afraid to express her frustration and get her stress out, but I worry that she has this much stress at such a young age!)

One day I made E look like a piggy and started making piggy noises and she thought it was pretty funny. She would laugh and when I stopped she would lean forward toward me like she was asking me to do it again.

Recently E loves to help me with whatever I am doing. When I am putting groceries away she gathers the bags, when I'm folding laundry she pulls the clothes out of the basket for me and when I was packing the suitcase for our trip to Florida, she jumped right in to help organize things!

E met Santa Claus (Cruz) at our church Christmas party, and wasn't real sure about sitting on his lap. We were able to a get a decent photo after Santa revealed his secret identity, but she still wasn't that excited about it.

E also traveled a few more states this month. We spent Christmas in Florida with our good friends the Bosshardts and we all enjoyed the sunshine, sights and food. We decided it would be fun to drive back so we could visit a few states we had never been to. E has now added Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina and West Virginia to her list!

E with Mommy and Daddy visiting the Everglades...can you see the alligators?

E at Miranda and Hyun Jong's wedding

L: E enjoying the view from Ponce Inlet Lighthouse. R: E "Loves to see the Temple."

L: E excited about the seafood we just got for our Christmas Eve Seafood Boil! R: E loves flying high at the beach.

E stayed up until 9:30pm on NYE. We spent NYE with our good friend Mark. We kept it pretty low key and watched the movie Divergent after E fell asleep.

She is one happy baby and keeps us on our toes, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

She is silly just like her Daddy!