Little Lermas!: Aubrey 11 Months!

There is NO way my baby will be 1 in just one short month! No way! I seriously have no idea where this last year has gone! But I do know that this little lady is growing up to become such a fun, spunky, adventurous, fearless, little thing and I can't wait for what the next year will bring!

Happy 11 Months Aubrey Lynn!

11 Month Highlights:

-This month you started legit saying a couple words. In the past 2 months, there were times I thought you were trying, but this month you got it. You say "Hi" and "Ahh duh" (all done) consistently, with "bye" "ok", "nye" ("good night") and "dada" thrown in more often than not. Now, to work on "MAMA"!!!

-We went to BJ Reece Apple Orchard in the North GA Mountains and had a great time once again. There weren't tons of apples to choose from (we KEEP saying we need to go mid-Sept rather than mid or end of Oct!), but we still had a great time enjoying the gorgeous weather, eating more apples than we brought home, and spending time with family.

-You started walking this month which is just so stinking cute b/c you are so little and it just doesn't look like you should be walking! Right now you take about 8-10 steps and then fall over, but can stand right back up and try again! Occasionally you will make it all the way across the living room or kitchen (about 15-20 steps for you) but most times this takes you a few rounds of walk, fall, repeat.

-We celebrated your first Halloween this year, and we had a great time doing a bunch of festive things this year! We carved a pumpkin as a family while listening to "spooky" (ok, children's!) Halloween music. We had some friends over for a Halloween brunch which was delicious! We went to Suwanee Creek Park Trek or Treat which was a gorgeous 80 degree sunny day! And you even dressed up for a short, hot second! I think you are the cutest little pumpkin and lady bug out there : )

Sleeping: This is a touchy subject for Mama because that whole 8 month sleep regression that turned into a 9 month regression, continued through 10 months. Bedtime was around 6:30 or 7pm most nights, and you woke up around 6:30 am for the day most mornings. That doesn't sound so bad, right? Wellll, you also woke up twice to eat usually around 10 or 11 pm, and then at 2, 3 or 4 am. The lovely thing about the 10pm wake up was about 2 nights a week, you wouldn't want to go back to sleep! Yup, you just thought it was a little 3 hour nap from 7 til 10. Not cool Aubrey Lynn, not cool. Some nights we could get you back to sleep by 11:30 or so, but others (most) took til 1 or 2! So exhausting.

As for naps- you still don't get the hang of what a 10 month old should be doing for naps. Your morning nap is usually your best, and you will sleep 1 hr 15 min to 2 hours (the 2 hour naps are days after you don't sleep well at night). I usually put you down around 9:30 or 10am. Then, you afternoon nap is usually 15-30 minutes. The only exception to this rule is when you take a short (30-40 minute) morning nap, and then you will nap 45 minutes to an hour in the afternoon. If anything I can count on your naps having no predictability whatsoever! Makes for a difficult time trying to schedule things.

With all that being said, 5 days before you hit 11 months, you finally figured out you were exhausted, or just decided you didn't need to eat so much during the the night, and finally slept (slept!) from 7 pm til about 6, 7 or 8 am! On the mornings you woke up at 6, I fed you and put you right back to sleep til about 8 or 8:30! You used this as your morning nap, so other naps during the day were about 30 minutes, but hey, I will take it! I can't remember the last time I got a 7 hour uninterrupted nights sleep! Heavenly!

Breastfeeding & Eating: You LOVE your "milkies." You would eat 72 times a day if I let you! That being said, you've been eating about 6 times a day: 6:30 am, 9:30am, noon, 3pm, 6 or 7pm, and 10 or 11pm. You take 5-7 minutes during the day, and about 15 at night.

You are also a good solid food eater, so I was hoping you'd cut back on the milk the more you ate, but nope (although we may be getting there)! You love eating whatever we are eating, and really don't love purees anymore (unless it's a squeezie, or Bella is eating it). You LOVE to feed yourself, and heaven forbid if I try to feed you unless you are really hungry! You flail your arms around in the air and growl like "No, don't feed me!"

I was really impressed this month with how well you developed your pincer grasp, and even though I cut things into teeny tiny piece, you have very few things that fall in your bib or on the floor...you make sure they all get in your mouth!

Favorite foods this month: yogurt, cheese, any kind of fruit!, black beans, spaghetti, eggs, toast, sweet potatoes, and really whatever is on Mama's plate! You did a great job eating oatmeal in the morning, eating 1-2 heaping Tbl (uncooked) mixed with a couple oz of frozen breastmilk +/- berries added in, but the last week you have wanted no part in it (probably b/c I didn't let you feed yourself the bowl of mush!).