Eleven Months

Oh y'all.  I'm suddenly starting to suffer from the whole "my baby is growing up and I might break into tears at any moment" mama thing.  I think I've gotten through much of the last (almost) year without that feeling, but this month, as I watched my baby start the transition from 'infant' to 'toddler', it's gotten tough.  

So here is a rundown of Kate's eleventh month:
The biggest news this month is that Kate is walking!  Remember last month how she spent two weeks taking one step?  Two days into her eleventh month, we took Miss Kate to Gymboree for a trial class.  There were children aged ten through sixteen months in the class, and Kate was the only non-walker.  By the end of the class, it seems she forgot that she didn't know how to chain steps together and all of a sudden she took four steps in a row as she raced to join the others.  Needless to say, we joined Gymboree on the spot and enjoy taking Kate a couple times a week to play and learn.  We love seeing her make friends and learn new skills like climbing steps and ladders (of course, she has been eager to practice those skills at home, too).

Kate continues to be an inquisitive child.  Late this month we invested in locks for the kitchen cabinets, which she was not terribly pleased about. Speaking of the kitchen, Kate also continues to be a great eater.  We have been very pleased with Baby Led Weaning, and are so glad we chose this method to teach her to eat.  She enjoys feeding herself with her hands, as well as helping us guide forks or spoons into her mouth.  

It has been an extremely cold and snowy month, and we have had fun playing in the snow.  While she doesn't care for the cold, Kate does like the snow and loves her little sled.  The cold has led to many inside days.  Luckily, we have several instruments (and other household items that double as instruments when pressed into service by our little musician).  Kate loves music and especially likes hand bells, jingle bells, maracas and other shakers.

After learning to walk, the biggest change for Kate this month has been sleeping in her own bed. Kate had   been bed-sharing with us since six months when she became too active to sleep in her bassinet in our room. While we weren't ready to move her upstairs, she was certainly ready to sleep by herself. We used the long MLK weekend to introduce her to her crib, and were pleasantly surprised to find that she acclimated quickly to the new arrangement.  She quickly transitioned from waking several times a night to waking just once and often sleeping through the whole night (ten to seven or so). We haven't transitioned her to the crib for naps  yet; maybe next month!

After the two expected pictures above (the progression picture shows months 1-5 on the left and 6-10 on the right, by the way), I had to share this one more.  This is the first month in several that I managed to get a picture of Kate laying down in her chair.  Of course, she wasn't exactly a fan of that, but when I looked back, it seems she wasn't a fan of that in her first month, either.  So I give you Kate today, and Kate ten months ago:

Same chair, same onesie, same adorably miserable expression.