11. Eleven???

This little mini munchkin of mine just turned 11 months old.  How is that possible?  I feel like I’ve been living in some dream world, or time warp, where all sense of passing time has been skewed by the complete lack of sleep that I’ve been allowed by a certain someone. 

It’s a darn good thing she’s cute.

While she IS getting better, she’s still up at least three or four times a night.  I haven’t slept longer than four hours in I don’t know how long.  And it’s starting to take a serious toll.  But, to be honest, when she snuggles into me in the wee hours, it just makes my heart melt.  And makes it worth it.  That, and the ability to sleep sitting up, rocking, and nursing all at the same time. 

But for her lack of sleep, she’s making up for it in most every other way.  She’s been stepping since February, and now can make it across the room when she’s sufficiently motivated (and confident that big sis won’t…  intercede…)  She’s even standing from plantigrade.  She hasn’t made the leap to full-time walker yet, and I’m not sure why.  I don’t know if it’s that she’s just not strong enough yet, if she doesn’t have the confidence, or if she just doesn’t realize that she could.  I’m totally fine with it in the meantime, however, because at least now I only have one set of teeny legs to keep up with.  This summer will be interesting, I’m sure!

The little twirp is ornery.  She can get herself into trouble in .2 seconds flat.  And I love it.  Most of the time.  We’re half convinced that she’s part mountain goat- the kid can climb with the best of ‘em.  I’m also half convinced that she’s already training for a career in the circus- you know, the ladies who stand up riding the elephants or horses?  We’ve caught her standing up, with no hands, backward, on a little wooden rocking chair.  We’ve caught her standing on the ottoman to the glider rocker.  We’ve caught her standing on my mom’s little rocking horse.  Between the lack of sleep and recurrent heart attacks, I’m not sure what my long-term psychological outlook is at this point.

Her favorite thing to do now is bounce.  On the trampoline.  With air.  The kid is a jumper, and it’s totally hilarious.  It’s like there’s nothin’ to it- she crawls up, starts bouncing, and gets enough momentum to actually get her feet off the ground.  This I like.  This, I hope will wear her out for bedtime.  It’s usually an exercise in futility, but a girl can dream (ha!  I don’t know the last time I actually had a dream, but I digress…), right?

Her increase in activity has had one benefit, though.  She’s actually, finally, truly eating!  My trick?  I gave up spoon feeding her.  She has to do it herself, thankyouverymuch.  She’s an independent soul, and it’s been a learning curve on my part to try and figure out how much I should help and when to bow out.  Her favorites seem to be pears, chicken, and peas right now (go figure…), although we tried blueberries tonight and I’m pretty sure she was cussing us out for withholding them from her for so long.  She’s pretty skeptical about new things, but I’ll take what I can get!

She adores Piper.  On the brink of idolizes, actually.  They have crawling races down the hallway (both squealing the whole time.)  They play on Piper’s bed together.  They play in the mirror together, laughing at each other’s antics.  They play pretend together (it’s really quite adorable to see them both playing dollies together- good grief, two little girls is so fun!), get into trouble together (frequently), explore together.  Not to say that life is always rosy- Piper pushes on occasion, Addy will pull Piper’s hair if she’s in the mood.  But for an almost-one-year-old and an almost-three-year-old, life is pretty darn sweet!

…Now.  With just a few weeks until Piper’s birthday, and less than a month until Addy’s, I’ve got to get all of the planning done for their birthday party.  It’s gonna be great!