11 Months!!! One Month to One Year!

This kid is getting more personality then ever! She's become such a little chatterbox, especially over the past couple of weeks. She has added a couple of new words to her repertoire (dada, nenen=Megan, does=toes, etc), can show you where her toes are and tell you what a chicken says, and can entertain herself and make herself laugh like crazy. Her favorite show is Clifford, but to Mommy's delight she will also watch snippets of Sesame Street and Little Mermaid.

This month she took her first two trips to the zoo, once with Mommy, Daddy, Grandma and Grandpa Legg, and Uncle Tom to the Minnesota Zoo, and once with Grandma Williams, Great-Grandma, and Auntie Megan and Gillie to the Como Zoo. She LOVED seeing the animals. Her favorites included the bears, the giraffes, the penguins, and the birds at the bird show.

Weight: 20.6 lbs 

Height: Unknown

Head Circumference: Unknown

Biggest Accomplishment This Month: Her first couple of steps! She's getting brave, which is the thing that was holding her back before, and will now take 3 or 4 steps at a time to get from one thing to another. She started doing this with Jon and I getting her to walk with us holding her wrists so that we could let go to let her take the last few steps alone. One day a few weeks ago, Jon and I were home for lunch and I bent down a few feet away from where she was standing holding on to the coffee table and she turned around and took a couple of steps toward me before collapsing into my arms full of smiles. I'm so happy I got to see her first independent steps! Ever since she's had a lot more confidence and is getting steadier every day!

Biggest Struggle This Month: We went and stayed at a hotel in the cities with Jon's family for a few nights over the 4th of July weekend and Penny's nap and night time schedule got a little screwy. When we got back home, her awesome night time routine kind of went to crap and she relapsed into hour long screaming sessions before finally getting to sleep. Luckily this only lasted about a week and she's now back to normal and is back to putting herself down with no tears shed. 

Mommy's Favorite Moment: The other night the three of us were driving home from running errands. Penny was in the back of the van (oh yeah, P.S. we bought a van this month and are retiring my green Saturn...Jon is thrilled!) and she sneezed and I said, "Bless you". The rest of the drive home you could hear her from her car seat going "Ah-dooo!" and I'd tell her "bless you" and then...."Ah-dooo!" over and over again. It was so adorable and Jon and I were cracking up!

Mommy's Least Favorite Moment: When I leave the house and Penny starts crying. 90% of the time she's fine, but about 10% of the time she will cry and throw a mini tantrum when I try and hand her off to Daddy, Grandma, etc. if she knows I'm about to leave. It's heartbreaking!

Daddy's Favorite Moment: Playing in forts with Penny. This kid LOVES forts of all shapes and sizes. It's gotten to the point where you can literally just throw a blanket over her head and she's in heaven. 

Daddy's Least Favorite Moment: Penny was taking a bath and was walking around the edge of the tub and slipped and went under water. We both froze and couldn't even process what was happening for a second as you could see her face looking up at us from under the water. A second passed before we both snapped into reality and jumped for her and pulled her up. She was a little stunned but was totally fine and never even cried, but it was still really scary. Parents of the year!

Eleventh Month Developmental Milestones According to What to Expect in the First Year (highlighted in green Penny has accomplished, highlighted in red she hasn't yet):

"By eleven months, your baby...should be able to:

*get into a sitting position from stomach

*pick up tiny object with any part of thumb and finger

*understand "no" (but not always obey it) - for the most part she's actually very good with the word no. Besides the rare tantrum, she will almost always stop whatever she is doing when we say no and will then move onto something else.

...will probably be able to:

*play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye

*walk holding on to furniture (cruise)

*point to something to get needs met

...may possibly be able to:

*stand alone momentarily

*pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefinger (keep all dangerous objects out of baby's reach) 

*say "dada" or "mama" discriminately - she finally learned "dada" and uses it constantly and Daddy could not be more thrilled!

*say one word other than "mama" or "dada"

...may even be able to:

*indicate wants in ways other than crying

*play ball (roll ball back to you)

*drink from a cup independently

*stand alone well

*use immature jargoning (gibberish that sounds as if baby is talking in a made-up foreign language)

*say three or more words other than "mama" or "dada" - she knows toes, Megan, Bella, bear, and is learning a couple more

*respond to a one-step command without gestures ("Give that to me" without hand out)

*walk well