Eleven Months

Object in photo appears longer than in reality

My cuddly baby is practically a year. Sniff.

A lucky thing is that the further I get from pregnancy and childbirth, the less I want to go back and do it again. At first, I desperately wanted a third, in a I-know-this-isn't-practical-but-my-heart-still-longs kind of way. Now I don't even want it. But at the same time, I don't want this infancy to end.

She still remains the happiest baby on the block. We went to a friend's house today. A friend she hasn't met before, someone from school. We walked in and I handed the baby to my friend while I helped Calliope with her coat. And Amelie just sat in this stranger's lap for twenty minutes, cooing and waving and looking around.

She's saying "Haaaaaa" ("hi") and waving more and more now. I think she's trying to say a baby version of "peekaboo"occasionally but it's hard to say for sure. She can say sign and say "el-da" ("all done") but rarely chooses to. Likewise, she can sign "more" but rarely does. I'm trying to teach her the sign for "water" now. It's interesting to see her doing all this before a year, when Calliope didn't do any of it until after her first birthday. I was so sure my second child would be disadvantaged by not having all my attention but it seems that instead, she is benefitting from hearing so much talking all the time.

She's crawling a ton and pulling up constantly, though not cruising confidently yet. On the other hand, she loves to push a toddler chair or a stepstool around. I'm not in any rush for her to walk.

Last she got weighed, she hadn't gained anything in several months (but had grown lengthwise) so I'm curious to see her progress at her one year check up. She loves food and eats just about everything -- so different than her big sister, who basically refused to touch food until her first birthday. She's so fun to feed! Today I gave her chunks of peeled grapefruit, something her sister will never try, and scrambled eggs, something Calliope will only recently have a couple bites of... Amelie gobbled them up! She also loves roasted brussel sprouts, broccoli, and roasted chicken. I can't believe I have a kid that will eat regular old chicken! Thrilling. She's definitely not skinny like Calliope was at this age (see above re: food refusal... she also basically refused bottles at this age) and still has some delicious squishiness about her but has slimmed down over the last few months.

Happy sisters

Nursing isn't going as well. I'm really struggling with my supply of late and I'm also realizing that I just don't enjoy it as much as I did with Calliope -- Amelie's latch has always been problematic. Nowadays, she pulls her head back as far as she can until she eventually pops off. Then she relatches and repeats, over and over again. Annoying! I was getting worried about my supply dropping so much that I'd have to wean... but now I can also see the silver lining to that. I weaned Calliope at 18 months so I assumed I'd do the same with Amelie but maybe not. Calliope recently asked for a bottle of milk and I humored her... Well, Amelie saw that bottle and got very whiny. It wasn't even the kind of bottle that Amelie normally uses! I asked Calliope to give her a taste, thinking she wouldn't like it because she's never had cow's milk... To the contrary, she loved it. Oops.

All dressed up for their first Broadway show.
*Notice and appreciate Calliope's tights pulled up firmly above her waistband.