Janie is 11 months old!!

Our little Gem-Baby has done a lot of changing in the past month! Somewhere in the past few weeks it seemed like she turned the corner from being a baby to well on her way to toddlerhood! How can this be!?! Even getting her to sit still for her photos this month was a challenge as she is really on the move.

This month, Janie started crawling and immediately after started pulling herself up on furniture large toys, and of course her crib. She is a little timid still with the push toys but is a big fan of pulling herself up on the baby gates we have put up and shaking them to get our attention. Even when they are left open, she shuts them just so she can stand up and shake them - Silly Turkey!!

Little Janie continues to have a great sense of humor and sure does a lot of laughing. We have been working on learning body parts (her favorites to say are "nose" and "toes") and animal sounds. We have some fun books with animals that we look at and make the different sounds. She seems to be catching on with a few of them. The other day when Janie and Mommy were on a walk, she spotted the neighbors cat and called out "Ma-ow, Ma-ow" - I was so surprised yet tickled at how smart our little sweetie seems to be! (Yes, I know, every parent thinks their child is a genius! Even though with my line of work, I know better, still we are always amazed at how bright and talented our children are. All children are pretty darn amazing, really!)

Sweet Janie likes playing with the Little People sets, blocks, puzzle pieces and playing in the play kitchen with Clara. She has already mastered the art of pretend eating. Clara has always liked to play pretend food, but right now her interest in it has surged so many times a day she serves it up to Janie, Daddy & Mommy. It really isn't at all surprising that J-Bug caught on to so quickly. Janie also loves to unload a bin or basket of all of its contents, so there a lots of piles of toys all over our house. She gets the best grin on her face when she does it, so the mess is all worth it!

For most of the month, Janie still just had the one tooth, but the other bottom front tooth has broke through and we can see a little white starting to peek out on the top left. Her single-tooth grin has been a lot of fun, but will be changing soon. Between teething, traveling to the beach and having a little cold, some of the progress we made with sleep last month was not maintained. She still wakes up several times per night and we are working towards getting her back to sleep with out eating. Some mornings she wakes up before 6:00 and is ready to play. Right about the time I get her to go back down (close to 2 hours later), it is time for Clara to wake up.

Janie is a great eater! With just one tooth, she still manages to put back lots of food and crackers. She really doesn't have much patience for baby food (we occasionally give her some to use up some of the supply we bought) but really loves any finger food we put on her tray. Veggies, fruit, cheese, meat, rice, bread, bland or with added spices, whatever... this kid will eat it! One big change this past month is her preference for bottles. I guess Mama just can feed her fast enough and so she typically only nurses twice a day. I recognize that it is a good time to transition, but still a little bittersweet from my perspective. It is just one more way, our little baby is no longer a baby.

Janie loves music. When she hears a song she likes she does this funny seated dance, twisting at the waist. She enjoys doing the hand motions to certain sayings like, "How big is Janie... So big!" or songs like, Wheels on the Bus continues to be her favorite song, but she also really gets into Twinkle Twinkle and All the Fishies! The other day, while singing Twinkle Twinkle, we realized that Janie was making a diamond with her fingers and we were amazed that she caught on so quickly. It really doesn't seem like that long ago that Clara was doing the same trick.

Janie is really willing to say a lot of words. I find myself doing a lot less signing because she will say most things that we prompt her to. Whether or not she understands is another story, but she goes through phases through the day where she is such a chatter box. And then there is the screeches. We thought Clara was loud and high pitched, but Janie seems to have topped Clara in that regard. WOW!! It is always when she is happy, but when she does it in public, EVERYONE looks at her. When she gets that kind of attention, it sure makes it hard to extinguish that type of behavior!

As she gets older, more and more of her little personality comes through. And while she is such a sweetheart, full of smiles and giggles, we are picking up on her strong sense of curiosity and her stubborn nature. Where we seemed to be able to easily distract Clara at this age from whatever dangerous/not ideal item that caught her eye, Janie is far more focused and persistent. You should see the face this kid makes when we tell her "no" (the 2nd or 3rd time, before it sinks in) I am sure these traits will serve her well in her future, but we are finding it to present some quirky parenting challenges. I see even more child safety precautions in our future!

At 11 months, we are in the process of planning our little gal's first birthday party and doing lots of wondering about how a year could possible go by so incredibly fast. And how much one little girl can enrich our little family!