{ Dear Blair :: 11 Months Old }

My baby is 11 months old? Say it isn't so! In just one months time this baby girl of mine will be ONE!  I love all of the exciting new tricks you've learned in the last month and can't wait to see what's next.

You are so full of energy and life and always surprising me with how smart you are.  I've said this before, but sometimes when I worry that you aren't meeting a specific milestone by some specific date, I get all nervous.  But really, you are just such a cautious spirit and sometimes it takes you a little longer to get the courage to try something that a lot of other babies are already doing.  But no matter the task, you eventually come around and pick it up quick.

You are amazing Blair!  Everything you do makes us smile.  Here's a look back at the things you did this last month that made us smile...

• We've got a crawler!!!  I'm pretty sure your daddy was the first to see it.  Rats!  But oh was it cute the first time I saw you get up on all fours and scoot those little knees across the floor.  It's so dorky but I was having a hard time holding back the tears.  Maybe just because we had taken you to the doctor and he said you might not be crawling because of neurological things or a hip displacement and other funny stuff.  So to see you take those first crawls on your own was awesome!  Now we'll see how long it takes you to figure out walking!  Let's just say I'm not holding my breath!
• A couple weeks ago at the doctor we had you weighed.  I always thought you were ginormous for your age, but actually you're just right.  Perfect in fact!  You weigh 20 lbs 4 oz (59th percentile) and are 29 inches long (77th percentile).  I'm so excited to see you lengthening out and watching the rolls of your leggies disappear one at a time.  I'm sure the crawling will slim you down even more by next month.
• Your favorite trick is CLAPPING!  You clap for patty-cake, you clap for yourself when you've done a good job, you clap to get the attention of strangers (you're such a flirt), and you even clap on tv shows when you see the audience clapping.  You're such a little crack up!
• You also learned to wave "Hi" and "Bye" this month.  Sometimes you'll keep your hands down by your side and give a little flutter in your wrist and other times you'll just go nuts and wave to whoever will look your way.
• It seems like whenever we go out you flirt with everyone!  And of course they love to flirt right back.  All day long I hear "She's so cute!" or "Look at those blue eyes!"  But my favorite comment was from a lady at the grocery store the other week "She must look like her daddy."  Haha.  It's true my sweet, you look just like your daddy!
• We put the Christmas tree up last week and I thought for sure with all the crawling and exploring you've been doing that you'd b-line straight for the tree and rip off all the ornaments.  But for some reason I think you are completely intimidated by it.  Good!  Let's keep it that way.
•  I wish you were talking by now, or at least saying "mama" or "dada" but such is not the case.  I can tell you're almost there though because just today we were playing with your favorite little stuffed dog from Mimi and I kept saying over and over again "Dog, dog, dog..." and you would watch my mouth intently, as if to study the movements of my lips, and then without uttering a sound you would move your lips exactly like mine, as if you were whispering very quietly the word "dog."  I'm sure it's just a matter of time before you finally connect all the dots and belt it out like your cousin Sydney.
• You are already starting to wear your 18 month clothes!  Say wha??? And I'm sure any day now you'll have outgrown your size 3 shoes.  I mean really, Blair?!  Can't you just stay little forever?  Please?
• You are slowly but surely saying no to your baby food.  Seriously, you're so over mommy feeding you.  Take the other day at Chipotle for example: there we were enjoying our lunch.  Daddy eating his burrito, mommy a salad, and Blair a cup of black beans.  When you were done making a mess with your beans on the table, mommy tried to feed you some baby food.  Oh NO!  You slapped that food out of my hand so hard and let out a yelp that sent all the eyes in the restaurant our way.  Of course all we could do was laugh our heads off!
• It's been a LONG road, but we've made it 11 months with nursing.  You have been so good to your mama and so patient as we figured everything out together.  Thank you for sticking with me through all the ups and downs.  It was the best/worst, easiest/hardest, relaxing/demanding, most convenient/inconvenient thing I've ever done. 
• You looove food from the table.  Your favorites include blueberries, olives, green beans, and chicken.  And just last month for your daddy's birthday you tried a little filet mignon and LOVED it.  Obviously. 
• You make the BEST faces! We've probably mentioned this several times before, but you really wear your emotions on your face.  The look that gets the most comments from people though is the one you pull ALL the time where you hollow your cheeks and open your mouth as if to say "Oooh!"  It's the CUTEST!  Makes me laugh every time!
• I think you've finally given up on your afternoon nap, which means you're down to only one nap a day.  And that one nap is GREAT, so long as we're at home and there are no distractions.  Today you took an almost 3 hour nap!  It was unreal.  I even found myself passed out in my bed for 2 of those 3 hours.  When I woke up I was shocked to see you still sleeping.  We'll see if this is your new thing, or just a new thing that you'll switch up again next week.
• You are still having trouble sleeping at night.  It's weird because some nights you'll sleep through the night just fine, no wake ups.  And other nights its like there's an alarm clock in your room, waking you up every 2 hours.  I really wish we could get to the bottom of what is going on.  I hate the whole cry-it-out thing, but it seems to work...if only for a few weeks.  We'll see how these next 4 weeks go.

I'm sure this list could go on and on and on.  Blair, your mommy and daddy feel so blessed to have your sweet spirit in our home.  You keep us on our toes with your early morning wake up calls and melt our hearts with your sweet kisses and warm hugs.  We could not love you more.  And that's the truth.