My 11 Month old. Whoa. And what I put BM WHERE!?

Oh, Little Miss Anika.  11 Months old.  Where did the time go? No. Seriously. How did this happen?
You still like to shop with mommy. Most of the time. You do like to get down and run around stores, but I think mommy has learned her lesson about that. Better for you to be in the cart or for me to wear you in the ergo.  At first it was fun, but you like to take things off shelves and such.   Or at BJ's (Like  a costco) I was checking out and you ran to the other side of the big conveyer belt and some guy went over to you (I could see you) and told me you were trying to turn the machine off. Um, I doubt it, but I guess the guy was concerned. You are wearing LOTS of mommy's old clothes.  The purple overalls in the picture above were mine when I was a baby.

We still love Baby Led Weaning. Well, I guess at this point, all babies probably feed themselves?  I have no idea, to be honest.   You eat dinner with us most nights. Lately, you might not eat food that is on your tray,  BUT if daddy puts it on HIS plate then hands it to you...then you will eat it. THE EXACT Same food!!  You just think what we have is better, even though its the same thing! ha. You don't do that all the time but sometimes you do.  I had given up the other night and said "well, I guess you are not hungry" and then daddy showed me his little trick and voila, you ate it when it came from his plate or mine!  One food you wont turn down: chicken. You LOVE chicken. Seriously, devour it.

You are still breast fed. You still love to nurse. I still pump at work 3 times a day and you get breast milk at the sitters, or with Nona, or with Daddy. You do go on bottle strikes though sometimes and you dont want anything to do with a sippy cup and we have tried 10 kinds. You will drink out of a regular cup, but that makes a huge mess.   We have Mostly NIGHT weaned!!  I do not feed you during the night before 4 or 5 AM.  You nurse before bed time which is between 7 and 8 PM.  YOu sometimes wake up in the night, but we go peak in your door. If you are standing up in your crib, we pick you up and give you a cuddle. WE do a little cuddle for not even a minute, then place you back in the crib and you go right back to sleep.  If you were grabbing at my shirt or breasts, I would probably feed you, but you don't.  When you wake up around 5, I bring you back to bed and you nurse while I sleep.  Sometimes you fall back to sleep in my bed, but usually you don't. You usually just keep moving, so I bring you back to your crib to sleep until around 6:30 when we get up for the day. When we get up at 6:30 you and I both use the potty. I sit on the big one while you sit on the little one next to me. Then we both brush our teeth.  I would like to say we are doing elimination communication all the time, but that is not possible since I work.  I do EC at home, but its not full time. Daddy does it sometimes with you, but I think he often forgets.

This past month all the kids at Miss B's were sick with colds. You held strong for a while but then you got it.  You didn't ACT sick. You just had a runny nose and phlegm in your throat.  I ended up bringing you to the doctors because 2 of the other kids at daycare ended up with ear infections. AND, someone told me strep was going around. MY MOMMY gut told me you just had a cold and would get over it soon.  You were sleeping pretty good as well, so I didn't think you were in pain. I have never had strep or an ear infection so I guess I Just assumed you wouldn't either ;) haha. 
The dr. said you did just have a cold and a VERY minor ear infection. He said he would write a script for an antibiotic.  I asked if that was really necessary and he said not yet..and to take the script and wait a few days because it was so minor. 
I have read A LOT about treating things with breast milk. I have even used BM on your eye when it was gunky before.  I have also used it on my own zits and your scrapes and cuts.  I ended up putting drops of BM in your ear!! As well as a few drops of silver sol (A natural antibiotic) a couple times a day.  AND...in a few days, you were ALL Better.    I KINDA  told the Dr. I was going to use BM to cure you, but I think he thought just by the usual way- orally :)    I know you are almost 1, but we will NOT be weaning anytime soon.  I will probably cut down to only pumping once  a day and eventually not at all during the days, but you will be nursed morning and nights for a lot longer.  I think Mommy's Magic milk has kept you a very healthy girl. Even when you do get little colds, you are over them so quickly and you don't even act phased by them.  AND, you know what is really amazing??   Some of the immune factors in BM have been shown to increase in concentration as a baby gets older and nurses less, so older babies still receive lots of immune factors.  AND, GET THIS- The concentration of the immunologic components are HIGHER around 16-24 months of age, than at a year old!   I just want you to be as healthy as your Mom ! :)  Also, ITS JUST SO EASY!!  I love how convenient it is. And, you love it and its the only time you will cuddle with me. You are NOT a cuddler.

Hmm what else for food. Oh yes, I did give you yogurt from the farmer's market twice. Your diapers were explosions on those days.  You didn't act like it bothered you though.  After much research, daddy and I have decided that you will not eat commercial dairy. I mean, sure- IM sure you will get some at times because butter and other dairy is in a LOT of things and hard to avoid ALL the time, but we will try very hard not to include it in your diet. You will continue to get raw goats milk at times, but that is probably it for dairy.  You will also get coconut milk and almond milk during the days if you want it.  Again, we wont go crazy over it, but it is something we will try our best to avoid.

You somehow fell in the dog water bowl! haha. You were crying because I was looking all over for my phone to take a picture before I helped you out.  See that little thing in your hand? That is your little baby from your Maori doll...you didn't even let your baby go when you were stuck! how cute. haha Although you also put your baby's head in your mouth sometimes...so not sure how maternal you really are.

Speaking of baby- the little baby came in the Maori doll that your nana and poppa gave you from NZ. (Maoris are the native NZ people)

You always take the little doll out of the backpack on the bigger doll.

And sometimes daddy will "hide" it in this Melissa and Doug hammer toy in one of the holes where the peg is supposed to go and your reaction is always so funny!  YOu look at it with a face of disgust and PROMPTLY take your baby out of the hole!  You know it doesn't belong there. lol.  I'm glad you don't try to hammer it. YOu do try to hammer people's knees with the wooden hammer though... eeks. And, you have hit yourself with it before on accident.

"GIVE ME!"

Itsy bitsy spider....You love that song!

What? I cant touch the outlets?

Best Friends!

You have been getting more baths lately. Well, maybe once a week. You do enjoy baths for about 5-10 minutes,  but then you get bored, stand up at the edge, put your arms up and say "UT"  You still do showers with me most of the time.

 When I feed you on the couch, we try to keep Piri off the couch. When I say "Off Piri" you will say a word that sounds like off. 

RUN!

The shirt you have on above was also my shirt as a baby :)

This is a little set of drawers in my bedroom. It used to be in my walk in closet...but that is now your bedroom :)  This set of drawers holds make-up on the top (not the every day stuff) and jewelery on the bottom half. The Very bottom drawer is full of labeled boxes containing jewelry. You LOVE to open the drawers and then take out bangles and leave them everywhere. OR You like to shake all the boxes...which makes me cringe because I'm sure you are getting all my stuff tangled and mangled.  I didn't want to move this or tape it shut...so for 2 weeks, every time you went to it, I grabbed you and brought you to YOUR toys.  After a week, you would look at me AS YOU were opening it and i would give you a look.  You would sometimes smile and open it anyway.  I just had to stick to my guns. NOW- you don't even go over to it or touch it.  I am now working on the same thing with my night stand. I just don't want you in my night stand.  I don't care if you want to pull all the books off your book shelves, clothes out of YOUR dresser, etc. But stay away from mine! ha

We still follow the guidelines for positive discipline and I really like how its working so far. 

YOU LOVE to be read to now. You have your favorite books. At our house you always bring Growl!  Goes the Bear to us.

Nona told me you liked Brown Bear, Brown Bear at her house the other day.  That same night you went to your shelf at home and pulled Brown Bear, Brown Bear off your shelf! I didn't even know we had that book! 

At home, you bring your favorite book (Growl Goes The Bear) over to Piri and flip the pages like you are reading to her! Its hilarious.

 When you bring it to someone to read, you make a growl sound. The book has an owl and lion too and your daddy makes the best sounds.

You climb up the stairs all on your own very well, but Daddy is working on showing you how to come down safely.  You still love to pull all the spices out of the spice drawer and we find them all over.  I have tried Reading the Lorax to you to prepare for your birthday party,  but it is just too long to hold your interest.

The words you say:
Mama (It was mum mum but seems to be mama now), Dada, Nona (my mom), dog, doll, hat, bye, hi, more (Sounds more like mo) and you say "UT" as UP. And off, but it sounds more like awww. I dont know why you say UP with a T, but its so pronounced.  In the mornings lately you haven't cried but I wake up to "Mama. UT. Mama, UT. Ut. Ut" and I go in there and you are trying to climb out of your crib. You also just started saying banana. Daddy taught you that.  You try to mimic a lot of what daddy says, but not what mama says.  ( I Just read this part again- The words she does say are not all CLEAR! We know what she is saying because we just know her, but they are not all very clear and some words are not all the time) Like hat- sometimes she will say it and sometimes she wont.

Nona took you skiing. She took a video and I cant for her to get me a copy.

Your cousin R went skiing for the first time on the same day. Your cousin K is already a pro.

And that my little girl should give you a good idea of where you are at. IM sure there are so many things I am missing.  You make your daddy and I laugh every single day.  Every little inch of you is loved so much, and I KNOW you know that.  You have not experienced any separation anxiety or stranger danger, and I'M keeping my fingers crossed that we just skip that stage :)  wishful thinking? 
You have 8 teeth and you have been an incredible teether. I do give credit to your amber teething necklace. You have worn it every day since you were 3 months old.
My guess is that you weight 19 pounds. You wear 9-12 month clothes right now.  You are still wearing hand me downs and clothes that were gifts. I have only bought you a few leggings here and there and a dress or 2 that I couldn't resist. We are SOO lucky with clothes and shoes. 
Oh, and naps. Still doing 2 naps a day. All together they are about 3.5  hours added up.  The morning one is USUALLY longer.