April 30: 11 months old

Just one month away from Isla's first birthday!  It's so hard to believe.  She is such a fun, sweet little baby girl.  (Well, she's really not that little, and she is less and less of a baby everyday!)

She is still a  bit unsure about posing with Raggedy Ann in these pictures.

 

I believe she has seven teeth right now, but it looks like a few more could pop up any day now.  She is a teething fool, but fortunately not an incredibly grumpy teething fool.  Getting a new tooth (so far, at least) doesn't seem to bother her too much.

She is eating pretty much everything that we eat these days, and this girl likes to eat!  They always say that babies will let you know when they are full, but when it comes to eating food, it sometimes seems like she will never get full.  We usually just stop giving it to her eventually.

 

She still takes four bottles a day, which seems like too many for her age.  But she only drinks 4-5 ounces at a time (sometimes as little as three ounces!), so I can't figure out which bottle to cut out and still make sure she gets enough?  I need to be more diligent about giving her a sippy cup; she is starting to figure it out.  I just need to give her more opportunities to use it, as we will begin weaning from her bottle in just a month!!

 She is interacting with us more and more, and she says all sorts of things.  It is still hard to tell how purposeful her sounds are, but we frequently hear mama and dada sounds.  It also really seems like she is able to say "that" when you give her a toy.  She is starting to point at things and has been paying a lot of attention to lights lately.

She is very purposeful when playing with toys.   She loves to take toys out of baskets and put them back in.  She is so precise when she picks things up, it is really cute!  She also loves to move toys from one pile and put them in a new pile.  And sometimes she just likes to throw them across the room!  She still loves to play "pass" with Audrey and I, where we all sit in a circle and pass a toy around to each other.

 

I am pretty much ready to accept the fact that she is not going to crawl, at least not anytime soon.  However, that doesn't mean she isn't mobile.  She is never still anymore and is constantly moving around.  Here is how she gets herself around:

It looks like she is going to take off and start crawling, but she has been consistently doing this for a month now, without ever actually crawling. When on her stomach, she can only push herself backwards.  Scooting is her preferred method of travel.

I keep hearing the words of our physical therapist back in January, "Don't let her scoot."  And now she is scooting pretty much all the time.  Sometimes I think I should call our physical therapist and ask her if we should be doing something differently.  But at the same time, I really think she is okay.  I hear stories all the time from parents whose kids never crawled, and then they all grew up to be just fine.

Isla does seem to be close to on track with standing and walking.  While she is not quite ready to take off yet, she is making progress.  She loves to stand up, and always wants to hold your hands and walk around.  She is starting to do some cruising around furniture and has done a little bit of pushing a toy stroller around by herself.  She can pull up onto her knees, but she is not quite pulling up to standing yet.  (Physical therapist also warned us that if she doesn't crawl, she will probably be slower to pull herself up).

I think she is going to be okay, and I try not to worry too much that she is a little slow on some of these things.  She is still a very active and curious little girl who just wants to move in her own way!