11 months

Oh my goodness! We are almost to Grace's 1st birthday and I can't believe it!  I feel as if babyhood is suddenly behind us as Grace turned 11 months. She is so active and trying to be more independent each day. It is getting harder to get a clear picture of her as she wants to move, move, move.

I am often asked if there are any delays in Grace's development and judging by the fact that she is standing on her own and walking by pushing a toy among so many other milestones I'd say no. I ask her continually to please slow down and be more like her big sister who was content to sit still. However, Grace will not oblige me in that. Her little personality is showing its colors more and more and John thinks she is going to be a little stinker.


She loves to explore and as of the past couple of weeks climb onto little chairs and also climbs stairs. I discovered that feat when I found her half-way up the stairs to the attic. Oh, you can climb now, great! I am lacking in ways to blockade this girl. Our doorways in the living room are so large that gates do not work. I tried chairs on their sides with a pillow to block any openings. Well, she is wise and simply pulls the pillow out and proceeds to crawl through the opening. I wasn't expecting her to figure that out right away!

Grace is babbling more and more and clearly says in a sweet high pitched voice "DA-ee" of course she is still at the age where it has a variety of meanings but it takes on a more excited tone when she sees John. The most common noise we hear from Grace is her growl. At times it can be really intense and if we try to duplicate it it hurts our throat. Here Tank comes in to try and help her growl. This is nothing compared to her normal growl.

The only thing that she doesn't do often is laugh out loud. The only time she will is if you blow on her belly which "Zippy" enjoys doing. He also loves to give kisses and still likes to "hug her head" as he did right from the start.



We think her laugh is actually more coming from her nose as she makes this crazy face and blows in and out with her nose. I keep trying to get a video of it as it is so funny but the camera comes up and she stops.

Grace is wearing size 12 months clothing and is 21 pounds (on a big people scale). 

She is eating most of the same foods we do just ground up. I have never really liked baby food and especially with Grace have skipped over the jarred bland food for the most part except for convenience sake when out and about and then use the pouches. My favorite baby gadget has for years been my baby food mill. Whatever we are eating I grind up and she gobbles up. Of course she does enjoy those freeze-dried yogurt snacks and can handle small pieces of foods quite well.

Grace wants to be everywhere we are and she enjoys hanging out on my back. Here we were headed out on a hike.