11 months old!

As of last week, Sienna is 11 months old, just under 3 weeks till the big ONE!! Is it possible to pause time for just a moment, let me catch my breath? I have been going through old pictures lately, and it really is something to see the changes month to month, remininsce and reflect... I am still in shock out how our family has developed, the beautiful baby we have and the incredible little girl she is becoming, the pure, endless love we feel. I never could possibly imagine how amazing motherhood could be, even with its challenges.

When I look at pictures of those first weeks, sometimes I hardly recognize her... Its just shows how much she has grown, and how she is visual evidence of just how fast time has flown. I just hope I can always remember those early days and the big events of her first year (our first meeting, the way she first looked into our eyes, her baby smell, her first smiles and laughs, etc. etc.) Thank goodness for our video camera! We have been watching a lot of our family videos, and Sienna loves watching them too!

Sienna is at such a fun age! I can't be too sad about her changing and growing when the new phases and milestones are so darn exciting (and frequent)! She is learning at such a quick pace, it really is incredible. She is SO curious, wants to touch/examine/figure everything out!

So what is she up to now?

*Moving everywhere! On Saturday she took her first STEPS! She took up to four tiny steps from Daddy to Mommy several times. I know she will be truly "walking" in no time, when she really decides to go for it. But at this point, she gets around SO well in other ways including crawling at alarming speeds and cruising anywhere she can, crawling over things, climbing on things, etc etc. We have to keep our eyes on her every second, and places we didn't think she could get to, she does! She is standing on her own, and loves pushing her walker toy, across the whole house. When it gets stuck, she yells and bashes it into the wall, doorframe, couch, etc. She definitely has quite the temper when something isn't working the way she wants it to!

*Eating! She still loves food, most everything! This month, she is really over purees, eating from a spoon by us, as she wants to feed herself. New foods she has tried and loved this last month include strawberries, freeze-dried mangoes, blueberry waffles, wheat bunny crackers, graham crackers, cottage cheese, black/pinto/kidney beans, and and cheerios. She mostly eats table food, whatever we are eating, which is so nice and convienent... Her fav of those meals we have made include minestrone soup, veggie pasta, spinach orzo salad, and whole wheat pizza crust.

*Growing! Most of her 12 month clothes are too small or getting close to the small side. So we are moving towards 18 month sizes... No official weight, but according to our scale she is about 22 pounds. I am sure with her increasing-every-day activity level, she isn't putting on as much weight as she has in previous months.

*Playing! Her favorite toys are her stacking cups (go dollar section at target!), her activity center barn (she knows where the eggs go, and "feeds" the cow), 2 push walkers (see above), ball popper, and books! She has always liked moving her books around, taking them off shelves, but now she actually treats them like books- opening them and looking through them all by herself! She also loves loves shoes (has been obsessed with them as long as I remember) so we might be in trouble in the years to come... but she is always carrying one around, or picking them up and going through her shoe pile. Other favorite things to do include emptying out her entire laundry hamper, pretending to feed mommy, dancing (full body and head bob), bathtime, playing with/patting/proding/poking Ozzy, and going for runs with Mommy and the pups (she watches them run next to her stroller and laughs hysterically)

*Talking! She is still very verbal and loves blabbering on and on. She mimics sounds very well. She now says "bub bub" for bottle, mumma, hi, dog "duh", and both dogs names (i am pretty sure) shasta is "asha" and she just said "ahh" for ozzy last night while patting his head! And she seems to say sh*t every other second! She also points ALL the time, and it does help show us what she wants! She blows kisses, leans in for kisses, and waves when asked. Just way too cute!

That about sums it up for now! I have so much fun with her, and love her personality more and more every day.