The Quinns: 11 Months Old

It was nearly impossible to get pictures this month. SC would not sit in her chair and I died a thousand deaths as she tried to dive out of it over and over, so I gave up after a while. Plus, she's not in a cute outfit like I normally prefer. We had just gotten back from an outdoor event, and it was in the 30's today, so she was bundled up and has red cheeks and a runny nose. Oh well.

Sallie Cate is 11 months old today! I just can't believe it! I told my sister and some friends a couple of weeks ago that when I realized her birthday was 6 weeks away {from that day}, it made me want to curl up in a ball on the floor and sob. :) Although it is bittersweet that she is growing so fast, I am also SO thankful that she is here and that I am getting to experience this precious time with her!

{the only picture I got with her monthly sign in it}

The biggest thing that happened this past month is that SC took her first step! She did it the night before Valentine's Day. Of course I missed it- she was playing in her room with John and Curran while I was cooking supper. I heard John yelling and knew what had happened. :) She has taken up to 3 steps at a time, but that's it. She's definitely not close to being off and running or anything. You can tell it still makes her pretty nervous.

She has learned to do "How big is Sallie Cate? SO big!" and it is so cute!! She loves dancing to music and it's so funny. She bobs her little head so far side to side that I'm always afraid she's going to fall over. :) She loves playing copy cat and constantly smacks her lips, clicks her tongue, makes sounds, etc to get me to copy her. She is obsessed with her giraffe rocker that's next to her rocking chair. Whenever I'm done feeding her, she sits up and reaches out to pet it and starts "talking" to it. It's pretty cute.

this is her "so big" :)

{also notice the coloring of her hands- po' thang was still thawing out from the freezing temps}

She really isn't saying many words besides bye bye consistently. I think she says Dada appropriately, but she doesn't do it all the time. She has said Mama in the right context but only a few times. Most of the time it's just another sound she makes. She will sometimes repeat the last word in a sentence when I'm talking to her, but obviously she has no idea what she's saying. I think Curran was definitely talking more at this age.

She is doing great with table food. She was pretty much only on table food at 10 months but still got some baby food occasionally. But that didn't last too much longer. She loved baby food but got to the point where she hated being spoon fed. She started turning her head and crying. Also, she would spit the food out- not because she didn't like it but just because she thought it was funny. John and I were both over that. We still feed her yogurt which she loves, but she does the same thing with it, so she eats it more at school than at home {where they say she does fine with it- weird}. She can eat a ton of food if it's something she really likes. One night I fixed breakfast for supper, and she ate half of a huge round waffle- like the big waffle iron size {and she only stopped at that because we cut her off}, two servings of cheese eggs, and strawberries. New foods she has tried this month {or food that she previously tried but now actually likes}:

strawberries
grapes {cut up very small}
bananas
hummus {we just put some on a spoon and let her feed herself}
refried beans
black beans
scrambled eggs
rice
Chick Fil A chicken nugget {just a tiny bite, but she liked it}
grilled chicken
turkey
other things at school that I can't remember

We still struggle with the fresh veggies, but at least she'll now eat a few fruits. She has learned how to do those squeeze pouches by herself, which she LOVES! And that's a good way to get veggies in. I buy the toddler ones that I have lots of things mixed together.

She also still loves her grilled cheeses, cheese quesadillas, and string cheese. Notice a trend? She's definitely my child. She still only has those two teeny weeny teeth, so I still get nervous with the food.

She has gotten fussier over the last month. I'm not sure what it is, but she just doesn't seem as happy and content as she was for her first 10 months. She hates being buckled in her car seat and screams every time. I thought changing her to her big girl car seat would help with that, but it really hasn't. She is also really fussy at the end of the day, which I know is very typical and is because she's tired, but from the moment she gets out of the bath until the moment I start nursing her, she screams bloody murder and my nerves are shot. She has even cried through dinner a lot of nights. Of course, she is constantly congested and probably not feeling well, so maybe that's it. She had her first ear infection post tubes less than 3 weeks after her surgery. I don't believe the ENT's statistic that 70% of babies who get tubes never get another infection. I know so many kids who've still had infections after tubes.