Brett & Kirsten: Brooke: 11 Months

I still have so many things to post about our trip to Oregon. Like going to the zoo and the beach and the cabin. But today's post is all about Brooke being 11 months old! People, that is almost a year. Crazy.

During her "photo shoot" she was far more interested in standing and walking than she was sitting on her chair. Consequently we have lots of "action" shots.

Brooke continues to be a great source of entertainment and every single day we comment to each other about how cute/funny/silly she is. As of right now Brooke...

Is a genuinely happy baby and content to play by herself regularly (as long as I'm not doing something too interesting like trying to make dinner, then of course she wants in on that action)

Loves to dance to music. She waves her arms and bounces her legs and just looks so excited I can't help but "dance" along with her. Good thing this often happens in the privacy of our home because our moves are kinda silly.
Points at everything. The first thing she would point repeatedly at was any picture of a baby (on diaper boxes, books, etc). Now she will point at what she wants to see or eat or go towards.
Always on the go. She will go from toy to toy around the room and down the hall and into the kitchen and where ever else she sees something that peaks her interest.

Loves to explore. This little one doesn't have much fear of being away from us (along as it is on her own terms). We were joking the other day that despite our best efforts we WILL one day have the child that runs onto the stand during church. Knowing Brooke, it is inevitable.

Exploring the lobby while we were at an eye doctor appointment

Loves books. 2 out of 3 times if she has stopped moving and sat down with a toy it will be one of her books. She flips through the pages and looks at the pictures and turns it around and around. She will even bring me her books and sit on my lap and let me read to her every once in a while.

Recognizes words. Baby and book are her two favorites. If she is playing and I ask where her book is she will often stop and look around and then go get the closest one. She also will blow kisses if we ask and will wave when we say bye-bye or night-night. She also hears "sit" a lot during bath time and is pretty good at sitting down when I say it. However, she is not good at staying seated.
Loves holding things in her hands. She is often holding at least two or three different toys with her while she walks/crawls around the room. She has gotten pretty good at standing up while holding the toys but occasionally will drop one and have to bend down and get it. This often results in dropping the other. In fact, most of her day is spent dropping and picking up toys as she tries to stand or sit or walk.

Yes, she has three books in her hands

Kneeling. I think it is adorable when she kneels and plays with her toys. A few times she has even tried to walk forward on her knees. She looks like such a big girl when she plays like that.

Walking is her preferred mode of transportation. She will only crawl to get to the nearest thing to pull up on and then use it to walk around or let go and walk forward for her few steps. This often means going the long way around the room.
Loves playing with other kids. I read somewhere that babies her age do "parallel play" meaning they play adjacent but not with one another. Brooke might be the exception at this point. She thinks other babies are the perfect toy. Smaller babies she tries to crawl on them or use them to stand up and older babies she goes over to them and loves their interaction back.

One of her friends, Anna, is two months older than Brooke and VERY skilled when it comes to motor skills. She is meticulous in everything she does and it is funny to watch her and Brooke together because Brooke is the EXACT opposite. Our little girl walks around haphazardly and practically throws her body around carelessly.
Loves singing songs. She has her favorites and will get excited and clap when we sing to her. Singing songs is also often the only way to keep her still enough during diaper changes. It doesn't always work, but if I can get her attention long enough with a song I can avoid her crawling away.

Playing with toys while waiting to see the specialist

Hates getting examined by doctors. We had our pre-op appointment with the specialist last week (surgery is this saturday... :(...) and he had to listen to her heart beat and feel the cyst on her eyebrow. She screamed the whole time!

Scared of the vacuum and blender. Poor girl was traumatized for a good 5 minutes one day after I had to vacuum up some crumbs. She cries when she falls and hurts herself (which happens often) but this was different. She was shaking and crying and it was so sad. She did the same thing the next day with the blender.
Has 6 teeth although when she smiles you rarely see them. Three on top and three on bottom with a 4th on the top getting close.

Still eating like a champ. She is not too interested in the purees these days and will only eat off a spoon if she has finger food on her tray to alternate bites with. We introduced eggs, yogurt, and meat pieces this month and she continues to love most veggies and all fruits that we give her.
Also, cross your fingers but she is getting better at handling dairy. I did another trial in my diet and she didn't seem to have as bad a reaction as she has in the past. Then we tried yogurt directly and she seems to be doing okay with it too! Hallelujah! Today she even got a few sips of my green smoothie which was the first thing that I cut out many many months ago (spinach and dairy were a bad bad combo).
Still a sleep diva. She has some great nights and some not so great nights. And she has some good naps and some naps that she refuses all together.

And here is a cute video of her showing off some of her tricks.