Month 11 of Life with Emily

11 months! This is the last month our baby will be an infant. Then it's on to toddler-hood, and much like the rest of the milestones, I'm not ready for it! But alas, it's coming. This month has been so fun watching her grow into a little girl. She is doing so many new things and is quite the genius....but maybe we are biased. Her first birthday planning is set and in full swing! It's going to be so much fun! Let's jump right into the new stuff:

Stats: 20.5 pounds. 12M clothes. On the 3rd snap setting on our cloth diapers with a medium rise, but I have tested out the highest rise and she did fine with it, so I could switch to that one, but I'm not ready. Seems to be a trend ;)

New Stuff: Emily still has 4 teeth. She is talking up a storm and can say dog and bow bow and knows what it means. She also knows what dada means instead of just babbling. Her first word was mama, but has not said it since that day, go figure ;) She has now learned lamb, table, ball, blocks, popper, book, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and we are working on lots more. She catches on within the day of new words. I'm working with her on colors now, it's so exciting! She LOVES walking back and forth to mommy and daddy! Her most steps taken so far are about 8-10. She gets SO proud of herself and we squeal and laugh together. She has finally taken to a sippy cup and it's a straw one. She is so good about drinking her water throughout the day. She is taking about an hour nap after 3-4 hours up, around lunch time and still one nap in the evening. I'm ready for those to consolidate to one long nap :) She loves to put her hands over her face to play peek-a-boo. Besides her first steps, our most exciting new thing is signing milk ALL the time! She knows exactly what it is and how to ask for it when she is hungry. This is awesome! She points to anything and everything she wants.

Schedule: Right now at a little over 11 months, she gets up around 8, is up for 4-4.5 hours and takes an hour nap. Then she is up for another 4 hours and take a nap around 5 for an hour. She goes to bed at 8:30-9.

Eating: Emily is still breastfeeding, YAY! She eats every 3-4 hours during the day depending on how much solids she eats. And we have gotten her down to just eating once overnight. I offer ALL kinds of solid foods, but she just doesn't care much for it at all. She's even not eating much of her pouches anymore. She seems to have a fave of a couple weeks. It was avocado, then it was grapes, now it's turkey.

Allergy: Emily still has a milk protein allergy, but I have been adding soy back into my diet and she seems to be doing ok! So that's really exciting. We also found out that she is allergic to strawberries. I gave her puffs with strawberries in them with each meal one day while visiting my mom, and she broke out in a rash all over. It was so scary to think what it could have done if it was an actual strawberry. So we cut out all strawberries, raspberries and blackberries. We are waiting on eggs, too. She is doing great on just half a tab of Prevacid and that makes us so happy!

UTI/Kidney situation: Since her second UTI, Emily has not gotten another one. We are praying they stay away and we will wait to see if she gets another one before we do a VCUG.

Sleep: She is sleeping one long stretch of 5-6 hours, then I feed her, and we are working on getting a full next stretch of 5-6 more hours. She is doing pretty good though! Naps are 1-1.5 hours long. I will rock her to sleep if she doesn't fight me, but if she does, I put her down in her crib and rub her back. If she still fights it then, I will walk out. She is definitely in the toddler mentality and if I don't stand my ground now, I will create a monster. She is a fast learner and doesn't fuss that long or at all anymore.

Favorite things: Ball popper, activity table, Yo Gabba Gabba, her purple ball, her playhouse, dino,  and Scout.