11.5 Month Update

It is hard to believe my little baby girl will be turning 1 soon. One whole year! 365 days old! Wow.

Jessica is a walking pro now. She has really improved this past week. I took a video 2 nights ago. I will try to post it tomorrow. She has been fighting a double ear infection since last week (and now she has croup! ugh.), so I have a feeling once she completely recovers, she will be even more unstoppable than she is now... if that is possible. I hate seeing my baby sick, as any parent does. A word of advice to new parents: if you do not have a humidifier, invest in one today. Another word of advice: make sure it is set on a level surface. We learned the hard way. Atleast, that was my reasoning for why I woke up to an empty humidifier and a very wet floor. We took the advice from the doctor and bought a humidifier and it was really like magic. My baby's breathing was much clearer with that extra moisture and it helped my sinuses, too! If you have experienced a baby with croup, you know it is scary sounding. Fortunately, it sounds a lot worse than it really is. I was freaked out and I was familiar with it! I can imagine a parent with no previous knowledge of croup would really freak out.

I am anxious to see how much Jessica has grown since her last doctor's appointment. Just this week it seems she has outgrown some of her shirts and onesies that she has worn just recently. I think she is having a little growth spurt. I am guessing she weighs about 24lbs. now and I think she is just under 30in. tall. Her hair is growing so long. I notice it big time when I look a pictures from even a month ago. I can't wait to put her hair in pigtails. She still has 7 teeth. I just knew that 8th tooth was coming in soon..... we are still waiting.

So, we have put away the baby potty and my little sweetheart is a big potty girl now. She is so darn funny! In fact, I so rarely have to change a dirty diaper these days, that this weekend I was really caught off guard and was not quite sure of how to go about doing so when my little munchkin had a very big messy accident. We even wave bye bye when we flush the potty. It is pretty funny. Yes, Jess has finally mastered the bye bye wave. Finally. We worked on that one forever.

Nanny (and Mommy, too!) started teaching Jessica to bless her food everytime she gives her a meal or snack. She has really picked it up. She thinks it is so funny when you put her hands together and she holds them there and smiles while you pray. So sweet. Melts my heart. Since Jess has been sick, she has had little appetite, but she loves her yogurt (yogi). That is the one for sure food she will eat all the time. She has stopped taking a bottle of mama's milk during the day. She has started to wean herself, so that is making the process a lot easier on me. We still nurse morning and night. Sometimes she nurses when I get home from work, but sometimes she doesn't want it. I had previously been so worried about how I was going to go about weaning my sweet girl, because nursing is something Jessica and I both love, but it seems like it is all falling into place now and my baby girl is doing it on her own.