She started taking 3-6 steps at a time around 11 months. She realizes this method is too slow for her and she drops down to stealth mode: crawling. She's got things to do and messes to make; there is no time to waste with walking.
She says Dada and knows dada, but she doesn't really call me anything yet other than dada, too. She has the mmmm sound down, but uses it to refer to good food rather than her good momma. Other spoken 'words' include-- up and down, Thomas, bye bye, tickle tickle, yuck, something resembling Gage but only I know that, yeah, bath, ball, shoot... that's all that's coming to mind right now.
She has moved past eating books and enjoys looking at them and being read to (whew!!).
She would rather eat real food than baby food, and she most definitely prefers to feed herself. When she's finished eating, she throws the rest onto the floor--One of the many messes of Leila. I quit nursing her around 8 or 8 1/2 months, and it was a very hard decision for me, but it was definitely something that proved to be 'good' for her. I miss the nursing bond, I enjoy the bottle freedom, but I have found a new passion in life after going through this experience and if I had a career change, it would certainly involve lactation support and education for women and/or nutrition of children in this world that is overly consumed with processed foods.
Different than her brother, she has no patience to sit at a restaurant or in a stroller, to sit on some one's lap, or to take time to 'have a conversation' with someone. Literally, she just prefers to always be on the go, unrestrained. She is certainly a free spirit who has her own agenda. Trips out have dwindled significantly unless I can get away with only taking Gage. She does enjoy the grocery cart, but she soon pesters Gage (especially his glasses) to the point that he is quite agitated. Luckily, he is a kid who will walk along with me and be happy to help put food into the cart.
However, she absolutely loves to ride in the backpack when we go on walks. It's a chore to get her situated in the backpack because she's not a fan of wearing all the layers it takes to go on a walk in the winter, but as soon as we get outside, she is in a glory. It's a total moment of glory for all of us, actually.
She's quite attached to a little white blanket that came before she was born from Uncle Darren and Aunt Krisi. She drags it around, sleeps with it, rolls around with it on the floor, and most usually won't eat drink her bottle without it. You can't trick her with another blanket, either, say, when hers is not available or is getting washed. She knows better. In fact, I broke down and spent the $45 it took to buy another one so we would have a backup before something drastic happens to hers. It's one of her birthday presents and I hope it works out just as well as her original.
She is quite head strong, especially when she is trying to explore something. She has learned to dip her hands into the toilet water--even if the lid is down. She has learned to use the remote control to turn on the GeoTrax trains (which does not make brother happy). And, she is an expert at removing lids: from soap bottles, lotion bottles, Lysol wipes cans, etc. And let me re-iterate--she removes the lids, she doesn't just know how to open or unscrew them. She also dialed 911 the other day, which none of us knew about until the Sheriff's office called to check on the situation. Ooops. Like I said, she's extremely tactile.
Her smile is contagious, she has an adorable bashful side to her personality and her big brown eyes are so cute that even when she's crying and in trouble, it's hard to 'punish' her behavior. She's going to have a charm about her, I believe, that helps her get her way throughout life. Oh boy...(like I said in another post, Austin has returned to reading his book about raising daughters).
Speaking of Austin, she is quite fond of the boys--particularly to Grandpas, Hawhaw McConnell, and Uncle Jared Barcalow-- and each of those grown men just eat her up, let me tell you. She's extremely bothered when Austin goes to work in the morning and leaves without her. She's just tall enough to see out the window of our front door and she stands there for quite some time calling out for dada.
I look forward to her walking and talking more, I look forward to ditching the daytime bottles, but mostly I look forward to watching this boisterous personality continuing to develop and grow. I cannot wait until this summer--the beach, the hayrides, the boating, and park playing. She's beginning one of my favorite stages and while I miss having a baby baby around (especially because I know we are not having more children) and I miss those baby smells and those baby cuddling moments, I love the bonding that really explodes as they learn to walk and talk.
I always knew I wanted to be a stay at home mom, and even though I do work part time, I really consider my job to be my mom job. We have found economically that it's more possible and reasonable than we ever could have predicted, we have found that it truly has more long-term and short-term rewards than we ever could have predicted, and while I, as an individual, have my days struggling mentally without full-time 'work', I have learned more and more that our choices today usually aren't life sentences; whereas, being a parent is a life-sentence, thus, they do come first, they do need us more than I need anything else. I am blessed to be able to have the relationship that I have with my children. Should I be gone from this world tomorrow, I have no regrets, and that is the way we live out each day now that we are parents.
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