11 months old

Dear ones,

11 things about our 11 month old!

So big!

1. Elle is rolling over on her own now. It's a HUGE accomplishment and a funny thing to watch. When she's on her stomach, she will pull her knees under her then push her butt up into the air and gently tip over onto her side. With one sweeping motion of her free arm, she'll roll onto her back. Elle, in all her preemie glory, refuses to use her dainty arms instead her very powerful little legs (kinda like a T-Rex?), but we still give her a lot of credit for her resourcefulness.

2. The highlight of our NICU day, aside from getting to hold her, was the 9:00pm hands-on time because Elle would get weighed and we could officially celebrate the progress of gaining another few grams or even *gasp* a whole ounce! We missed our regular weigh-ins so we gave in and bought a baby scale at a children's consignment store in town. It may not quite correlate with what we're getting at the doctor's office, but we're still happy to see her numbers go up. According to our scale, she is 11lbs, 1oz!

Wait...how much?!?!

3. This leads me to my next fun fact. Every time we go out in public (but especially the grocery store and especially when I'm wearing Elle in the sling), some very kind and well-meaning person, usually a grandma-type, says something along the lines of, "Oh, she's SO tiny!" or "My goodness, that's a BRAND new one!" We always smile and say the same thing. "Well, she was born really early but she's doing really well now!" and leave it at that.

4. Because she was so tiny and had a breathing down her throat for the first few months of her life, it was a long time before we heard her cry. Have no fear, dear friends, she has DEFINITELY found her voice. It tends to present itself especially when Elle wants to stay up and it's time for bed or if I decide to be really mean and take a shower when she wants to hang out. By any measure though, Elle is a really, really good baby and we don't hear her cry very often.

5. When Elle was on oxygen and then on the monitor overnight, she was sleeping in our room in a bassinet. We graduated from oxygen and the monitor in September (hooray!) and a few weeks ago, we were all finally ready to move her to her 'big girl' crib in her own room. Our wiggle worm has gotten to the point where she really wants a lot of space to roam.

Sleeping Beauty

6. Elle's hair is morphing from predominantly a mo-hawk (it's unintentional - it's just the way her hair goes sometimes) to a very awkward comb-over. The hair on the sides of her head still hasn't quite caught up to the top center, which - to be fair - had quite a head start when we were in the hospital. It doesn't seem to matter which side we try to brush it to. Like her mo-hawk, it just does it's own thing.

7. To continue with Elle's current look, let's move on to her clothes. Elle's mostly wearing 3 month clothes...sort of. We're still trying a funny combination of 3 month onesies and newborn/3 month/6month pants. She's long and skinny and most things are either too short or too wide! This winter I think she'll spend a lot of time in tights and leggings.

8. One of her new favorite things is to roll on her back and pull on her toes then stretch out legs. She will giggle and roll from side to side. Happy Baby pose, folks. It's real!

A natural yogi

9. Our friends, Tashia and Matt, were so kind and got us a jumperoo for our very active, "it's always leg day" baby and she LOVES it. (For anyone who's living room isn't dominated by baby items, it's essentially a raised seat where she can stand and sit with a tray of animal toys and other things to entertain her.) We call it her "play station" and when we put her in it after she's been busy doing other things, she gets so excited and starts talking to all of her animal friends. It will keep her attention for a long time and when she gets tired of being in it, she just starts sighing as loudly as she can.

10. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, Aaron and Elle have a daddy-daughter date. I head to the gym and they head to Panera Bread for coffee and philosophy. There are quite a few regulars at Panera, mostly older folks, and they always think that Aaron is a stay-at-home dad. It's so sweet - if he happens to go there to work without her, they ask where she is. Aaron doesn't always get a lot of work on those mornings, but I know they both look forward to that time together!

11. If Elle is ever a little cranky, the guaranteed way to get a smile out of her is doing an airplane. She loves to be high up with our arms fully stretched out and she will giggle and laugh when we pull her down for kisses and nuzzling her cheeks. it's the absolute best thing in the world to see her smile.

See? Priceless.

And there you have it. Our 11 month old baby girl!

Love,
Anya