11 month old Ivy

Ivy turned 11 months a few days ago. I cannot believe how much older she seems lately. She really is "growing up"! She is starting to seem more like a toddler and less like a baby *sniff sniff* She is now walking pretty much all the time. She has mastered getting up in the middle of the room without pulling up at something, so she really has no need to crawl now. I haven't seen her crawl one time all day. It's kind of sad. I have spent the last 5 months happily watching her crawl down the hall or crawl up to me....and those days are over.
She also is not interested in pureed babyfood anymore. She may take a spoonful or 2, and then refuses. Little Miss Independent just wants to finger feed herself. She does eat now almost everything Zayden eats now, which makes some things easier, but geesh.
She also took her last bottle a couple of weeks ago. She now drinks from a sippy cup, when I am at work and with her meals....but thankfully she still happily nurses.
She has a couple of words. She now says "mama" quite a bit. If she sees me leave the room she often will follow me and be hollering "mama, mama" until I come back to her. :) Love that! She says "dada" occasionally. She says "Day-dee" all the time for "baby". She loves her babydoll, and will pick it up and say over and over "day-dee". If we say clock, she will say "kakakaka". She also has repeated a couple of other words like book and ball once or twice but not yet consistently. I'd say she only has 2 words right now mama and baby.
Ivy is starting to enjoy looking at books, which I am happy about. However, I don't think she is going to be into books as much as her brother. She is my go-get-em-wild-child! She sure is spunky! She loves to do something that she knows I don't want her to do, and laugh. This weekend she kept trying to dart into the street!!! I would tell her no, and she would laugh and take off. It got to the point that we just couldn't play in the front yard anymore.
She also LOVES to play with balls! It's so cute. She will pick up a ball toss it, walk over to it, squat down and pick it up, take a couple steps, toss it, and so on and so on. She can play this way with a ball for several minutes! It's adorable. Z never really played with balls much. Brian thinks she will be our athlete. ;)
She also is wanting to climb on EVERYTHING!! She is able to climb up small slides now by herself. She did this for the first time at her friend Coen's house last week, and it freaked me out. I have now seen her do it on 2 other slides. She just climbs to the top and stands up! EEK! If Brian or I are sitting on the floor by a piece of furniture she will hurry over to us to use us to climb up on it....again laughing since she knows we don't want her climbing.
Ivy also is starting to really like music and dancing more. She has this little toy radio she carries around and when she accidentally makes the music play she starts smiling and dancing.
She LOVES to be outside. If I am holding her and go to the door to let out the dog or something, and we don't go outside she throws a huge fit! She also LOVES the water and swimming. This past week we have gone swimming a few times and she was like a fish. She loves the kiddie pools and the big pools!
Ivy continues to be very affectionate. She often climbs up on me and gives me kisses or just buries her face into me. She almost always smiling and laughing, and we still get comments all the time about how happy she is.
BUT, when she cries, boy does she cry. I even love her cry. When she is really upset she will do this wah wah wah SCREAM wah wah wah SCREAM pattern, and it cracks me up.
Ivy does still wake up 2 times most nights to nurse. I have recently decided to not stress about this. I have grown used to not sleeping a good nights sleep. Her brother didn't sttn until he was a year either. I'll stop going to her and nursing her in the middle of the night after her first birthday, but for now I am actually trying to enjoy those midnight snacks. It's just her and I in a dark quiet room as she cuddles up to me and we both are drifting in/out of sleep together. I know that soon these days will be over, and I'll never get those nights back of her and I alone snuggling together in our dark and quiet home....so I am really trying to just take in the moment and cherish them.
I could gush on and on about my baby girl, but she is awake from her nap and wanting to play ball. :) I can't resist those dimples, so I will end this post now. :)



Here are a few more pictures of her yesterday:

Ivy all dressed up for Father's day and discovering all the glorious weeds in our yard.

Here is Ivy in her frilly dress racing down the driveway! And a half second after I snapped this picture....

She fell smack on her face.....poor baby!! She recovered quickly though...as usual. Today she has a big scab on her head and a couple on her knees from the week before, and her new nickname has become "bruiser"