Happy 11 months old!

11 months old ... today! Wow, Kendall ... you are getting to be such a big girl! It's hard to believe that 11 months of your life have already passed by and that you will be 1 year old in just one more month! (You're corrected age is 8 1/2 months now and you are doing soooo good in all of your growth and development ... it is truly AMAZING to see what God has done these last 11 months with you!)

You LOVE to stand up, any chance that you get ... and if you aren't standing up, you are jumping up and down ... in our arms, in your jumping john contraption, or in your exersaucer ... you're little legs are always moving! You started pulling up to your kitchen last week, so Daddy lower your crib for you (and Mommy's peace of mind) over the weekend! You are working hard on crawling ... and love to go after anything & everything that catches your eye ... you'll move to all 4's (from sitting up), rock back & forth, reach out for the object as far as you possibly can ... and usually grunt or babble something to it or us. We are working on the army crawl, but over these past 2 weeks, you've made huge strides in your locomotion development (rocking back & forth, staying up on all 4's for longer and longer times, going after everything, falling over other toys in your pathway to get to the thing that has caught your eye)! You are really enjoying the outdoors, especially since it's spring and nice outside ... you love to sit with Mommy to swing on our front porch swing, or rock in our rocking chairs outside ... especially if Cassie is outside with us, running around or playing with her Frisbee! You still can't get enough of Cassie, and she still can't get enough of you ... we are still working on "soft touches" as you love to grab her hair or any part of her face and ears! You also love to grab at Mommy's hair and your own hair (as Mommy did as a baby too) ... we are just so happy that you have so much hair ... and it is a crazy, curly mess these days ... and it doesn't help that you play with or eat any headwrap & bow that Mommy tries to put on you (which makes Mommy so, so sad!) ... hopefully this is just a quick phase!

You are pure joy! You are a very happy baby ... very content (nearly all the time) ... smiling and laughing ... and talking constantly (you always have a story to be telling someone ... anyone who will listen to you ... which is pretty much anyone, anywhere we go ... ha! You have quite a way about you attracting total random strangers to you ... and always smile at them when they look at you and talk to us!) We love to hear you talk and babble ... LOUDLY, of course ... you just have such excitement to share! You are very social and LOVE to stare & observe people, motion & objects. Starting this past week, when you saw a baby or child, you would babble to them or grunt at them, or say "oooou, ooou" to them, to try to get their attention & then smile at them. You get sad or sometimes even cry when a baby or child is crying near us ... you are so sweet and sensitive (you definitely get that from your Daddy)!

You love to flash your adorable 2 bottom teeth ... and even better, use them on whatever you can get in your mouth ... food, bottle, fingers (your's or anyone else's, which Mommy strongly discourages), your toes, and any toy possible! You are eating well, but you are still a pretty small eater ... you have 5 bottle feedings a day of 4-6oz (normally around 7:30a, 10:30/11a, 2/2:30p, 5:30/6p, and 9p or later (with Daddy), plus 2 or 3 solid food feedings (in conjunction with your bottles at 10:30a, 2:30p, and 6p). The first solid food feed is rice cereal (just this week, you've moved from 1 teaspoon to 3 heaping teaspoons!) mixed with prune juice (which you LOVE and that's good, cause you still have a bit of a constipation issue, poor girl!) and 1-2oz of a fruit (you love all the fruits!). The 2nd (and 3rd) food feed is 1-2 oz of a vegetable and 1oz of a fruit. You are still quite picky about drinking your bottles ... easily distracted by people or talking, wanting to join in the party yourself and give up eating. But, you are great about your solid food intake ... happy to open your mouth, lean in for the bite, and sit so nicely in your highchair, even after your done!

You are still a wonderful sleeper ... and Mommy is soooo happy about that! We are trying to get your naps down from 3 or 4 per day to taking 2 or 3 naps ... you normally wake up around 7:30a, drink a bottle fast, and immediately go back to bed for another 30-45minutes (I think you'd stay asleep longer if your tummy could hold more food). You'll take a nap after your 10:30 feed and some play time ... then another nap around 4p after your 2:30 feed. Depending on how long that nap is, you might have to nap again before bedtime ... which is normally around 8p or so. Daddy feeds you the last bottle of the night, around 9p or even much later (as you are normally already sleeping by 8p, and he wakes you up, just to eat & go back to bed) ... you just can't make it through the night without that last feed, so Daddy does that with you so Mommy can go to bed.

You are now wearing size 3 Pampers diapers (just started size 3 about 2 weeks ago) ... you just outgrew your 3-6 month clothing (due to your length only!), so we moved up to 6-9 months (or 9 months in Carter's) just this week ... perfect for your new Spring & Summer wardrobe! You have officially grown out of your 0-3month The Children's Place black dress shoes ... the only shoes that you could wear (since growing out of all your newborn shoes last month) ... we didn't get you any others because everything falls off your little feet or you just take them off and your socks ... you love to be barefooted and cross your feet ... it's really cute, especially now that the weather is nice out & your feet aren't freezing! Mommy just bought you some really cute sandals & some white Mary Jane's for church ... all size 2 (or 3-6months) ... they are a bit big, but the size 1's are too small. You also just started this week wearing a pair of 0-6month Robeeze that Auntie E got you when you were born ... they are still big, but they do stay on your feet and you haven't been able to figure out how to take them off yet.

Happy 11 months old, our sweet, sweet Kendall! We just can't get enough of you! We are so thankful for the life God has given you and how far you have come from being born nearly 11 weeks early and weighing 2 lbs 6 oz just 11 short months ago! To God be the Glory ... Great things He has done!

We love you, Little Miss!