11 Months

Charlotte turned 11 months old yesterday. It's a little hard to believe that in just one month, she'll be a year old. As you may have seen in a post a few days ago, Charlotte took her first steps. Since then, she's been trying to walk everywhere. She can only go a few steps before losing her balance and taking a tumble, but she is so resilient and brave. She always gets right back up and tries again. Every time she takes a few steps, Chris and I always clap and say, "Yay!!" enthusiastically. Charlotte LOVES this and will start laughing and clapping along with us. She loves it so much that whenever she tumbles (even if it's just after one or two steps), she starts clapping and looking for us to clap with her. She's hilarious and is definitely a ham. She's always trying to make us laugh and is very successful at doing it!

Charlotte is entirely on table food now. This is really nice since I don't have to make baby food anymore and we can eat as a family at the dinner table every night. We're still trying to teach her that she can't drop her sippy cup, food, or plate from her high chair. She is getting much better with this, but every once in awhile she tests her boundaries...like this morning. It was not a good morning. Charlotte started by dropping her bottle from the high chair. I said "No, ma'am" firmly, and then as soon as I turned around, she proceeded to drop her plate. I usually put her food on a plastic kid plate, but this morning I kept it on a small Corelle plate I used to heat up her food instead of transferring it to a plastic plate like I usually would. Well guess what? The plate shattered everywhere. Mommy was not very happy with Charlotte's heart and her unwillingness to obey the first time, so she got in trouble. She didn't attempt to do the same thing at lunch, so I'd like to believe we're making progress on the obedience front. Some days you feel like you've taken two steps back (like this morning), but since being back from vacation, we really have noticed a huge difference in her. It was hard to discipline consistently on vacation since we were out of a routine and around so many family members and friends, but I know that being home, being back into a routine (with regular naps), and getting disciplined consistently is making all the difference.

Here's three pictures that I took a day shy of her 11 month birthday:


I love spaghetti...Mmmmm!!


I love it so much that it's all over my face!


I'm tough, doggie (blankie) and all. Don't mess with me!


And here's the 11 month pictures I took yesterday. As is becoming usual, Charlotte didn't want to cooperate. I wanted to get some of her standing, but she wasn't in the mood. Oh well. Maybe next month. And in case you're wondering, the adorable outfit she's wearing is something my mom made.