11 months

Hard to believe, huh?

This month Riley got two more top teeth, for a total of 6 (4 on top, 2 on bottom).  I don't really see signs of any more coming in anytime soon, thank goodness.  She took her first steps about 10 days after turning 10 months old (4 steps, to be exact).  A few days later, she got all the way up to 10 steps in a row.  Now she's still not a full time walker, but she's pretty darn close!  She walks all over the room, if we put her standing up she'll walk until she gets a little wobbly and falls down. She can also turn 180 degrees and walk the other way without falling down.  If she gets really excited, she even tries to run.  I'm betting you can guess how that ends...

She got her first taste of peanut butter this month, and loved it.  Her FAVE foods right now are still hummus and yogurt (not together).  The girl LOVES hummus.  She gets whole milk in a sippy cup with her meals, and she does alright with it.  Some days she seems to like it, some days she spits it out.  We're still just in the "getting used to the flavor" stage, so we're taking it slow.  I still nurse her in the morning and before bed, and 1-2 times during the day, depending on whether or not she's interested.  I'm not sure how long we're going to continue breastfeeding, but we'll save that little dilemma for another post.

She still is OBSESSED with books.  As in, on average, we read about ONE HUNDRED books a day.  Sometimes more.  I'm not exaggerating here.  She would sit and have me (or Mark) read to her all day long.  We have a big bin of books and we read them all multiple times throughout the day.  I can recite the words to like 20 different books by heart now.  And in addition to reading the books, her newest favorite thing to do is take every single book/toy out of the book/toy bin(s) and sprawl them all over the floor.  She's also getting better at playing independently, and will "read" her books to herself for a really long time.  She also loves exploring the house, and has found a few new favorite spots... the window by the front door, or pretty much any window as long as she can stand and look outside..

She's still goes to bed between 6:30 and 7, and wakes for the morning anytime between 5 and 6:30.  She still wakes up 1-2 times in the night.  She takes 2 naps a day around 8:30 and 1:30, and if I'm lucky they're both around an hour and a half.  She gets SO excited when we come into her room to get her that she goes flying across her crib and bounces up and down squealing.

She's signing "more" and "eat" like a champ, and I'm trying to teach her to sign "all done" rather than spit all her food out of her mouth.  Work in progress.  She says mama, dada, and when she's eating she says "yum yum yum."  She makes a bunch of other sounds but none of them seem to really mean anything to us quite yet.  We've eliminated her pacifier use during the day except for car rides, and it's going pretty well. She still gets it for naps and bedtime!

It's been really fun to kind of test out how much Riley knows these days.  If you ask her "where's _____?" she will look toward it or go and get it.  Words we know that she knows and recognizes: mama, dada, milk, book, duck, TV, Wiggles, computer, bouncer, remote, phone, bath, dog, eat/food, yogurt, cheese, shoe, ball, bath, and probably a whole bunch more.  She's learned to use a fork and loves to feed herself.  We're still working on the spoon...

Riley gives kisses, high fives, and waves on command.  If you tell her to bounce she'll bounce her whole body up and down.  If you say "bonk!" she'll bonk her head on whatever is close to her and laugh.  She LOVES being chased, and Mark will say "I'm gonna get you, 1...2....3...." and when he gets to 2 she takes off crawling like a madwoman.  She's figured out how to pull open drawers, which means nothing in our house is safe anymore!  She's perfecting the art of the tantrum, and will throw herself backwards and get all floppy like a fish if she doesn't get what she wants or if we take something away from her.

This month she's learned how to throw things.  She's also figured out if she smacks her high chair tray really hard, the puffs go flying up into the air on then fall on the floor.  Oh the fun we have at meal time.  She's wearing size 4 diapers, weighs 20 pounds exactly, and is in mostly 12 month clothes.  She can fit in some 9 month things, and some 18 month outfits.  I have no idea how tall she is, or what size shoe she wears since she won't keep socks or shoes on to save her life!

Can't believe there's only one month until she turns one!!