Bella's 11 month Update!!

Look what Bella can do!!
Over the last couple of weeks Bella has started standing on her own constantly. And what a proud little thing she is. Almost always, she will clap her hands in glee....after the initial look of amazement. We have so enjoyed watching her achieving these milestones and have all loved trying to guess when the next one will occur. It is really hard to believe that she will be 1 year old next month!!

Here is her 11 month update~

Weight this month~ 19 pounds even!!

Feedings~ Bella is drinking approx 4-5 ounces of breastmilk every 4 hours. She is eating 3 meals a day and a snack in the morning and afternoon. Some of her favorites this month are mashed potatoes, pancakes, cheerios, and cheese puffs. Over the next couple of weeks I will be starting to add some whole milk to breastmilk in a sippy cup in an attempt to start the intro to big girl milk. I'm praying her determined nature will not interfere with this weaning process:)



~Bella's 1st Father's Day~




Sleep~ Oh boy, this is a fun one. Over the last 6 weeks Bella's sleeping pattern has degressed to waking every 2 hours. I think the initial culprit was her very first tooth coming in and her waking in pain. Gradually she became used to waking and us coming in to comfort her and there started the bad habit. But the past 3 nights Bella has slept from 7pm until 6am! I was a little hesitant to start the crying out techinique at her age but thanks to some much appreciated advice from Tara, after one night of letting her cry in small increasing increments, she relearned to soothe herself and did wonderfully that night as well as the last two nights since. It is SO nice to have mommy friends that you can trust to help you through the trials of parenting when you are too tired to think for yourself!:) Thank you so much Tara for your help!!

Play~ Bella loves to play in her play area in the livingroom. She is still emptying the toy box but is now climbing in and playing inside it. She loves to look out the window, look at books and climb on anything and everything. As evidenced by the picture of her trying to escape her play corral below....

Development~ Bella talks/babble constantly and can say Mama, Dada, byebye, and a word that sounds sorta like Hay-ee. I first noticed her copying me when I was calling Hailey from upstairs. I was calling "Hailey" and Bella was repeating "Hay-eeee". She has said it several times since but I'm not sure she correlates it to Hailey yet. She also understands the word "no" and will often look at us before touching something she shouldn't. She plays patty-cake and peek-a-boo and loves to drop things and watch us pick them up! She picks up absolutely anything and puts it in her mouth. Keeping small object off the floor is top priority this month. Biggest worry...Barbie accessories!

~Favorite things to do this month~ Stand alone, climb, eat finger foods, give eskimo kisses, and of course, playing with her sissies!!

Here is a video of Bella standing all by herself!~

We love you Bellabee and can't wait to celebrate your 1st birthday next month!!