Isla is 11 months old!

Dear Diary,
Monkey is 11 months old today!!!
I can't believe next month she'll be 1 already. WOW!

The big discovery this past month has been GRAVITY. She throws her toys out of the pack'n'play and her crib and watches them fall to the ground. It's annoying for us because we have to pick them up but to her it's a game. After a while we stop giving her toys back and she knows the fun has stopped.

Napping has also been a BIG challenge. Lately, she is so tired but won't sleep during the day. I've started putting her to bed earlier in the morning by 10 and sometimes she sleeps (on Tuesday she slept 1.5 hours!) other days, nothing. This past week has been a huge improvement and she's napping at least an hour each day. She'll even sleep a half hour in the afternoon which makes getting to 7 p.m. a wee bit less stressful for both of us.

Very courageously she is walking around the furniture but there has been no signs of walking yet which suits me fine. I love to watch her crawl, she's so cute!
Another big change this month is her weight. She's heavy! She's not big or fat but she is one solidly built little girl. Trust me, she may be small but she will not blow over in the wind either! I really got to get her on the scales this month.
OK, this month the experts say we can expect the following:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Milestones this month*
Your baby now walks while holding onto furniture. ~ she cruises the little furniture we do have!
He uses the “pincer grasp” to pick up tiny objects between his thumb and forefinger. ~ no problem, she loves to feed herself but still allows us to feed her too so mealtime is not too messy.
Baby can stand alone.
He drinks from a cup while wearing a
baby bib. ~she's been doing this for a while but she hasn't figured out she can do it sitting up if she tilts her head back. Right now, she lies down.
Baby says “mama” and dada.” ~ dada ALL THE TIME although occasionally we hear "ma" .. it's progress!
He says a few other one-syllable words (like “hi”). ~ she does try to repeat what we say to her like "hi" ~ she can say "uh-oh" but she's a big grunter!
Baby communicates his wants with gestures and words instead of cries. ~ she makes a smacking noise with her lips when she's hungry or watching us eat!
He talks in conversational gibberish. ~ she's chatty especially as she looks outside or sees the cats!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She's at such a cute age! She is so much fun and she is such a happy, healthy girl. We are truly blessed with her!

I think in the coming month she'll be standing by herself but probably not walking yet. I'm sure she'll surprise us with something new we didn't expect, she always does!