11 Months Old

Chesney you are 11 months old! That means I only have one month left of my little girl being less than 1. You are in such a fun stage right now, and I can't get enough of you!

(Good thing you are almost one because these crib photos have now changed to a standing pose...or the picture would be of your back as you try to crawl to the edge to pull yourself up.)

Here is what you are up to at 11 months:

• Weight: around 20.5 pounds
  
• Length: 30 inches
  
• Clothes: You are wearing 6-12 months clothes.
• Shoes: You wear a size 2 or 3 shoe (12-18 month shoes). You wear shoes now! I'm so happy and to celebrate I bought you at least 6 pairs of shoes in the past month. Almost all which you need to grow in to but still so fun!
• Diapers: Size 4 Pampers and cloth diapers when we are home
• Food: You have no issues with eating. Your favorite foods right now are raspberries, steam broccoli and carrots, steam beans, quesadillas, yogurt, and cottage cheese. But you like pretty much everything...except bananas. I don't understand that because most kids like them, but you like other fruits so that's ok. You are starting to eat a lot of the foods we eat and have pureed food on a limited basis. You still have applesauce with cereal and milk every morning. You nurse in the morning and before bed and use a cup the rest of the day! No more bottles!
• Development: You move so fast now; you've definitely mastered crawling. You can crawl on top of some stuff too. You like to pretended to comb your hair. In the car you babble like you are singing along with the music.
• Words: You can now say 2 words, Bye bye and da-da. You know to wave when we say hi or bye.  
• Sleep: You have kept the same sleeping schedule for so long now that it is just routine. You go to bed at about 7:30 every night and wake up between 6:15 and 6:45 am. You take a 1 to 2 hour nap in the morning and a 45 minute to one hour nap in the afternoon. You wake up standing in your crib now. We always read three books before bed and you love to point and babble like you are reading along.
• Teeth: Three teeth came in this month, your lower right central incisor and both upper central incisors.
  
• What I love about you: You are one amazing little girl. I don't know what our life would be like without you because it is so amazing having you to snuggle every day. You love to give kisses and it melts my heart every time you crawl over and give me a kiss. One of our favorite things is when you sit, kneel, or stand and laugh and bounce. Your giggle is the sweetest sound.

Chesney we can't tell you enough how much we love you, but you are one precious gift! I can not believe that last year at this time I was thinking about how soon we would meet and now you are the first person I talk to everyday. We just love, loving you!

Chesney's 2nd Word

Chesney has been saying da-da for some time now, but is was all random babbling. Today she finally connected da-da with daddy. Sometimes when she hears me say daddy she will say da-da. And if you ask her who daddy is, she will point to her daddy.

I think she learned it just in time because daddy is taking care of her on Friday so she can put it to good use bossing him around.

My Best Friends

Chesney's three best friends:

Her snugglie elephant

Milo

She likes to look under the bed for him (that's where he usually hides when he is trying to get away from her...which is pretty much all of the time!)

And Herself

She loves to give herself kisses in the mirror! So cute!!

Chesney's 4th tooth

Chesney's 4th tooth finally popped through; her upper left central incisor. She now has a total of four teeth. As soon at those top teeth grow in some she is going to look like a different girl.

A Good Nap

Do you know the sign of a good nap?

CRAZY HAIR!

A Little Help Here...

Now that Chesney can crawl fast and climb almost everything, she has become quite a helper. Any time we open the dishwasher she crawls over and jumps on the help out. This is her helping me empty the dishwasher last weekend. And she is so proud of herself when she does it! I may have to pull these pictures out in the future to remind her how much she liked helping.

Bubble Bath

Tonight Chesney took her first bubble bath. And she loved it! She is such a routine girl that every bath night the second I set her in the water she points up at her toys which are on the grab bar. Well when I put her in the bubble bath, she just stopped and put her hands in the bubbles. She played in the bubbles for at least 5 minutes before pointing at her toys.

I know you can't tell from the pictures, but she really does love bath time ; )

And these are her toys. Her favorite is the turtle (she loves to chew on him). You can use the turtle as a squirt toy. So sometimes it is full of water, and when she bites his head, he skirts water in her face. She thinks that is the funniest thing!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day from our special little Valentine!

With lots of love!

Happy Friday

We have had a pretty low key house lately. Chuck and I are fighting colds, and Chesney is just hanging in there. No cold for her yet (fingers crossed).

Chesney took a field trip to the post office today with Grandpa. Apparently someone was using the tape which scared Chesney. She started crying and was crying so hard some lady had to come from the back of the post office to see what was going on. I can only imagine how embarrassed I would have been. Poor grandpa! I guess tears from being scared by tape are far better than a melt down for a toy (which I'm likely to experience in the future).
I'm looking forward to this weekend as we have nothing on our schedule. No plans, no must-dos; just an open weekend. Sometimes these are just the best weekends to have!

Chesney's 3rd Tooth

Chesney's third tooth popped through today; her right upper central incisor. The left one is about to come through too. If you look close at the picture below, you can see the top tooth.

All this girl wants for Valentine's Day is her two front teeth.

Chesney's 1st Word

Tonight Chesney said her first word (or I guess phrase). She said "bye-bye". She has a book that says "bye-bye" when you close it, and she would say it nearly every time we closed the book tonight. She is trying so hard to say words, so I don't think it will be too long before she adds to her vocabulary.

My Helper

Chesney loves to do almost anything I do. She will follow me all over the place and try to pull herself up to see what is going on. Today was laundry day and she was ready to help. If you look closely, you can see that the washer is full of pink clothes...all Chesney's laundry. That is probably part of the reason she kept a close eye on things.
One of her favorite things to do is pull the clean laundry out of the basket and throw it on the floor while we are folding it. She laughs and talks the who time she is doing it. Usually we just keep throwing stuff back in the basket, and she doesn't even notice. She just keeps throwing it out.
Thankfully, Chesney's fever has gone away. I'm still not completely sure what caused it, but I can see two top teeth coming in (not poking through yet though). Today she was her normal self again. But she seems to really be biting on her blankets and toys. It makes me sad to think of her with two front teeth. I'm pretty sure she is going to look so much older.

We spent part of the day making stuff for her first birthday party. How in the world did she get this old so fast?!? I'm not excited for her to grow so fast, but I am having fun making stuff for her party.

Super Sunday

Today is a big day...it is Super Bowl Sunday and best of all, the Packers are playing today. It just doesn't get better than this for a Sunday of football.

I decided to throw a shirt together for her to wear today to support her team.

My little Packer Backer!

We are definitely hoping for a win tonight. Go Packers!

UPDATE:
The Packers are the Super Bowl Champs!!! What a fun game to watch, and Chesney's first Super Bowl memory is a Packer win! Chesney watched the first half before heading to bed at halftime (and I use the term watched very loosely).

On another note, Chesney spiked a 102.7 degree temp after her nap (right before we left to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house to watch the game). She seemed a little sluggish but was playing fine. She has no cold symptoms, and I checked her ears, and she has no ear infection. She does have a top tooth that is on the verge of popping through which may or may not be the cause.

Chesney did have a rough night; she woke up crying with another near 103 degree temp. I decided to sleep with her in the spare bedroom so we could snuggle all night. Neither of us got a whole lot of sleep but she definitely got more than me. I'm praying today is a better day for her. There is nothing worse than a sick peanut.

The Boss

Today I finally had to go back to work. I think the days actually go faster when I am at work, but that is because it is crazy busy there. Chesney was back at Grandma and Grandpa's today while I was at work.

She is really starting to figure out how to get what she wants. She has figured out that pointing at something will usually help you get what you want.
For the past 2 days she only wants to ride on her little zebra scooter (and with the seat up in the air...how it is normally used for walking). She will point at it or crawl to and whimper if you don't help her on it. Once she gets on it, she giggles and bounces.
Well today she pulled the same stunts at Grandma and Grandpa's. They have a singing plush cow that she loves. It sings "Don't Worry, Be Happy." Chesney loves to dance to the music. The second I took her out of the car seat today, she pointed at the cow. After she listened to the music, we took her in the kitchen to eat breakfast, and she arched her back and cried. She wanted to play with the cow more, so that's what they did. I left at that point, but when I am to pick her up, they said she found the butterfly stroller in the bedroom and pointed at it today. So Grandma gave her a ride. They took her out to feed her supper, and she only ate half her meal before she pointed to the stroller again. So she had to sit in the stroller to finish her supper. SPOILED! You tell me who the boss is?!? I'm afraid she might get kicked out of daycare if she keeps up this attitude.
Really, I'm just amazed that she picked up on that so quickly. It boggles my mind how she was a helpless baby not all that long ago, and now she knows what she wants. I do love seeing that tiny hand point though.

My Cutie

Today was a pretty blah day. I have a bad cold (probably the worst cold I have ever had). My only goal today is to try not to give this cold to Chesney! I miss kissing those squishy little cheeks, but I would hate to see her sick! I stayed in my PJs all day but Chesney found some pink.

Yup, I think I'm going to have a little girl with a big personality.

We are working on taking away Chesney's afternoon bottle. She hasn't had an afternoon bottle for the past 3 days. She nurses in the morning when she wakes up, and then has a bottle at bedtime. We are giving her a morning and afternoon snack now with lots of milk in a cup throughout the day. She seems to be doing ok with it. The bedtime bottle is going to be a battle though. I'm waiting a while for that battle.
We are having fun just playing around the house. It's too cold to go outside again today, but warmer weather is ahead (two months ahead but non-the-less ahead :)).