ELEVEN

 

Miss Delilah Wren is 11 months old! Now that we’re one month out from the big one-year mark, I think I’m in a state of denial. On past monthly milestones I’ve felt more emotional but for some reason this one feels just, surreal. Like, can I really have an almost one-year-old? Scrolling through old baby photos the other day I couldn’t believe how different Delilah used to look, how much she has changed. She was so much smaller. Her face was so much rounder, her cheeks were so much chubbier, just a few short months ago. Her movements were slower and less refined. She was far less opinionated, ha! She’s become her own little person. I remember everything and yet it all feels like a blur. Those newborn days are especially foggy now. Well, writing that makes me a bit sad. I want to hold onto this special time — this first year with Delilah — longer, tighter. Have I made the most of every moment? I hope so. I guess I am emotional after all.

While there’s plenty for this mama to feel sappy about, there is also much to celebrate in this update! This past month was one full of growth and development for our little bird. And, as seems to be the case with maturing babies, it was also one full of fighting naps and bedtime. Apparently Delilah is too excited about all her new skills that she doesn’t want to waste any time sleeping. Truthfully, she is also still very attached to us (stranger danger is still a thing, and she’s still very shy) and Delilah doesn’t typically like being left alone, so she’ll do whatever she can to get Mama and Dada back in her room (throwing Wubba, pulling on the tapestry above her crib…). But let’s focus on the positives, shall we?

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New and notable this past month:

Stats: Delilah weighs about 18 lbs 8 oz. I wish I could note how long she is but that will have to wait until next month. But let's just say I think she’s going to be needing a new car seat sooner than later. Her feet dangle over the edge and touch the backseat of the car. Her head is as high as the side-impact-protection padding. Our string bean keeps getting longer and longer! In clothes she is still generally wearing 6-9 months but she’s starting to fit 9-12, especially her legs of course. The 6-9 month pants are capris now ;)

Baby girl is on the move more than ever! The biggest accomplishment this past month has to be that Delilah is finally, officially, crawling on hands and knees. She’s up off the ground, off her belly, and she’s getting faster every day. She occasionally slides back down onto her belly and returns to army crawling when she’s tired, but if I say “knees, baby, knees” she gets back up (she’s so smart!).

Ever since discovering how to pull up, Delilah loves to stand. It’s probably her other favorite thing to do, besides crawling, and she practices all the time. (She enjoys crawling into our laps and pulling up on us!) There was one day a few weeks ago where you could tell she was diligently working on figuring out how to sit down from standing, and after that day she was a pro! (Which made mama feel better, that baby wasn’t going to just topple over anymore. At least, not as frequently.) Delilah does some nice deep squats now; her little legs are getting so strong! She can bend down to pick up toys and she can twist her body while standing to take a toy. Our girl keeps her feet flat on the ground more than she goes on tip-toe now, but she is still finding her balance. Delilah wants (and tries unsuccessfully) to stand independently at times, but she hasn’t really started cruising yet. She has, however, shown more interest in climbing, especially at Gymboree where she likes to climb up and around the playroom’s structures. 

This past month we really focused on container play (in vs. out) and Delilah caught on fairly quickly. Now she loves putting toys and other items into various containers, such as balls into baskets. She loves taking things out too, but babies are basically born knowing how to do that! I read that babies learn how to undo things before they learn how to do them, and Delilah has proved that to be true. (Here’s hoping she’ll learn how to put all her board books back in the bookshelf soon.) Not long after understanding how to put things “in,” Delilah learned the meaning of “give.” A natural progression, to be sure, but one I didn’t necessarily set out to teach — it just happened. She wanted to put things "in" our hands. Now if I hold out my palm and ask her to give me something (or if I ask her to give a ball to another baby at Gymboree) she’ll often do it! Not always of course, but many times.

Can you tell Delilah likes balls? Something else that she learned how to do is play pass. This was another accidental discovery that started with us rolling a big ball to her. In her attempt to touch/grab it, she flicked it back toward us. This happened enough times that she found it amusing. Delilah noticed the pattern of going back and forth and began to do it on purpose. She even played pass with a younger baby at Gymboree! I asked Delilah to pass the other little girl the ball and she did it three times in a row. A smarty, this one.

An adorable milestone moment this month was Delilah learning to clap! Sometimes she claps in the correct context, like when I tell her “good job” or when someone else is clapping, and other times she just randomly claps for fun — or for reasons unbeknownst to anyone else but her. Say, when she's laying in her crib fighting sleep ;)

Delilah still really enjoys a good game of peekaboo and she finds it extra funny when she is the one doing the hiding. This happens a lot lately when being changed — she’ll grab her clothes and raise both arms to cover her face and then … PEEKABOO!

We’re still working on waving. Sometimes it seems like she is waving, but if so her wave consists of stretching out her arm with an open hand. When she does this, it is toward other people but often they are not looking in her direction.

Delilah continues to be, more often than not, quiet and observant, which I think is why she understands most of what we say to her. But no real babbling yet. Just lots of AAH!s (short and loud, many times directed at the dogs) and grunting (when excited or frustrated or just overwhelmed).

Our adventurous gourmand got her very own fork last week and gobbled up spaghetti squash with it. We still load her utensils for her but we have begun working on teaching her to “scoop” and “poke.” Delilah is ever closer to reaching the goal of "100 foods before one," with less than 10 new foods to try. Recent eats include pulled pork, mushrooms, papaya, and different kinds of cheese. The mushrooms were a surprising hit. Delilah specifically pushed the rest of her pasta aside to pick each morsel of mushroom out to eat. My baby loves baby bellas! :)

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This next month is probably going to fly by despite my best efforts to slow down time… but we can’t wait to see what our little lady learns next!