The Mountain Millers: Tracey Ann

Friday, January 2, 2015

Tracey Ann - 11 Months

Our precious baby girl is ELEVEN months old. In other words... nearly one year old. That's absolutely nuts to me. Nevertheless, she's 11 months old.

Weight:

Probably about 20 pounds... she's been enjoying lots of grown-up, solid foods this Christmas season. We haven't found a food yet that she flat out refuses to eat.

Length:

Probably a little longer than 27", which she was at her nine month check up. But sometimes she looks SOOOO tall.

Clothing size:

She wears 12 month clothes all the time -- some fit her better than others, and she hasn't outgrown any of her 12 month clothing yet... so 12 month clothing.

Eating:

She. Eats. Everything. In a really good way. She is not little piggy, but she eats anything we put in front of her... AND, this month for the first time, she wants to eat anything we're eating, even if its not in front of her. For the first time, she has begun to look at her food, and then try to grab my fork and guide it into her mouth (fast as lightning) because she looks my food looks better.

Sleeping:

She is such a little trooper. She has done so well with how we messed with her sleep pattern this month between Christmas parties, school concerts, and traveling all over tarnation. We have learned that she does her best sleeping and napping in her own room -- our bed is just too much fun. She sleeps for about eight hours at night before needing some milk, then for another few hours, and then takes a long morning nap and a shorter afternoon nap.

New Accomplishments:

Chattering like crazy!! This month has been the language month, and she just talks all the time.
She now imitates our vocal intonations, which is completely adorable. She copies our vocal inflections on words like "Really?", "All done", "Daddy", and "Yeah".
She is now officially signing words to us and letting us know what she wants. She signs "Milk", "More", "Food", and "All Done". Now, she pretty much copies my signs for "Food" and "All Done"... but she knows the meaning of "More" and "Milk" so she's using those signs all the time. It is so exciting to watch her beginning to communicate with us.
Climbing onto the door of the dishwasher -- this is what happens when Mama takes her eyes off Tracey Ann for a moment to watch an important college football game

This month she learned how to walk forward in her walker -- until this month, she's only walked backwards. Now she zooms around the house to follow us as we walk from room to room.
She started attending the nursery room at our church for the first time this month -- well, we switched churches, so now there actually is a nursery room where she has the option to attend. She has never stayed in the nursery for the entire service without Mama... but sometimes she makes it ten minutes before she notices I'm gone and starts crying. So, at our new church, Daddy says the sermons are really good. I haven't heard any yet because I am in the nursery room with Tracey Ann.
With time spent in the nursery for the first time has come the opportunity for prolonged interaction with peers of similar age, shape, and size. This is another reason I've spent church time in the nursery in order to try to teach Tracey Ann how to be a good friend. She mostly engages in parallel play with her peers, although she sometimes watches the older children, and she sometimes reaches out to touch them -- or they try to give her hugs.
This month she has mastered climbing up and down one step. Her Grandma and Grandpa Miller have one step to get into their family room, and Tracey Ann had a ball learning how to go up and down.

This month she has begun helping clean up her toys after bath time. As a part of her bath time routine, since she was about nine months old, I would gather up her toys and put them all in a storage container, and I would tell her what I was doing and ask for her help. I would then have her help me pull the plug to release the water from the tub, and then I would get her out of the tub. This month, when I tell her it's clean-up time, she has begun picking up one toy at a time and dropping them in the storage container.

She has begun walking while holding on to our fingers. She has walked holding on to furniture for awhile, but this month she holds on to our fingers, or just holds on with one hand. No independent steps yet, but she's getting closer.

She's begun standing independently for a few seconds at time... mostly by accident when she is holding two toys and doesn't have another hand to hold the coffee table, or when she stands up and then tries to sign "More" and can't hold on to the playpen and sign at the same time.
Unfortunately, we have noticed she had begun trying to disobey us a little bit this month. She knows she is not allowed to play with Lloyd's dog toys, and this month she would crawl over to Lloyd's toys, we would remind her that she is not allowed to play with Lloyd's toys... then she would keep eye contact with us, smile at us, and then try to pick up Lloyd's toy behind her back. Also, we are trying to teach her not to drop food on the floor for Lloyd -- he gets to clean her tray when she's done eating, she doesn't have to drop food for him. Sometimes she is really good about being obedient, and will literally hold her food off to the side of her tray, as though she's going to drop it, and then we will reminder her not to do that, and she will pull the food back and put it in her mouth. Well, sometimes she obeys, and sometimes she slips the food down to her side, and casually drops it off the side of her tray. She tries to be an obedient little girl... but sometimes its hard.
She fought off her first cold and fever this month and was such a little trooper, but it broke our hearts to see her under the weather.