11 months

Oh goodness, the one year mark is quickly approaching. A few days ago baby Claire hit the eleven month mark, and she is super excited about getting bigger and faster every day. At least I assume she's super excited and that's why she isn't napping as long these days! Although eleven months isn't really one of the big ones, I'm not all that good about doing updates on here, so I thought I'd take a moment to capture what Claire is like right now.

Stats
Claire in currently about 28 inches long, weights 20 lbs. and has no teeth. At least her hair is finally starting to grow a little bit. It's still fairly thin, but it's getting longer. We also think her eye color has settled into a nice hazel, and everyone still says she looks just like her Papa.

edit: I started writing this post yesterday and since then there has been a major change. Claire has a tooth! I had stopped checking for them a few months ago and just figured she planned to wait until after her first birthday. Now the sleeping section maybe makes a little more sense. We noticed a tooth last night when we were at the AT&T store getting a new phone and she let out a big yawn. If some bad sleep was all she suffered with her first tooth I think we got off easy!

Personality

Claire seems to have conquered her stranger danger and once again loves everybody. She doesn't even cry at her Uncle Shane anymore! Its nice to have my happy baby girl back and while she still prefers momma and papa, she'll give anyone a try.

Claire is still pretty cuddly, especially during sleepy times like first thing in the morning and before bed, but she likes her alone time too. While she's happy to play with people, she likes to sit in her room and explore on her own. She's getting to be an independent little lady. Sometimes if we've been out and about a lot, or around people all day, she just likes to sit with her familiar things for a while and decompress. Sooner or latter though she comes crawling to find us and have family time again.

Sleep

Our night time routine has stayed the same since she moved into her own bed. She still generally wakes up and eats once a night. I feel like this should have stopped by now, but she goes right back to sleep afterwards and so do I so its not so bad. She has been wanting to go to bed more between 8:00-8:30 instead of 9:00, but like her wake up time, it varies from day to day. These days she wakes up any time between 6:30 and 9:00, but averages around 8:00 am.

Until recently, Claire had a wonderfully predictable nap routine. An hour and a half after she woke up she'd go down for a two hour nap, and again around 4:00 or 5:00 she'd take another two hour nap. She would also normally put herself down for these naps without a horrible amount of crying. Lately however, she only wants to take one hour naps, and when it comes to when she takes them, well, she says that's none of my business. In addition to them happening at random times, she also wants to be rocked to sleep now. I'm hoping now that the holidays are over we can get her back on a good routine.

Movin' and Goovin'

Claire has places to be! My little lady that for so long seemed only interested in crawling to the next toy is now scurrying from one room to another like its a race. A common sound in our house now is Claire's  hands loudly slapping against the hardwood as she crawls down the hall and onto the next room that needs to be explored. She has become particularly fond of the bathrooms because a toilet with the lid down is really just a big drum.

Claire is surfing a lot and has become much more confident on her feet. Even in pj's that don't have grip she now has no trouble walking around in them. She also does the tip toe dance a lot these days as she tries so hard to get the ever so pretty remotes off of our TV trays. Since Thanksgiving she has started standing independently, but I don't think she understands how that is a bonus over surfing or crawling so it hasn't progressed to trying to take unassisted steps yet.

Baby discovered stairs in the last month. She just crawled over to them and with all the confidence in the world decided they weren't that big of an obstacle. After a try or two she can now go up them like a pro. On Christmas she made it up a full flight of stairs (under Papa's watchful eye of course) like it was nothing. Just today she finally started to get the idea of going down backwards. I think it will still be a little bit before she fully grasps the down idea, but she's getting there.

As her new love of stairs demonstrates, Claire is really excited about climbing on things. I'm going to be doing some research over the next couple of days to see if there are any gymboree type classes in our area for her. A few days ago we caught her using her new found climbing skills to climb into the dishwasher!

Her Favorite Things

Claire is still madly in love with Yo' Gabba Gabba. If I'd let her she'd watch it happily for hours, and for those times when nothing seems to make her happy, DJ Lance Rock is always there to save the day. We've already started collecting decorations for her first birthday which will of course be Yo Gabba Gabba themed. She has also started to watch a few other shows, though not with as much enthusiasm as Yo Gabba Gabba. She is now also fond of Word World (which I have a terrible time saying) and a little Sesame Street.

Toy wise Claire is also still devoted to her Little People and the ancient Sesame Street play set that is so old it probably is made with lead paint. I'm also pretty sure its a choking hazard but unless Jeff has a sibling I was never told about they all seem to have survived it just fine. She got quite a few new goodies for Christmas so we'll see how those all shake out over the next few months. She seemed particularly interested in a Little People car she got. I swear we now have enough Little People in this house for Claire to form her own army.