11 months! How can we be here already?! It is so bitter sweet. You are such a fun, sweet baby. It is so fun to watch you learn new things. But honestly, could we just extend your babyhood five more years please? We all just adore you. And we still will adore you when you grow older. There is just something magical about babies.
This is a happy face. We probably recruited Miriam to help make you smile. You love it when Miriam plays "splatt" with you. She pretends to hit herself with a stuffed animal and yells splatt. Highly entertaining.
This is one of my favorite pictures ever. Too precious for words.
Little angel.
Your smile makes my heart sing.
Showing off one of your tricks. "Clap, clap." You also can shake your head and nod your head. It is so adorable. You have also learned to do "Hands up!" which is about as cute as could be because you put your eyebrows up when you stretch your short little arms up.
Oh that cute mouth! You love using your mouth in all kinds of new ways. For example yelling. You like to yell at us when you want attention. This is particularly true if we are all talking or I am listening to something. "Mommy, I hear a lot of noise and I want to join in on the fun." "Mommy, look at me!" "Mommy, pick me up!" These are things I imagine you are saying with your squeal-yells.
Another time you like to yell is when you're unhappy. We noticed this month that you don't like it when Mommy or Ellie holds anyone else. This includes giving hugs to people. It was so funny one day, you were playing on the family room floor. Daddy and I were in the kitchen chatting and giving each other a hug, when we hear you start doing a squeal yell. We turned and you were crawling towards us clearly expressing that you were displeased with the situation. You calmed right down as soon as I started holding you and not Daddy.
We've noticed you have the same reaction when Ellie holds someone too. Nope, not okay, says you. You get jealous when she holds/hugs someone else. It's pretty adorable.
Let's see, other mouth things. You are eating more and more solid food. Right before your birthday when you turned 12 months, we gave you a little bit of cherry. You loved it!! We have also tried watermelon and blueberry for sure. Probably other fruits. You love the sweetness. You also eat other food really well too. Cucumbers and cheerios are hands down your favorite. You also like lettuce, tomato, almond butter, corn, beans, and anything with flavor!
You have also found other foods you don't like as well. I swear it is more of a texture things than anything else. You have discovered that you can pull food out of your mouth after I put it in. Which is funny because you don't hesitate to accept a bite, but then you might just reach up to pull it right out. You still don't love avocado (c'mon Darcy, just give in on that one!). You have also pulled out celery, cabbage, cheese, and bread. I am surprised that you don't seem to love cheese and bread. What kiddo doesn't like cheese and bread?
You have hit another new phase with nursing too. You really, really prefer to nurse on the left side. So much so that I when I nurse you I have to start on the right side and then switch to the left, or you aren't hungry enough to be interested in nursing on the right side after you have nursed for a bit on your left. I wouldn't think there would be that big of a difference, but you sure seem to think there is.
To be fair, you have come up with a new nursing position that you seem to love. When you are sitting on my lap facing me (with a leg going each direction around my waist) you tend to dive forward and latch on and just start nursing sitting up. It is the funniest thing, and we all love to see you do it.
Another reason you love to hang out in that position is you love to play with my squishy belly. It is soft and squishy and you like to sink your fingers into my extra skin down there. You'd think that it would make me self conscious about how squishy my tummy is but honestly it just makes me like it more. You are judging me, you just like it. And I love that I have that extra skin there because of you and your sisters. Having you four is by far the coolest thing that my body has ever done and it is only right that there should be some sign of that on my person. So if that mean extra skin and stretch marks on my belly so be it. And all the better that my baby is delighting in it.
As much as you like my belly though, you definitely picked a favorite for a few weeks this month and it wasn't me. Eliza was your top pick for a while there. She of course just relished your favoritism. And I can't blame her. When she is holding you and someone else reaches for you, you tend to kind of bat their hands away. And if they are holding you and she come close, you kind of dive for her. It's pretty sweet.
Oh that crawling. You started crawling right at the beginning of this month. Wowee, that sure changed our lives. Unfortunately we still haven't babyproofed everything like we should have. Although we have made progress. The cheese plate glass lid bit the dust when you pulled on it. In all fairness, we had left it on the open shelving in the kitchen and Holland had draped a homemade necklace over the top of it. You crawled over to it and one good yank was all it took on that necklace. It sure made a huge glass mess, but thankfully no one was really hurt although your hand bled just a tiny bit.
How much do you love books? A LOT!
Once you started crawling though I couldn't believe how fast you became adept at it. You went from the living room to the family room like it was no problem at all. Thankfully you have ignored the stairs so far. You have discovered all kinds of interesting things to crawl towards, with your favorite things being the shoes/flip flops left on the floor. We're all a lot better at putting our shoes away than we were a couple of weeks ago.
You also like crawling and finding the glass door track (we wash your hands after you play with that one). You love it when you find an occasional dropped cheerio (although you haven't quite figured out putting it in your mouth yet). One night you were crawling the kitchen and you totally spazzed out for no apparent reason. We watched you crawl over to the dishwasher and reach under the edge of it and pull out a cheerio. You were so happy with your discovery. (Don't worry we didn't let you eat that one. That's when it comes in handy that you haven't figured out feeding yourself.)
You were also pretty excited one day when you found the printer on the shelf of the desk (we have way too much open shelving down low). I had to use swift action to distract you from that one and you haven't made your way back there again (yet). Of course the things that are easy to keep you out of we are getting better doing. Like closing the doors to the shoe closet, bathroom, pantry, those are Darcy magnets for sure.
You also love crawling to follow people around. It's adorable.
One of the funniest things about you crawling is that a couple of weeks into you crawling, you occasionally started doing the wonkiest crawl. You pike up on your toes or in a plank position. Then you kick your right foot out and still have your left knee pulled in normal. You do still move forward, but you like to straighten your legs weirdly while you go. I wonder if it is because the ground is hard and your knees are feeling tender, but it is like you don't want your knees on the floor.
You love, LOVE being read to. All the baby books. You sometimes want to turn the pages yourself. It is pretty rare that you get too impatient to listen to the whole book. If you don't grow up loving to read books like your sisters, I will be quite surprised.
You still love being in the carrier with mama, but we don't get as many chances to walk/hike as the weather has turned hot, hot, hot.
Twinners. Sometimes I wonder if you'll end up looking the most like Miriam because it looks like your eyes are turning brown like hers. Also, which way is your hair going to swing redish blond or redish brown?? We can't tell!
In case you can't tell from this picture, but you LOVE baths! You shriek and squeal and splash and thrash. It is highly amusing. It looks like you are trying to make snow angels but with water. You legs and arms just don't stop agoing in there.
Happy, happy baby.
That jaw jutting out showing off those two teeth is your signature look right now. :)
Oh, I caught you sucking on your toes! You just do it every once in a while and we all think it is pretty funny. Such a flexible girl.
Just crawling all over the place. It is not my favorite when you play with the dirty door tract. But look what else you found...beads!
We were also horrified/amused when we looked over at you playing at this door and saw you trying to crawl through it and lick it. Nope, no licking doors.
Road trip to Sedona with Grandma and Grandpa
I love your cheeks and lips when you sleep.
As much as you love the bath, you HATE the pool. This was surprising because our pool is as warm as a bath. The kids kept the water all calm, but you didn't care for it one bit. You cried and cried until I took you out in just a minute.
Honestly, how cute are you? You're so cute it kills me.
A friend gave us a baby chair that hangs on the side of the table. We love it, especially because it has enabled us to put off getting out the huge high chair.
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