Eleven Months and Counting

In a mere 2 1/2 weeks you will be 1 year old, Socha.  And you're a lucky little girl because your Nana will be visiting for your birthday - she was here when you were born, and she'll get to share your first birthday with you!  We haven't planned any sort of birthday party for you.  I hope you won't hold that against us in the future, but I feel that a 1-year-birthday party is mainly for the parents, not for the birthday girl, and I don't think a party is necessary for us.  Maybe we'll let you have some cake though, even though we haven't yet given you anything with cane sugar or high-fructose corn syrup in it yet (unless the children's tylenol counts?).  If you're anything like your Dad and I, you will love sweet stuff, and especially chocolate.  We could be treading thin ice by offering you something sweet and tasty on your birthday.  We will have to think about that...

Meanwhile, here is your 11-month slide show:

There have been several things of note happening in the last couple of weeks.  First is that your sleep has improved a great deal.  Lori has been able to get you to take two naps a day during the week - and she says that you go down fairly easily.  I have not been as successful with 2 naps on the weekends, but we figure you are just to excited to be spending the day with Mom and Dad to be willing to go to bed twice during the day!  But the best news is that you have slept through the night on 15 of the last 19 nights (yes, I'm counting!)!  And when I say "slept through the night", I mean you have not woken up needing to be fed for 10 hours or more during those nights!  Hallelujah!  It was actually rather sudden how you went from needing a nighttime feeding to not - literally one day to the next.  Of course, your parents have gotten used to sleeping all night again, so those rare days when you do wake up make the nights seem much longer.  Amazing how our bodies can get used to sleep again and how awful it is to have that sleep taken away the second (or third or fourth, etc.) time.  We are so happy that you're sleeping well both night and day and that you're eating well and you seem to be growing in leaps and bounds (I guess all that sleep helps in that arena).  Of course, we're leaving for Spring Break in 6 days and will inflict jeg lag on you again.  Hopefully after this trip you will recover your equilibrium quickly.  Or even better, hopefully you will simply keep sleeping well even though your routine is going to be thrown completely out of whack. 

Sleeping soundly even after the shades were open to let in the morning light.

Speaking of eating, you lost your appetite a while back.  We think it was the teething.  But you seem to have found it again and are eating voraciously at every meal.  We've started trying some thicker more textured foods.  The newest batch was not an immediate success.  You actually gagged and spit it all out.  But we're trying to convince you that you can chew and that will help the food go down better.  We've introduced some meats into your diet: chicken and turkey.  You've also had wheat, pasta, onions, butter (mixed in with the chicken and pasta), celeriac juice (ditto), and cinnamon. I think next we might try cottage cheese. Or something with more flavor such as garlic or peppers. 

We dressed you up as a martenitsa for the first of March.  I believe we will always celebrate the first of March as the Bulgarians do - Baba Marta is one of my favorite holidays now!

Chestita Baba Marta!

Well, I was wrong about you walking by your 11-month birthday.  You still aren't officially walking, though you regularly take several steps.  And last Wednesday (February 27th) you took 11 steps.  We think you just don't feel the need to walk yet.  But you are definitely making attempts more often in the last couple of days.  Maybe you'll start walking more often when you figure out that you can move with your toys in your hands that way.  Or maybe you'll start walking when we are visiting friends in France or Bulgaria.  That would be quite a milestone!

No paparazzi!

Cruising along the kitchen cabinets.