11 months down, 1 to go

On February 9th, Alayna turned 11 months old. And like the past months, she has advanced so much.

Alayna is becoming a better eater everyday. She really likes to feed herself, so we rarely eat purees anymore. She loves her finger foods. She likes to eat goldfish, graham crackers, cereal bars, waffles, bananas, peaches and so much more. She is eating the "big kid" food at daycare almost every day now, yesterday was Meatballs, rice and peaches! I am hoping as she likes to eat more and more, she will start to gain some more weight. We had her in to the doctor early this week (b/c of a cold) and she was 16.6 lbs, which was only 3 oz heavier than her 9 month appt. I am a little concerned but the doctor didn't mention it. We will, I am sure discuss it at her year appt. in a few weeks.

Lots of great new things have happened in the past month. The Packers not only won the NFC Championship, but also the Super Bowl!! Here is our Packer princess at the NFL Experience.

Alayna is starting to point at things when she wants them. She will point towards her formula for a bottle or a toy she wants to play with. It sometimes leads to guessing games as to what she really wants when she just points in a general direction. But, it is helping us to meet her needs a little better. Alayna also says "dada" and "ma," "da" (for dog) I think we will officially say "dada" is her first word because she will say that to Derek when he walks into a room. She will say "ma" or "mamamama" too, but usually only when she is upset and needs something. She knows it will be her mama to get it for her or to snuggle her and make things better. She is a definite daddy's girl already though. Her face just lights up when Derek walks into a room and she gets so excited. It is really cute.

Alayna is also getting definitely, one, maybe two new teeth. Her bottom lower tooth next to her canine (towards the back) is popping through on her right side and it looks like the same tooth might be appearing on the left. I swear she has been teething for 7 months straight now. Poor girl.

Now for the bad. :-( What we thought was a slight cold and clinginess due to teething turned into Alayna's first real illness. The last week in January, she started to get a running nose and cough and wanted to be held ALL the time and carried everywhere. We chalked it up to teething, but after 7 days of it not clearing up we took her into the doctor. We found out that the cold was really RSV and she also had her first ear infection. I felt so bad. She didn't seem to be that sick and here my poor little girl was in pain. It explains now why she went from sleeping 7:30-5am to getting up atall hours of the night, her poor ear hurt her. So, now she is on antibiotics and ear drops. Let me tell you, giving her antibiotics is a treat. She HATES it. We are suppose to give her 4ml twice a day and with her crying, spitting and throwing a fit I think she MAYBE is getting 2ml of that actually swallowed down her throat. Every outfit this week has slight pink stains on the

m from the bubble gum smelling medicine. Thankfully the ear drops we can squirt in her ear when she is already asleep so we don't have to fight that battle too. Alayna has also learned how to throw tantrums. I really thought this little girl would be her sweet self forever, but I was dead wrong. She is becoming a toddler in every which way. When we take away a toy or something she wants, watch out. She arches her back and throws her head backward. There have been some close calls with the coffee table and hard floor that thankfully Derek or I were there to catch her throwing herself. But, she has hit her head on the changing table rail after I took away her hair brush. My little diva. Here is her in the middle of a meltdown because we told her no more goldfish crackers.

Well that is the excitement from the past month. Here are a few more pictures from the past month. I can't believe that the next update will be Alayna's 1 YEAR update!! I can hardly believe it. Though, if she walks before that, that will warrant a separate blog. Hopefully any day now, but I feel like I have been saying that since November, so when she is ready she will take that step

Being silly, playing with her squares from her play mat

Standing over by daddy's bowling balls. He was at league and she crawled over and started saying "dada"

Eating lunch at the Packer Tailgate/Pep Rally at J. Gilligan's in Arlington

I think the game stressed her out a bit. She's looking a little disheveled. :-)