48 Weeks

If she's 48 weeks, that means she is also 11 MONTHS (as of Sunday)! I can't believe she can possibly be that old already. That means birthday cake is just around the corner for her, as an e-mail from Baskin Robbins reminded me yesterday (the corruption begins at a very young age...) Long gone are her open-mouthed, tongue-out cheerful expressions the instant a camera appears. She has taken a more serious approach to these photo shoots and prefers to remain straight-faced.

Isla is getting so big. I won't repeat the obvious, but if you've been following my blog, you'll know that Isla went camping over the weekend. I couldn't believe how LONG she looked lying in her pack n' play as she slept. She's definitely outgrown 9 month pants but 9 month tops still fit.

Isla has figured out how to pull herself up on a few objects around the house that are closer to the ground. She particularly loves her toy baskets but also the basket of magazines which she likes dump out and page through by the window. She can pull herself to a standing position but can also "stand up" on her knees which she is doing a lot these days.

I love this age! She is just so curious. She wants to grab and pull and shake and talk to everything. I've noticed she can entertain herself for longer and longer periods of time now that she can move around and get the things that she wants.

She discovered our curtains this week. She crawls over to the sliding glass door and starts laughing. This is your clue that she wants you to pull the curtain around her and ask "Where's Isla?" She'll pull the curtain away and giggle and shriek. Then the process repeats. It's become a fun game.

Isla figured out another "new move" a couple nights ago. I call it the Fish Flop. When she gets really excited (or maybe scared?), she throws herself backwards and flops around like a fish. It was loads of fun when she was on our bed as this video illustrates but she seem rather shocked to find that it wasn't nearly as enjoyable when she did in on the hard floor yesterday.

I witnessed Isla's first real tantrum this week. It was over cheese, of course. I never did figure out what the big issue was but I'd given her a string cheese to gnaw on and next thing I knew, she was rubbing it all over her face and head and crumbling it in frustration. I figured she just needed help tearing it into smaller pieces (as she still as NO TEETH) but when I did this, she chucked the pieces into the grass and made a horribly defiant face. Ok, so that wasn't it. I gave her back the whole stick of cheese and she chucked this too. I tried the smaller pieces again but she was most displeased. Then she threw herself back and started crying and flailing her limbs and kicking the ground. I decided that was enough so I took the cheese away and told her that she "couldn't have it if she was going to behave like that." As I threw it in the trash, it occurred to me that I just tried to reason with an 11 month old...

Now that Isla is almost a year, we are trying to phase out bottles and instead teach Isla to drink out of a regular cup without a sippy top. It actually is going much better than you might imagine although she usually creates Lake High Chair at some point during the meal. For the most part though she can grip the cup and tip it back appropriately to get sips of water. It's the getting it to and from the tray that is the challenge.

I'm also working to teach Isla to use her spoon all by herself. We haven't been too successful just yet as this video illustrates. Enjoy!

Until next week...