11 Months Old!!!

I can't believe that Quinn is 11 months old already.  It feels like just yesterday that we were bringing her home from the hospital.  We've definitely been blessed as she is such a great baby with a wonderful personality.  She's still sleeping very well, even with the teething!  We've only had 1 night that wasn't so great, so fingers crossed that it continues.  Quinn's also very social.  She loves to sit in the shopping carts where she can see everyone and then bask in all of the "she's so cute!" compliments.  She's big on waving to everyone too so that they look at her...I think that we'll have our hands full with our little charmer!

What fun Quinn has been having with food!  I'm starting to relax a bit more with what I'm feeding her and starting to feed her some of our food as opposed to the semi-bland (spice-wise) food that I've been making - think plain pasta, plain steamed veggies, etc.  That being said, Quinn has tried (and loved!) shepherd's pie, zucchini quiche, and spaghetti with meat sauce.  I was definitely glad to get her to eat the quiche since she doesn't seem to like the consistency of  scrambled or fried eggs and I wanted to ensure that she wasn't allergic.

Spaghetti face!!!

Quinn also cut another tooth last week!  So now she has both on the bottom and the top two are definitely not far behind - I can see the whites through her gums.  Her little toothy smile is just too sweet!

As far as crawling goes, she's still doing her funny belly flop to get around.  Sometimes she'll do a couple of moves forward in a "normal crawl", but then it's back to the belly.  She can really move, so I guess that she's just efficient!

Falling asleep at Strollercise

Big girl eating out of her new bowls!

Teeny Tiny Peanut

OK...now what is the latest to report?  First of all, we've made the decision that I am going to be a stay-at-home-mom for the next few years!!!  HUGE decision and we're so happy with it!  I absolutely love being a mom and am lucky enough to have the opportunity to do this!  Plus, later on when I decide to return to active practice, I have a career path that allows me some flexibility (i.e. I could work from home if I chose).

Enough about me...on to Quinn!  Last month we had gone to the doctor for her 9 month check-up and she had dropped off of her weight curve, so our doctor said to come back in a month to re-weigh her and see if she has bumped back up or stay on the new curve.  Turns out that she has decided to change curves, which is completely normal at this age.  Quinn's head circumference and length have stayed on their curves (75th and 50th, respectively), and her weight is now following the 10th percentile - she weighs a whopping 16 lbs 8 oz!!!  It's funny that she's so slight seeing how the kidlet eats like a piglet!

Quinn's also walking around furniture now.  She hasn't yet stood on her own yet, but you can definitely see the wheels turning!  She's also mimicking what we say...it's usually either "mama" or "nana" and the occasional "dada".  We haven't counted any of them as her first words yet...but it's coming! :)

Finally making progress with a sippy cup

Eating out of a bowl...new work in progress

Loves pesto sauce!

Loves blueberries even more

But it looks like raspberries might be the new favourite

Quinn vs. Avocado

So I'm not a big fan of avocado...but usually Quinn is.  It's been a great fruit to have around since she started eating solids - I used to just scoop it out with a spoon to feed it to her.  The other day, I cut one up in chunks and she fed herself and she ate the entire thing!  This made me happy that I had bought 2, although it made a giant mess all over Q, her high chair, and the floor (I made sure to strip her down to her diaper beforehand)...she definitely needed a bath afterward!

Tonight being bath night, I decided to let Quinn at the second avocado.  And she HATED it!  She kept spitting the chunks out.  I thought to trick her by putting the chunks in her mesh feeder, and that worked for a little bit, but then she wised up.  Eventually I just gave up because I had had enough of catching the chunks that she kept purposefully dropping on the floor.

Here are the pictorial evidence of tonight's conquest by Quinn:

My little Shrek-face

Floor destruction

The many attempts to get Q to eat avocado - spoon, cut up with a knife, mesh feeders

First Tooth

It finally happened...yesterday as we were talking to my parents on Skype, I noticed something in Miss Q's mouth.  At first I thought that maybe it was a spit bubble on her gums as she was talking up a storm, but then I realized that her gums had opened and there was a little tooth poking its head out!  Then on further inspection (i.e. running my thumb over her gums) I felt the edge.  Wow!!!  She was definitely a late bloomer in the tooth department, as this tooth made its appearance at 10 months and 4 days old.

Other than that, Q's been motoring around like nobody's business.  She's still doing the funny swim/crawl thing, but it's very efficient and probably gets her around faster than if she crawled the old fashioned way.  She's also very good at pulling herself to standing on anything - coffee tables, her play table (her favourite toy at the moment), someone's legs - and much prefers to be standing anyway.  We've installed a baby gate on the main floor to keep her away from the stairs and are probably going to gate off the other stair access points this weekend.  Yesterday she decided to crawl up a couple of stairs after the cat...so it's time to rope that off!

Food-wise things are getting quite fun - Quinn's eating with her hands now, so everything is a new experience.  Sometimes I'll throw in the odd puree or cereal, but mostly her meals have consisted of finger foods.  She's a big fan of toast fingers and cheese bits!