10 - 11 Months

I haven't written many posts in the last few months since we've been busy-busy-busy with work and life and all things Natalie. Despite my lack of posts, she's been growing up dramatically and reaching all kinds of milestones. She now walks while holding on to our fingers, and this has seemed to be all she's wanted to do for the last week or so. Most of the time there's no goal in sight - no object that she's trying to get to - she just wants to move. Jeremy "runs" with her and she gets so cracked up that she eventually collapses onto the floor before picking herself back up for more.

On October 8th while we were in Blue Ridge, GA for the weekend, she said the word "dog". Jeremy and I both heard it and looked at each other in disbelief, but then she said it again: "dog". She was looking at Jim and Chris's dog, Lucy. Apparently she doesn't think of Milly as a dog ;-). About a week went by before we heard her say it again. I had bought a painting of four dogs and hung it in our bedroom, and later when I was walking by the room with Natalie, she craned her neck trying to see the painting. I stopped and went into the room so she could see it, and she unmistakably said "dog!" with a big grin! She said it over and over again while trying to get close enough to touch the painting. Today she added "duck" to her vocabulary. We've had a lot of rubber duckies around the house lately, so she's been hearing us talk about the ducks. This afternoon Natalie and I were in Bath and Body Works and we came to a shelf with a bunch of rubber duckies on it, and Natalie said "duck!" (Really it sounds more like "duh", which is exactly how she says "dog", but I know she was referring to the ducks this time!). So of course I bought her one of the ducks :-).

And the biggest news of the day is.............. SHE HAS A TOOTH! Here at 11.5 months old, a tooth has finally sprouted, squashing my fears of baby dentures being on our shopping list in 2012. The first tooth to arrive is on the bottom left (from Natalie's point of view).

The past couple of weeks were spent nursing her first ear infection and a case of Hand, Foot, and Mouth virus. This wasn't a very good time for any of us, and we now know that she was teething on top of all this illness. Initially when she was sent home from daycare with a low-grade fever, we thought it was just from teething, so we gave her some Tylenol and sent her back to school. The next week she was sent home with a rash on her legs and we thought it must be allergies. Took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed with the awful HFMD (I hate it that they call it a "disease"... I prefer "virus") AND an ear infection. By the time she woke up the next morning, the rash covered her chest, arms, hands, booty, legs and feet. She was so uncomfortable and fussed quite a bit, but all in all, I'd say she handled it like a trooper. Jeremy stayed home with her all week (since I don't have any days off yet at my new job) and took care of her like a pro. She started getting much, much better after just three days, thankfully.

We've been busy planning her first birthday party. It'll be a circus party (without any clowns, thankyouverymuch), to be held at our house on the big day. I'm excited!!