Marlowe update: 11 months
Oh – hey there. Yes…Marlowe has continued to get older…I’ve just failed to tell you about it. While she’s 2 months older now, let me head back to 11 months for the sake of archives. It’s safe to say that between Jenson turning 3 – yes, that happened too – and Thanksgiving, Christmas and Marlowe turning one – I was pretty busy late fall through early winter. Planning birthday parties stresses me out…I worry too little about the tiniest details that no one even cares about, except me. So back to November…
Marlowe is wild and amazing. She decides what she wants to do, and she does it. If she wants to climb the coffee table, she does. If we leave the gate off of the stairs, she’s up them (ahh!). She pulls the all of the books off of the shelf, wrecks Jenson’s train tracks, and will do anything to get to the food that someone is eating. But she’s sweet – she loves to be held and lights up when people talk to her. Her favorite thing to do when I bring her down in the morning is to look for Jenson and Boof – and it makes her so happy. Her next favorite part of the day is when Lo gets home – she immediately wants him to pick her up and talk to her.
Marlowe: October 29 – November 28
Age: 11 months old
Weight: 17 lbs., 10 oz. (40%) at her appointment on November 14
Length: 28.5 inches (90%)
Clothing size: She’s mostly in 12 month clothing, with a few random 9 month pieces still lingering. She’s a size 2 in shoes, though she’s only had them on for pictures. Baby shoes are cute, but not worth the trouble. She’s in a 3 for diapers and we switch between cloth and disposable.
Hair: Her hair is getting so long on the sides and front. I have to pull it back every day so it’s out of her eyes. It’s very blond still, and superfine. It’s still shorter in the back, so she’s rocking a stylish inverted bob.
Eyes: Blue. The color is so pretty…I really hope it stays, but Jenson’s turned from blue after 1 year, so I wouldn’t be surprised if hers still turned.
Teeth: Just her 2 bottom teeth – they are really visible now, which is just adorable.
Temperament: She’s sweet and lovey, but has a temper when she wants to exert it. She loves kisses and being tickled, but if she’s mad, you know it. She’s soooo loud when she’s mad. Usually she’s only crying if she’s hungry or wants something or needs a new diaper. Otherwise she’s a busy-body crawling all over the place and playing with toys, or just trying to keep up with Jenson. She does great in the car and if she has to be in the stroller for awhile; she’s pretty easy going overall.
Sleeping: She wakes up between 8-9 am and will play in her crib sometimes before she wants out. She typically takes a morning and afternoon nap. The morning nap ranges from 45-60 minutes beginning around 10:30, and the afternoon nap is from 45 minutes -2 hours starting around 1:30 or 2 pm. She goes to bed around 7:30 most nights and wakes every 2-4 hours to nurse for 5 minutes. If she wakes to nurse before 10:30/11 pm, Lo will go in to make sure she has a pacifier. She’ll usually settle a bit longer. We have tried to let her cry it out a few times (checking on her throughout), and she proved she can outlast us on that one, to the tune of straight screaming for over an hour. She cries harder and more consistent than Jenson did when we started sleep training him. Her cry is a scream…its loud and it wrecks you. I don’t even use a monitor for her because I don’t need it. I can hear her anywhere in the house. She doesn’t want held or bounced or anything to do with Loren when she wakes…she just wants to nurse for 5 minutes and then go back to bed. So I pretty much just give in because waking for 5 minutes is better than her screaming for an hour. The one thing we have going for us is that she puts herself to sleep otherwise. We don’t have to rock her or hold her until she’s asleep…I just nurse her and lay her down awake. Jenson didn’t do as well with that, so we are at least happy with that aspect of Marlowe’s sleep.
She loves her binkys and prefers one in each hand and one in her mouth while she’s sleeping and right after she wakes up.
Eating: She loves to eat…don’t you dare eat around her without giving her some. She eats pretty much everything we give her, though she’s never been a fan of cooked squash or sweet potatoes. She eats mostly real food, though she eats probably about 1 pouch a day because its the easiest thing to give her when you can’t get the food to her fast enough.
Movement: Her crawl is somewhat of a scuttle. She sits on one knee and propels herself along with one leg – she looks a bit like a spider or crab. We have mostly hardwood floors in our downstairs, so it’s faster for her to crawl like that. When she tries to crawl fast on both knees on the wood floors she just peels out, so she adapted to this method. She loves to dance and clap, and pull herself up to everything.
Milestones:
–Pointing at things she wants or sees
–Playing in a leaf pile
–First Halloween
–First Thanksgiving
–Visits with Santa
–Several words regularly (mama, dada, boof, papap, papaw, Jenson, baby, thank you, hi)
Favorite toys/activities:
–Playing at the library. Now that she can get around, she had a blast exploring the play area after Toddler Dance
–Crawling and wrecking things
–Swinging on the playset
–Baths
–Eating….and she means NOW. She especially enjoyed eating outside a few times when it was nice.
–Her pacifiers. She loves them.
–Papap: She’s still really into my dad. She’s constantly looking for him when we visit and it’s one of her favorite things to say
–Being tickled – she has such an amazing belly laugh, and she’ll make a tickle motion on her belly when she wants us to continue
–Her favorite toys are usually whatever Jenson is playing with, but she really likes things that make music. I’d say her absolute favorite is a musical card that Jenson got for his birthday – Jake and the Neverland Pirates. She opens it and starts rocking/dancing, and looks around to see if anyone is
–Aggressive kisses. Not only are her kisses rather forceful and open mouth, she often does an almost angry “AAHHH” sound along with it when she’s kissing a stuffed animal. She’s just mocking my “mwah” sound that I do when I tell her to kiss her baby or stuffed animals, but it’s still hilarious.
Dislikes:
–Taking things from her that she was playing with or chewing on
–Waiting to eat once she’s in the chair
–Being held instead of crawling around
–Sleeping. She just loves me more than sleep.
Sibling Rivalry:
She LOVES Jenson. She watches him constantly and all he has to do is talk to her and she’s happy. She tries to play with him, much to his chagrin often. Jenson loves her and will play with her and talk to her, but he does (often) take her toys and he gets mad when she’s trying to get his snacks or get to something he’s playing with. They are really starting to play so well together and he is generally gentle with her.
Sounds and Words:
–Big belly laughs
–Loud, girly screeches. So loud. I guarantee my hearing has gotten worse this year just because of her screaming.
–Words: mama, dada, boof, papap, papaw, Jenson, baby
–expressive faces and scrunchy nose when she’s really happy
–mocking sounds, like Mwah (for kisses), but hers is AAHHHH!
Special events:
–Warm weather and picnics
–Visits to Lo’s family over Veteran’s Day weekend and to my family over Thanksgiving
–Met Santa twice. The first time was after her bedtime and didn’t go so well, but she didn’t mind the second time at the Shriner’s Christmas Party. Or maybe she just likes Mrs. Claus better.
Looking forward to:
–Longer stretches of sleeping at night (will this always be on my list?)
–I would have said Marlowe’s first Christmas and birthday, but those are long passed by the time of publishing
Watch Marlowe grow:
