Friday, October 9, 2009

Life's All Fun and Games When You're 11 Months

11 Months. That's right. That is ridiculously close to 1 year. Where did my baby go? She's HUGE!

Well, she thinks she is. :)

Gwen's favorite toys:
  1. plastic phone from Eric's Aunt Melinda. Thanks! Teaches shapes, colors, plays music... and also makes this awful singing cat thing that Gwen seriously loves.
  2. brand spankin new walker from the Smiths. Thanks guys. Gwen loves it. She gets really upset and starts to cry if it starts to get away from her since it rolls. She loves to tip it upside down and play with the wheels.
  3. bag of garage sale Marti Gras beads. Mostly just so she can take them in and out of the bag. Also loves to put them in her mouth and crawl around with a strand dangling. Like so:
  4. books. Any. She loves board books, especially if she can turn the pages herself. Her favorites are A Christmas book from Grandma and Grandpa Hart (Thanks!), a Baby Colors book, and an Animals of the Jungle book that makes animal sounds. She loves real books, but I think she likes them so much because she can bend the pages... which isn't so appreciated by me. Or the public library. :)
  5. the kitchen drawers and fridge. She beelines it for the fridge with some squeals as soon as I open it. She likes to stand holding onto the produce bins and fiddle with the lids and jars in the door. It makes me nervous since most of them are glass. Plus it is not energy efficient to stand with the fridge door open. She always gets quite upset when I force her out so I can close the door. I try to appease her with my fold up steamer (she loves to open and close it) or whisk out of the drawer next to the fridge. Sometimes it works.
  6. the piano. She really goes to town. And then she wants to climb up and stand on the keys... and that's when musical virtuoso time comes to an end.
  7. the cap to Eric's shaving cream. Her favorite tub toy right now. She practices drinking water out of it and also blows raspberries into it.
Gwen's favorite games:
  1. Hide and Seek. She gets so excited to chase me from one part of the living room to another as I hide (visibly--it is only hiding if she can't see my eyes, even if the rest of my crouched body is fully out there) behind couches and chairs.
  2. chasing Mommy or Daddy and then getting chased (we carry her). Our favorite post-dinner game. She squeals and reaches out and then gets tickled.
  3. Where's Mommy's nose? Gwen's nose... Mommy's nose... She will touch, poke, scratch with her nail, insert a finger into a nostril (I try to keep her from doing that), etc. Very interested. All while drinking a bottle.
  4. Sooooooo big-- with both hands up over head or on her head, slapping. And an obligatory cheesy grin on her face
  5. shaking her head no when we try to get her to eat things and she is soooo done. Or when we try to keep her from falling asleep in the carseat and she is soooo tired. it is her game of non-compliance. :)
  6. open and close. Open and close. Especially cupboards. Her favorite is the media cabinet. Of course, she also thinks it is fun to pull out all the DVDs, but who can blame her?
Gwen's favorite outings:
  1. zoo. She loves to people watch and crawl around in the aquarium and slap at the fish. She hasn't really gotten excited about big, distant animals yet. She likes the Langurs, the baby Elephant, and the fish. But especially all the kids!!!!
  2. grocery store. She is the center of attention, she knows it, and she loves it. She also likes to hold every item of produce before I bag it up. Sometimes I let her keep something. Once she went absolutely crazy over cantaloupe and sat it up next to her with her arm around it the entire time. She also loves to steal my list, my pen, my calculater, and my wallet (when I pay).
  3. walk in the stroller. never more content then when she is loungin on a walk.
  4. visiting any place where I will let her crawl around and explore, especially other people's houses where there is a baby around.
Gwen's favorite friends:
  1. Giraffe (bed time--Thanks Mama Allan's friend), pink elephant (bed time--Thanks Grandma Hart), Henry (nap time--Thanks Grandma Allan!), monkey (living room--Thanks my old District Leader that had a crush on me), mini monkey #2 (living room, but usually in the kitchen), Mr. Greenhead (diaper bag--Thanks Great Grandma Ian), lambie (toy shelf--Thanks Dee!), mini bear (toy shelf), yellow chick (carseat)... and any other stuffed animal that happens to have eyeballs... :) She loved the Smith's Elmo and tries to take other babies' dolls from them. Oh, and did I mention she thinks her knit hat (Thanks Linz!) is a stuffed animal and hugs it to her, drags it around the house, and plays with the pom poms?
  2. Goldfish. She likes the crawdad too, but gets very chatty, slaps the tank, sticks her mouth on it (gross!), etc whenever the goldfish is visible. She's trying to get his attention.
  3. Lucy, Shane, Luke, Charlotte, Whitney... oh wait, I guess I could just summarize by saying ANY BABY THAT EXISTS!!!! She tries to climb on them, loves to slap their heads, and tries to poke things. She is kinda pushy.
That is your glimpse at the inner workings or our 11 month old Gwen! I'll try to get some photos up later, especially of some of these things that I think are so... fun... and I want to remember!

3 comments:

  1. It's wonderful that you're keeping an itemized list of everything!

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  2. I am laughing my head off right now picturing all these fun things. I love how every baby has such a hilarious personality. She's a doll!

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  3. It really does seem like you just had her, I can't believe she's almost a year old already! I'm sure you know this, but Gwen really is one of the prettiest little babies I've ever seen! Her eyes are amazing and I love that blonde hair.

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