Emma Lynne is 11 Months Old

I have been waiting and dreading these milestones that are approaching. It's such a bag of mixed emotions when one of my children leaves the teeny-tiny baby season. I am always baffled when a year goes by as if time has sped up just to test my resolve.  It's always around this time I start to ache for an infant again.  Ahhhhhhh.....

My sweet Emma Lynne is now eleven months old.  One is knocking on the door.  I love this age because bits and pieces of her personality are coming out.  What fun to witness just about every moment of it!  Even though things with her sleep have improved GREATLY they are still not where I want them.  She sleeps from 8pm to about 5am.  She wakes to nurse and then usually sleeps about another hour.  I love getting up early, but I am also ready for that feeding to end. 

She is crawling everywhere and she is fast!  She cruises along the couches and such, but has no real desire to stand or walk.  She has stood on her own a couple of times and loves how excited it makes Mommy and all three of her sisters!  She is a very compliant child.....she may lay her head down on the floor in protest, but she will stop going if I call her name in that "mom tone." 

She is head over heels in love with her Daddy and her sisters.  Everything is about "dad".  It may have started off as a noise, but it is for sure his name now!  She lights up when she sees her sisters.  Chiara takes care of her (carrying her around and dancing with her), Leah hugs her and plays with her, Mayah can make her belly laugh like no one else.  I am the only one who really gets hugs though.  A privilege of providing all the good "booby-juice".

I have started trying to slow wean my little girl.  Rough.  She hates it, which is why I am going extra slow with her.  Just one feeding for now.  I am leaving for a week in mid-July so I want to be done the week before that so I know she is done.  Rough.  Rough for her.  Rough for me. 

I make the girls leave Emma alone a couple times a day so she learns to play by herself.  It will really help me in the long run and it's good for a child with 3 siblings to learn to have self-directed play.  Emma loves to talk on the phone and Skype.  She says "hi" and gets very excited every time. 

Emma really is a sweet and happy baby.  She is still very much a Mommy's Girl.  That is not a complaint....far from it.  Here are a few pics of this 11 month old...playing/ "talking" on her Daddy's old phone and some extreme close-ups because she loves to climb on Mommy when I am taking her picture.