11 months...seriously??

11 months can't really have already gone by? I feel like I was just waddling around with my 8 month pregnant belly. As Ruth Ann's birthday rapidly approaches I find myself missing the baby that is slowly fading away. For sometime she has not let me craddle her like a baby...unless she is on the verge of sleep or if I've picked her up while she is sleeping. But now to rub salt in a wide open wound...we dropped her crib to it's lowest setting over the weekend.



Just looking at it makes me want to cry because I remember looking at the same empty crib waiting on her arrival.

On a happier note, here are some of the things Ruth Ann is up too at 11 months...
~consistently referring to Arch as "Dada" and less consistently referring to me as "Mama"...it pains me to say this, but it's true. I think it's because I'm the one constantly talking to her and I don't talk about myself all the time! The other words she can say are "baby", "nini" (for night-night) & "n" (for no). In addition she does A LOT of babbling...one day she is going to have a lot to tell us! Her receptive language is great too...she understands a few simple commands. For example, when told to "Go get___." (fill in the blank with juice, daddy or kitty), she goes straight to the object (or person). She also understands "Come here", "Hello" & "Goodbye" (responds by waving).
~pulls up on everything. At first she was literally pulling herself up so she had to have something to hold onto, but now she can pull up next to the glass doors, so she's now "pushing" herself up. She has let go a few times but falls to the ground pretty quickly.
~she's as happy as ever. I'm often told by strangers what a happy girl she is...my response "She has nothing to be unhappy about!"

I'm planning her first birthday and starting to feel like I should have started sooner. We're just having friends and family over for burgers, hotdogs and cake...so I realize I don't need to stress too much...but attention to details always raises my stress level! Here's hoping I'll be cool and calm for the next 4 weeks!