11 Months And Counting..

Isabella will celebrate her 1st Birthday on July 31st! Can you believe it? I can't!! Just last night I was telling Jim how quickly this year has gone by. It's gone by so fast, infact, that when I close my eyes I can still remember how I felt when I went into labor, how I felt when I held my baby girl for the first time. I can still remember her first cries, the first time I brewed a pot of coffee at 2 am after coming to the realization that sleep was not on her agenda for that particular night. It feels like yesterday yet already her first year with us is right around the corner..
Dear Bella,
Let's talk about what you're up to now that you're 11 months old:
For starters, your entire personality has changed! You've become very loud & demanding. You know what you want & you get very mad if your demands are not met immediately. When I put you in your highchair for breakfast in the morning you scream at the top of your lungs while I'm making your food. Patience is not one of your better traits. That being said, you still love to smile - you love to laugh.

And fortunately, you still love your sleep! You usually nap from around 10a until around 11 or 12p & then you go down again from around 2:30p til around 4p. You go to bed for the night at 7p & wake up between 6a-7a.

When you're awake you demand a lot of attention, so when you're napping we try to spend some quality time with your big brother. Here is a picture of Daddy & Kyle working on the tree fort:

Your brother is growing a garden this year:

He has a variety of things growing - pumpkin, carrots, strawberries & tomatoes..

Next year we will make a bigger garden!

You love to spend time at Grampy's - too bad his head got cut off in this picture!!!

Your feeding schedule is changing. I'm trying to eliminate 2 of your bottle feedings. The game plan is to have you off the bottle by your 1st Birthday. I don't think it will be too hard, seeing as how you won't even hold your own bottle. A Princess shouldn't have to, afterall :-) And secretly we like to hold your bottle for you. It's our way of slowing down the "growing up" process, even if only for a 10 minute feeding..

I love this picture of you sleeping -

Here is a picture of your brother - he is getting so tall!!

You are, without a doubt, a Daddys Girl. This picture proves it:

You learned how to stand up two weeks ago & now it's your most favorite thing to do:

Here you are - wearing your adorable pink & white bathing suit - playing in the...MUD:

You're growing up too fast, Isabella! But it's so much fun to watch you grow - to watch your personality shine. You're a free spirit. And I hope you never change :-) (although I do hope that your scream will get a bit quieter in time!)