Now that Brooke is almost 11-months old (tomorrow, if you are keeping track), I thought I would write up some of the logistical stuff of her daily life. When I ask friends what their kids were doing this age, they often cant remember ... and therefore are not a whole lot of help with the issues and questions I have ;) I figure if I can put some notes down, I can help others, or at least have a place to look later when a friend asks me for help!
Sleeping
Honestly, we are really lucky. Brooke is a great sleeper. In fact, I think she loves sleeping. Sure, I had some issues with the early bird getting up at 5:30, but the (stylish) aluminum windows worked. She rarely gets up before 6:30, and today she actually slept until 7:30. Pretty awesome.
Soon she may be tranistioning to one nap, but for now she is still on two. Here is her typical schedule.
Wake Up - 7:00AM
Nap 1 - 10:00AM - 11:30AM
Nap 2 - 2:30PM - 4:00PM
Bedtime - 7:15PM
Lately she has been making one of her naps 2 hours. Guess all the crawling, climbing, and playing has just been wearing her out :) When she makes a nap 2 hours, her schedule gets adjusted a bit. Generally, if you notice, she is up for about 3 hours at a time so we just bump accordingly!
As for "routines", we have the same one for naps and bedtime. Brooke gets put into a sleepsack, then we read her a book. When we put her into her crib we play her Gloworm as we walk out. She occasionally whimpers, but is often asleep in under a minute. I know this is unusual and most little ones do some fighting around naptimes and bedtimes. I said we are lucky! (There is one small difference between naps and bedtime. For naps I put on the white-noise machine to drown out local neighborhood and dog noise)
Eating
Brooke has 3 meals a day and 3 servings of milk in a sippy cup. (She was getting a bottle before bedtime, but yesterday we turned that one into a sippy cup too ... so no more bottles!). She is currently having 7 oz of milk at a time, with 3 oz of whole milk and 4 oz of formula as we transition from formula to whole milk by age 1. Here is her eating schedule, based on the nap/sleeping schedule listed above.
7:30 - Milk in sippy cup (while I prepare her breakfast)
7:45 - Breakfast
12:15 - Milk in sippy cup (while I make lunch)
12:30 - Lunch
5:30 - Dinner
6:30 - Milk in sippy cup
We dont do snacks yet. She eats a lot at each meal and has a ton of veggies and fruits each day. Eventually toddlers tend to start grazing more, eating only a bit per meal. When she becomes pickier, starts eating less, or generally seems hungry, we will start a snack. I also know it seems like snacks are common when babies are on one nap. That one nap tends to be long, and the kids wake up hungry ... and its usually a while until dinner. If none of the above happens before we go to one nap, I'll just start feeding her a snack regardless!
Talking
I lumped talking in here only because she does so much of it that I havent mentioned, not because its truly logistical. Although, she is starting to signal some things that are part of our schedule with words, so its all fitting together. I have mentioned before some of the words she says, and will go into them all again. Just as a note, she often doesnt say these words on command. They are more at her own leisure. But, she does say them and definitely understands their purpose.
MaMa and DaDa: She says DaDa a lot. Including when we call her Daddy at work and put him on speaker phone. She knows who he is and really likes saying the word. On the other hand, she usually only says MaMa when I leave a room or disappear from her view and she crawls after me, crying, while saying "MaMa". Not quite as fun as the happy, sing-song, "DaDa" I hear every day :)
More: This was her first real word. She says it when she is hungry or waiting for food more than what the word really means. If I put her into her high chair but then take a minute to put food on her tray, she will start hollering "MORE" as she pounds on the tray with both fists. The girl likes to eat, what can I say?
Ball: She was saying this word a lot, but now is just over it. But she isnt over balls in general. She loves them, just doesnt care to talk about it anymore.
Woof: Occasionally when she hears Wrigley barking she will get all excited and say "Woof!". But only for Wrigley's bark, and only when she is in the mood.
Uh-Oh: Sh was saying this a lot at one point too, but it appears to be on the back burner. I think babies often focus on only a few things at at time (because their world is so overwhelming) and I have a feeling that this one has been shelved while she works on some other new words.
Up: This is a new one, and a favorite. She says "UP" every time we say it. She also will occasionally say it without us saying it first if she is in her crib or hanging onto my leg.
Night Night: We think she is saying this, repeating us. At night she often gets very tired and yet still wants to play. We will ask her if she wants to go "night night" and she will crawl around saying "nigh nigh" over and over. Occasionally she has been tired and looked at us and said "nigh nigh", which seems like she is letting us know its time to wrap it up :)
No No No: I am not sure she knows what this means, but every time Jeff tells her "no" about something she repeats him (almost in a mimicking voice). She doesnt do it to me ... just him. But, I'll leave it on her word list for now!
Golf: Ok, this is odd. If she didnt do it several times yesterday I wouldnt have put it on the list. I swear while Jeff was watching golf yesterday she said "golf". Multiple times. He turned it off, and she pointed at the television and said it again. Now her Daddy's dreams of a future LPGA champion are likely to become all consuming.
