11 months

This had to be one of the most stressful months since our little princess was born almost a year ago (oh my goodness!) Because of some medical issues I had, I had to stop breastfeeding very suddenly and it was pretty traumatic for our sweet girl, who quickly turned into a not-so-sweet girl. I fully understand why you slowly ween a baby, instead of cutting her off cold turkey! Jillian cried for almost 2 weeks straight. And I do mean straight...unless she was asleep or had food in her mouth, she was unhappy and she was going to let everyone know it! But we made it to the other side and our little girl has pretty much returned to her sweet self with one exception. She has always LOVED food, but she now has this fear that it might be taken away suddenly (go figure) so she screams at the top of her lungs when she has finished a meal, or if you take a 5-second break, or if you scrape the bottom of the bowl with the spoon, because she knows it's almost gone. It's not attractive, so we are hoping she will soon learn we aren't going to let her starve and there WILL be a next meal. Here is what Jilli has been up to the past month:

-She learned to wave and clap! She absolutely loves music and to clap along. Little Einsteins is now her favorite show to watch because of the music and she gets SO excited whenever we put it on for Zoe (Bubble Guppies is a very close second)!
-After the sudden stop of breastfeeding, she refused all bottles--formula or otherwise. Seeing a bottle instantly aroused her anger and she would hit the bottle out of our hands, or throw it down. Yes, she has a bit of a temper. She is now drinking water or milk out of a sippy cup. She prefers a cup with a straw, because that's how her big sister drinks.
-She can still wear 9 month clothes, but is mostly wearing 12 months now.
-She LOVES to eat. Anything and everything.
-She had her first encounter with a wild animal...she got to feed the giraffes while we were up in Nairobi.
-She wears size 3 diapers.
-She sleeps a good 12 hours at night straight through (usually 7 pm- 7am)
-She loves to talk.."hi!" is her favorite word and repeats it until she gets someone to respond. It's the first thing we hear in the mornings when we walk in to get her. Because of the little temper that has shown itself this month, she now says "don't" quite often, because she has heard it so many times. And just the other day we heard her first sentence "hi dad!" It was precious and purposeful. I was changing her diaper and Nate walked in the room, she just looked over at him and said it. I'll be just a wee bit jealous until I hear "hi mom!"