Madelynn, Claire and Natalee: You are ELEVEN Months Old!

How is it only one more month until your FIRST birthday?! I cannot believe it at all. In fact, I am so late on posting this, that's it's only 23 days until you are all ONE! This month is going to be very emotional for Mommy, I can't believe you are all so big, so healthy, so vibrant and so fun! Daddy and I love you more than words can ever say. You have all made our lives complete and we are so blessed by your sweet smiles throughout the day.

One semi-good photo, but still not good enough for our Christmas card!

You were 11 Months on November 23, 2011.

Taking photos of you all this month, was to say the least IMPOSSIBLE!!! You all want nothing to do with sitting still so I will include both of our little photo shoots to prove how hard this was this month!

Madelynn: Your top right tooth pooped through on 11.10.11 and the left top tooth popped through on 11.14.11. You also started standing on your own, not holding on to anything on 11.07.11 and you started taking steps between holding on to one thing and walking to another, while holding on to that on 11.05.11. You are so brave!

You can also climb the stairs pretty well at this point. Sometimes you forget that you can't go backwards yet, but that's ok, I'm always right there.

Claire: You started kneeling and going from scooting to sitting/sitting to scooting, both on the same day: 11.08.11. You have also started making the "la" and "low" sounds. We have now been calling you "Loyla" because that's the sound you make constantly.

Your top right tooth popped through on 11.09.11 and your other bottom tooth popped through sometime during the week of Thanksgiving.

You are pretty good at crawling in short distances, but if it's any lenght, you will do your army scoot. Silly girl.

You can also shake your head "no" when you don't want something now too!

Natalee: You had your first ear infection on 11.04.11 and were put on amoxicillin for ten days, which is bubble-gum flavored and you LOVED it!

Your FIRST two bottom teeth popped through on Monday, 11.28.11.

You eat almost all people food now, except when it is convenient for me to give you baby food, like when we are out and need a quick lunch. You love green beans, corn, turkey, bananas, apples, bread, cheese...pretty much everything! There hasn't been one thing you have tried and don't like!

You started crawling on 11.22.11, and now you are quite fast. Daddy and I almost cried, our little Natalee is getting so big! You can also pull yourself up into the knelling position and you love it!

The three of you:

You all love to play together so much. Sometimes you all laugh at one another, for an hour! It's the sweetest sounds. Everyone still says how good you guys are and I really believe it. You all can play together for hours and I am able to get stuff done (let's be honest, that's NOT all days!) but I am so grateful when it happens. You are definitely not "clingy" children and will go to anyone most of the time, which makes me happy to have little social butterflies. Everyone always says you all have the biggest smiles, Madelynn especially.

Statistics:

On 11.04.11, you were all weighed at the doctor:

Madelynn: 16lbs. 4oz.
Claire: 16lbs. 14oz.
Natalee: 14lbs. 7oz.

Natalee, you were weighed again two weeks later at a check-up for your ears, 11.23.11, and were 14 lbs. 15 ounces.

You all still have brown hair. And it's growing and growing, and I am loving it!

Madelynn and Claire, you still have beautiful blue eyes and Natalee, you have beautiful dark brown eyes.
You are all in Pampers size 4 diapers.

You are all wear size 2 or 3 shoes.

You are all wearing size 12 month clothes and jammies, pants can be 18 months (your long leggies!), but yet you can still fit into 9 month onesies.

Schedule:

Wake-up around 8:30am.

Madelynn, you now get an 8 oz. bottle in the morning, as breakfast. (more on this later in the post)Claire and Natalee, you are still getting about 1 cup of baby banana oatmeal with formula.

Play-time. You love when I sing to you. Your favorite song by far, is The Wheels on the Bus! It always makes you all smile! Natalee, you still sometimes get about 5-10 minute nap in the swing around 10:00am.

Lunch around 11:30 to 12:00pm. Consists of bread, cheese, pasta, some veggies and meat cut-up, and if anyone refuses then some baby food. Normally, Natalee and Claire get a yogurt, also.

We go upstairs around 12:20pm and change diapers and we watch one Baby Einstein and then it's nap-time at 1:00pm. You all get 8 ounces of a bottle at nap, sometimes though it's not wanted.
Wake-up at 3:30pm, normally have another 8 ounce bottle, sometimes also not wanted but still offered.

Play-time.
Dinner around 5:00pm, consists of some people food, (mentioned above) and then baby food, if protesting people food.
Bath time starts at 7:00pm and lasts about 30 minutes.
Play-time in room, stories, prayers and lots of cuddles, hugs and kisses.

Bed time around 8:00pm and an 8 ounce bottle, which you all almost always take.

**I had a long talk with your pediatrician about why you all are NOT sleeping through the night and since I have tried everything, and there is NO information on what to do when more then one child sleeping in one room (I swear I am going to write a book when I finally figure out works!!). Anyway, she really encouraged me to to give more formula during the day, since I wasn't giving any bottles (maybe one) during the day. I thought I should keep it that way since once you all turn one, I was planning on getting you more and more away from bottles, but instead she said go with the opposite. She is recommending that you all stay on formula for two extra months since you were two month premature, which is fine by me. Since an 8 ounce bottle of formula is a complete meal, and 8 ounces of whole milk is not, she wants to continue you each to get the nutritional value of the formula and she also said that is what will make you gain weight, and hopefully make you more full during the day, which in turn will make you sleep longer at night. (I was also worried that you each weren't gaining enough weight, which she basically laughed at me and said you all were doing great and perfectly proportionate. I was glad to hear that! So far, nothing is working. Madelynn, you are especially very difficult at night and will NOT go back to sleep without yur bottle. I am only giving barely 4 ounces at night if you wake up, but she agreed that it is most likely habit.

Some nights are great and maybe each of you only wake up once, but some nights are HORRIBLE and I am up each hour with one of you, running downstairs, warming a 4 ounce bottle and then giving it to you. I am really so tired of it, and being almost 8 months pregnant, it is so hard not getting any sleep. I hope and pray each night that you all will get it and sleep through before Miss E comes and I am up with all FOUR of you! Have mercy on me, LORD!!!!!!!!!!

So we will be working on sleeping through the night each night and praying, praying, praying that something works!
More Firsts this Month:

You all take your baths together now and it's like a hurricane comes through each evening with the excessive splashing  and water throwing. Daddy and I have to cover the bathroom in towels and hang out in the hall to watch you, unless we put on a poncho, LOL! We would get soaked sitting next to the tub!

We spent Black Friday and Saturday out shopping and you all loved it. You were quite the "exhibit" yourselves at the MD Christmas Craft Show. I can't blame anyone though, you all were so darn cute! You love wearing your Santa hats! It was really warm, almost a 70 degree day, so the jackets didn't stay on long!

I can't believe this, but you all had your first trip to the mall on Saturday after Thanksgiving. I can't believe but it really was your first time. Just goes to show you that we don't shop at many stores in the mall. Normally, it's Costco, Wal-Mart, Target and craft stores. (The last time we were at Wal-Mart, one of the employees said, "Oh, didn't I just see you all here last week?" and I was like, probably, we normally come each week!)

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Here are all the bloopers from our photo shoots...as you can see, it is VERY hard to get them to sit still!

Enough of this Mom, I'm out of here!!!!

What?!? She let us OUT OF THE PEN! GOOOOO!!!!!

Hi Claire!

Natalee, doing her "exercises" as we call them! She does that all the time!

And on Thanksgiving...it was even worse!