11 months...WHAT?!

I can not believe that more than 11 months have past since our little Elle Belle joined our family. It just doesn't seem that at this point a year ago, I had my bags packed and Lee and I were just counting down the days until she arrived. I think it was also at this time last year that I started to stress out about my decision to not take child birth classes. I took the approach that ignorance is bliss - well that coupled with the fact that I knew my delivery wasn't going to be normal - so I really didn't want to know what "normal" was. It was very logical thinking in my mushy pregnant brain!

She was way too busy to have anything to do with our birthday photo shoot

So...what's going on in the life of our little eleven monther?

• She is weighing in at 18 pounds - probably plus a few ounces
• She can sit up un-assisted and most of the time does a controlled fall to get onto her tummy
• She is a great army crawler and can still roll around with the best of them! We see crawling in her not so distant future!
• She can push herself up into sit from lying on her back - but only from her right side - we're working on that left side!!
• She has started to pull herself up to stand - she works so hard at it - her little face gets so red and she grunts - but she does it!!
• She is SUPER smart and mimics everything we do!
• She is signing smart, girl, pretty, sometimes eat, daddy, and sometimes mommy
• When she sees someone or something she will wave and say "hi"
• She loves patty cake and peek a boo - if you say patty cake - she will clap her hands and then roll them up...too cute!
• She is a talker! She says hi, dada, mama, and we just heard her say "ba"...and we think she said granddaddy - she said it twice and it was pretty distinct because she was talking straight to Lee's grandfather!
• We're still working on eating - she puts everything in her mouth but isn't too interested in food! If it's plastic or metal or fabric - you can bet it will go straight in to Elle's mouth!
• She is a wiggle wiggle worm - there is no keeping that girl down!!
• She is keeping her hearing aids on for longer periods of time. Although, she is getting sneakier and sneakier about how she gets them out of her ears!
• She understands the word "no" and will look up at you and just smile when you say it. Her favorite thing to do right now is mess with her feeding tube button. Of course we tell her "no" so she will move her hand away and then slowly inch it back across her stomach until she is almost touching the button and then will wait for us to turn our heads before she grabs at it again. She is too smart!!
• She sleeps through the night - although we don't because she is a bed hog!
• She takes one morning nap around 9am and then is a go go getter for the rest of the day
• She is in physical therapy 2x a week, occupational therapy 1x a week (2x starting next week) and we just started audiological therapy..her weekly schedule is booked!

Every day I am amazed at the things she can do and how much she has grown. I was telling Le the other night that I don't even remember the first 2 months. I don't remember the 52 days in the hospital or sitting next to her bed for 16 hours a day - day in and day out just in case something happened. I don't remember anything but the good news we would receive after each surgery. Looking at her now, no one would have guessed at how far she has come. She's our little miracle baby! She is such a happy baby and we are so blessed by her little life!!