Monthly Update: Greta at 11-12 Months

Monthly Update: Greta at 11-12 Months

Eating: Greta is quite an adventurous eater! The only food she refuses to eat is bananas! She doesn't mind the taste in purees, but she absolutely hates the texture of fresh bananas. Mangos and strawberries are her favorite fruits. She also loves puree pouches and can eat them all by herself now!

Sleeping: Greta falls asleep between 7-8 pm each night after a 7 ounce bottle. Some nights after daycare she is ready for bed by 6:45 pm! Once I stopped breastfeeding in the mornings at 11 months she started to sleep in a bit later (6 am). Greta sleeps with her lovey and binky every night. We are amazed at how she moves all over her crib throughout the night, but always manages to have her lovey in her arms!

Doing: Greta is constantly on the move and wanting to play! She still usually crawls with her hands full of toys, most often a stacking ring in each hand. She also really likes playing with her toy cell phone now. Greta likes to chew on everything she plays with, a sure sign that teeth are coming in!

Latest Milestones: At 11 months old Greta was standing often, but not walking yet. On June 1st she took her first two steps at daycare! She continued to take risks with her walking up until her first birthday. She was up to 5 steps by the time she turned one year old. She also is an expert waver and loves to say hi to everyone she sees.

Favorite Things: Her book bin (flip books and touch-and-feel books are her favorite), Sid the Science Kid, giving Sadie hugs, playing with her shape bin, standing at our coffee table, and dancing to any song with a great beat!

Best Adventures: During Greta's eleventh month we visited the Central Park Zoo and Bronx Zoo. We loved enjoying the beautiful spring weather together! We also stopped at the playground almost every day on our way home from daycare. Greta loved the swings and standing at the xylophone bars in the play structure.

Our Family: One of my favorite family moments during these two months was the Memorial Day Parade in Norwalk, Connecticut. We attend the parade every year to watch Emily walk with her Girl Scouts troop. We had no idea how Greta would react to the sights and sounds, so we came prepared with noise cancelling headphones, books, toys, and snacks. It turns out Greta LOVES PARADES! She waved her flag back and forth and said "Hi!" to every person that marched by. She also happily danced to the marching bands! She was so happy! I loved seeing her have so much fun.

Favorite Part About This Age: Greta is truly our little dream baby. She wakes up smiling and continues to radiate joy all day long! I love watching her excitement as she plays with her favorite toys. She is learning new things every day and it is amazing to watch her interact with her books. She especially enjoys her flip books and can identify the cats and babies in the illustrations.

Monthly Update: Greta at 10 Months

Monthly Update: Greta at 10 Months

Eating: Greta impresses us every day with her adventurous eating. It seems the spicier and more flavorful the food, the better! She loves her Super Greens veggie burgers, eggs, pulled pork, and... pickles! When I handed her a pickle at the diner one night I did not anticipate her loving it! Thankfully she also eats purees again, so we are able to pack pouches when we are on the go. Greta still only has her two bottom teeth, but she is able to gum and chew just about anything.

Sleeping: Greta consistently sleeps through the night! She typically falls asleep around 7:15 pm and wakes up while I am getting ready for work around 5:30 am. We keep a night light on for her every night in her room. She does not use a sound machine and thankfully sleeps through the loud street noise outside her window.

Doing: Greta loves our cat, Boo! She chases her all around our house trying to pet her. She also learned how to say kitty (or her version of the word) this month!

Latest Milestones: This month Greta perfected blowing kisses! She also loves to wave and point all the time.

Favorite Things: Sid the Science Kid! Greta watches this show every morning while Brian gets ready for work. She is obsessed with it! As soon as she sees Sid she starts jumping and dancing in her activity table. She also loves dancing and clapping to Baby Shark, a song she hears at daycare every day.

Best Adventures: Greta and I had an unexpected snow day together on March 21st. We ventured out for coffee and spent the rest of the day inside playing and napping. We also attended Emily's musical this month. Greta stayed awake for the entire show and loved watching the singing and dancing!

Greta also took her first trip to the E.R. It was not a great adventure, but an adventure all the same. She had a double ear infection and a high fever that lingered around 103 with Tylenol for several days. Once her temperature reached 104.7 and her breathing changed we decided it was time to go to the hospital. Thankfully she only had a virus and was back to her normal, smily self a few days later.

Our Family: Greta spent her first Easter in Minnesota at Grandma and Grandpa's house. She loved opening her Easter basket with her cousins and visiting her Great Great Aunt Mary and great grandparents.

Favorite Part About This Age: I love watching Greta play with her toys! She is constantly picking up her rings, shapes, and other teething toys. She also loves dancing! She is such a happy baby and we love everything about her.

Monthly Update: Greta at 9 Months

Monthly Update: Greta at 9 Months

Eating: Greta is an amazing eater! As soon as her first two teeth popped through in the middle of February she decided that she was done eating purees and cereals. We immediately started experimenting with a variety of solid foods and discovered that she will eat just about anything! She loves eating eggs, peas, waffles, strawberries, Cheerios, and mangos. Oddly, the only thing she refuses is bananas. It seems to be a texture issue; she loved banana purees so we know it is not the taste!

Sleeping: Greta is waking up less often to nurse in the middle of the night. She manages to move around a lot in her crib while sleeping and often ends up in a very different position from where she started. We moved her crib down to the lowest setting this month the weekend she stood for the first time. I may have cried a little thinking about how fast she is growing as Brian lowered her mattress...

Doing: Greta waves at everyone she sees. She is a very friendly girl! She also is an expert on FaceTime these days. As soon as her grandma answers she smiles, waves, and tries to touch her on the screen. Lately all Greta wants to do is play on her floor mat. She can occupy herself in her activity table in the early mornings, but by the time we pick her up from daycare she doesn't last for long in it. She likes to clap her toys together and crawl around with a toy in each hand.

Latest Milestones: Greta learned how to stand up this month! For a few weeks she was standing against her activity walker, which was folded down on the floor. She pulled herself up for the first time in her crib and again on her activity table the following day. Now she is constantly pulling herself up on our coffee table, media console, and activity table.

Favorite Things: Our kitty, Boo! Greta loves our cat even though she does not reciprocate any of her feelings! The second she sees her she waves, talks, and tries crawling toward her. She has attempted to pet her a few times, but Boo usually runs away before she can really feel her fur. She knows the word kitty and looks for Boo by her food dish whenever we say it.

Best Adventures: Grandma came to visit us during my February break. We took Greta to the Central Park Zoo for the first time. The weather was unseasonably warm that day with temperatures in the high seventies, so we got to watch all of the animals while wearing t-shirts! Greta loved the red pandas.

Our Family: Greta loves every second spent with her daddy and big sister. She smiles every morning when we wake Brian up and often waves to the photos of Emily in our living room. When Emily is with us on the weekends the girls spent a lot of time playing together.

Favorite Part About This Age: What's not to love? I love watching Greta learn new things every day. She is constantly observing the world around her and is so curious about everything. I also love tickling her and making her laugh. It is one of my favorite sounds in the world!

I am only nursing Greta in the morning and evening now, and cherish these moments with her every day. I love settling in with her on the couch at night and holding her after she eats until she falls asleep.

Monthly Update: Greta at 8 Months

Monthly Update: Greta at 8 Months

Eating: Greta tried several solid foods this month. Although we are not truly practicing baby led weaning, we are finding inspiration from that method when preparing our meals. Greta loves cheese, waffles, pasta, and broccoli. We are excited to introduce many more foods this coming month! I have been exclusively nursing and pumping up into this point, but am starting to introduce formula next month. Keeping up my supply at work has been challenging and after a month and a half my freezer supply is depleted. We researched many formula options and decided on this one.

Sleeping: Not much has changed regarding Greta's sleeping patterns. She falls asleep every night between 7-7:30 pm after nursing for a few minutes. We thankfully never needed to sleep train- she always falls asleep with her lovey after a few minutes in her crib! I typically get up to feed her once a night for a few minutes.

Doing: Greta is on the go! She quickly crawls across our living room towards her toys. She also pops up into a sitting position with ease when in her crib or on her play mat. Greta is still really engaged with her toys. She loves hitting them together or throwing them across the room. Greta gets super excited when she sees people she knows. Every morning at daycare drop off she smiles and claps when she sees Mrs. Violeta. She is equally excited when I pick her up! It is the best feeling to see her smiling and kicking excitedly walking towards me every evening.

Latest Milestones: A few days before her eighth month birthday she started standing on her feet while playing on her walking activity toy. She hasn't stood up along any of our furniture yet, but we know it is only a matter of time! She also cut her first tooth on February 11, 2018.

Favorite Things: Greta loves her stacking rings (she spends a lot of time clapping the rings together and throwing them across our living room), her indestructible book, and her walking activity toy. We keep the walker folded down, which allows Greta to play with all of the dials and spinning toys as she sits and crawls. She puts everything in her mouth and drools constantly.

Best Adventures: We took it very easy this month. Between a lingering cold for Greta and the realities of returning to work for me, we looked forward to staying home every weekend! We did take Greta to the Queens Museum on my birthday, which was her first official museum visit.

Our Family: We celebrated my 33rd birthday together with a trip to the museum, cake, and ice cream. It was very special having the four of us together for the weekend! Greta helped me blow out my candles and got to try a tiny bite of my cake. We ordered the same cake that we had at our wedding- strawberry cake with cream cheese icing from sugar sweet sunshine.

Favorite Part About This Age: I love every single thing about Greta at this age- she is constantly exploring, playing, smiling, and laughing! I especially love watching her try to interact with our cat, Boo. Boo wants nothing to do with her, but every time Greta sees her she perks up and tries to pet her. She is already such a cat lady!

Monthly Update: Greta at 7 Months

Monthly Update: Greta at 7 Months

Eating: Greta tried so many new foods this month! We eased her into solid foods by trying several purees. We were surprised by how much she enjoyed her spinach and kale purees! She also tried some yogurt melts. Greta is still exclusively on breastmilk and drinks about 14 oz. at daycare every day.

Sleeping: Greta sleeps through most nights. Sometimes she wakes up for one brief nighttime feeding either at 1:30 or 3:30 am, but always falls right back asleep. I slept in her room several nights this month while she recovered from her first bad cold.

Doing: Greta easily pops up into a sitting position and loves to play with her toys on her play mat. She also likes playing with toys in her crib. Every morning she starts her day in her activity table. She spends most of her time throwing her toys off of it!

Latest Milestones: Greta started crawling this month! She crawled for the first time on New Years Eve. It was a very exciting way to ring in the new year!

Favorite Things: Greta loves, loves, loves her If I Were an Owl book, which she received as a Christmas gift from her Great Aunt and Uncle. She lights up every time she sees the cover and does an amazing job touching each page. We read it SO MANY times during our flight to Minnesota!

Best Adventures: This month Greta visited Santa twice (once in NYC and once in Minnesota), went on long walks with mommy in her stroller, celebrated her first Christmas, and took her eighth plane ride!

Our Family: Brian and I spent this month emotionally preparing to send Greta to daycare. I found myself crying often throughout the month of December thinking about going back to work. Thankfully, we knew we loved our daycare before we even started taking Greta there. The night before I returned to work I barely slept. Between the anxiety and emotions I woke up every hour. After a few tears kissing Greta goodbye I stayed strong the rest of the day. I am grateful that my job keeps me very busy from the time I arrive until the time I leave! Poor Brian had to handle the first drop off. He was very upset and was eager to pick her up at noon on her first day. Greta cried briefly during the first two drop offs, but after that she was all smiles every single morning!

Favorite Part About This Age: Greta's smile lights up the room! She truly is the happiest baby in the entire world. I love how she smiles at me the second I walk into her room in the morning.

Monthly Update: Greta at 6 Months

Monthly Update: Greta at 6 Months

Eating: Greta is still exclusively breastfed. Unlike most babies, she does not like to nurse before bed. I am not sure if it is because my supply is lower by this time of day or if it is just too much work for her, but she often cries after latching for a minute or two. We give her a 5-6 ounce bottle before bed every evening before she falls asleep. At the very end of the month we introduced infant cereal. We are excited to explore lots of new foods in her seventh month!

Sleeping: After five and a half months in our bedroom, Greta transitioned to her crib this month! She was much too tall for her Nuna SENA Mini Aire and started to wake herself up several times a night as she hit the sides. I also think being so close to us was causing her to wake up as well. She took to her crib right away and is sleeping much more soundly. I had a very hard time with the transition and slept in her room with her the first few nights. I turned out I was the only one who needed to "cry it out" during her crib sleep training!

Doing: Greta loves grabbing our faces. She always touches our cheeks and noses when we cuddle with her. She also is an expert at giving slobbery, open mouth kisses- we are still working on that one! We are practicing sitting up every day. Greta constantly talks and screams while she plays and loves to smile.

Latest Milestones: Greta is starting to say a couple consonant sounds. She often babbles "ba, ba, ba" and we are constantly encouraging her to say mama and dada. At the beginning of December Greta started rocking back onto her knees during tummy time. She looks like she is about to take off crawling all the time!

Favorite Things: Greta loves her activity table and plays for hours every day. She also really likes listening to books. We have a few Christmas books that we read every day together.

Best Adventures: Greta took in all of the Christmas sights with Grandma while she was visiting the first week of December. She LOVED looking at all of the lights on the Christmas trees in Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park. She also met Santa at Macy's on 34th Street.

Our Family: We celebrated our first Thanksgiving as a family of four. Emily and I watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with Greta while Brian cooked away in the kitchen. I have never felt more thankful for all of the love and joy in my life.

Favorite Part About This Age: What is there not to like? I love watching her learn new things every single day. She has so much fun playing with her toys and is curious about everything! I also still cannot get enough of her little laugh.

Read & Watch

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Read & Watch:

18 family vacations to take with your children before they turn 18.

How to speak to children about their artwork.

36 great gifts for her under $50.

What self-care really means.

I couldn't stop laughing at these sleep-training fails.

This road trip across the 48 contiguous states looks epic!

Greta's First Snow!

The first snow of the season is so exciting and magical! We loved watching Greta take it all in from our front patio. Remarkably, she didn't even cry as the large flakes hit her face! After a few minutes we all headed back inside for movies and hot chocolate.

Scenes from the weekend.

We love when Grandma comes to visit! We had a super fun weekend with my mom in town. Saturday was cold and rainy, so we spent most of the day at home working on projects. We are in the middle of redecorating our living room so there was a lot of things to get done! We did venture out for a few hours that evening for a delicious Italian dinner at Via Trenta.

On Sunday my mom and I took Greta into Manhattan to visit Downton Abbey: The Exhibition. It was amazing to see so many of the sets replicated, along with a large collection of the costumes and accessories. I just finished watching all six seasons so the opening of the temporary exhibit was perfect! Afterwards we walked to the Plaza Food Hall for lunch and admired the Berdorf Goodman holiday windows. The crystal dinosaurs in the window representing the Museum of Natural History were absolutely beautiful! I can't wait to take in all of the Christmas sights when my mom comes back in two weeks for another visit.

Monthly Update: Greta at 5 Months

Monthly Update: Greta at 5 Months

Eating: Greta has developed the very painful habit of pinching me while she eats. I try to keep her hands occupied as much as possible to avoid painful nursing sessions! I always have a few bruises on my chest from her painful pinches. We have not introduced any food tasting yet, but might start next month.

Sleeping: Greta is still a great sleeper! She is consistently sleeping through the night with minimal wake-ups. We plan to keep her in our room for a few more weeks until I return to work. I actually really enjoy having her next to me. I take comfort in checking on her throughout the night.

Doing: Greta is chewing on everything she can get her hands on! She doesn't have any teeth coming in yet, but she will be an expert chewer by the time she does. This month we also experienced our first blow out poops! Brian was at work both times they occurred, leaving me to clean up both Greta and the poop-covered clothes.

Latest Milestones: Greta graduated from her SkipHop play mat and transitioned to her activity center. She plays in there for hours throughout the day! At her most recent doctor appointment she experienced "stranger danger" for the first time. While I was sad to see her so upset, it made me happy that she was immediately calmed down after seeing me again.

Favorite Things: Greta's favorite toys include her carrot and beet teething toys, Sophie the Giraffe, and her lovey. She also loves to scream! She is a very chatty and loves to talk to mommy and daddy.

Best Adventures: I took Greta to the Top of the Rock Observation Deck at the end of October. She was awake for the majority of our visit and we captured some of my new favorite photographs together. We also took Greta trick or treating for the first time. She was the cutest little lamb!

Our Family: We spent a long weekend in Minnesota visiting family. Greta spent time with her great grandparents, grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, and great great aunt. My close friend Jill also spent four days with us in New York City at the end of October. Greta's big sister Emily took a babysitting class with her Girl Scouts troop and is now a diaper changing expert!

Favorite Part About This Age: Greta is so observant and curious. She is constantly watching and reacting to things around her. She always smiles when she sees me, which makes my heart melt. It also is so fun watching her dance. We look forward to our dance parties every day!