"It Happened Overnight"

Wow Shelby! I'm sure I'm sounding like a broken record, but you have grown so much here lately! It seems like overnight you just matured and can do so many new, different things. First, you finally have your first tooth! It took eleven months, but the lower right tooth has broken the skin and is pushing through. I guess now we'll have an explosion of teeth to catch up with most babies. I still think you held that tooth in so I wouldn't stop nursing you. I always said that when you got teeth, I was quitting. But you have a tooth, and we're not quitting. I can't nurse you in public anymore, because you always stop and look around and leave me exposed. You are so funny; when you do stop, I'll ask you if you're all done, and you lunge back and start nursing again!

We are however, not nursing at night anymore, and you are even sleeping through the night in your own bed. Mommy struggled with this for so long: reading books, trying to figure out what the best method would be, taking the babiest of baby steps. While low and behold, it was more me than you, I think! I was sooo afraid how you would react and how upset you would be. After talking with Dr. Parker and realizing that you were a "trained night feeder," it just clicked. We tried exactly what the article said, and you did amazing!! The first night, there was only about 20 minutes of crying...total! Ten to go to sleep, ten in the night. Now, you have your milk, and I put you in your bed, and you quietly turn to your side and go to sleep!! You are napping in your bed now, too. You even had your first sleepover, or "date-night" as Brother calls it, at JuJu & Poppie's. You didn't even seem to miss me, JuJu says!

And I think we can officially say you are walking! While you know you can get places faster when you crawl, you still try so hard to maintain your balance and keep going, even when you fall down. And when you do make it to where you are trying to go, you are so very pleased with yourself!

You, like Brother, absolutely adore your "bankie." It is very similar to Landon's "Pooh Blank," but pink satin and no Pooh. When you need it and you see it, you get so excited, rush over to it, and bury your face in it. It is so cute!

You also love brownies, and have for a while now (shhhh...). When you see them, you get very antsy, and you pop your mouth, as if to say, "brownie..NOW!" Hey, you love anything sweet, really!

While Landon was absolutely terrified of the "Busy Ball Popper," you get the biggest kick out of it! You slam the plunger down to start it up and squeal in delight. Then you scurry to gather the balls to do it again.

You also like to play cars with Landon. You even make slobbery noises, which I know is a "vroom vroom." Lately you've been into putting things into containers and taking things out: cars in the basket or farm animals in your toy blender, whatever! Landon gets a little frustrated when you pick up the cars that we're playing with.

But I think your favorite thing is playing kitchen. You love to go through all the plastic stuff and chew on most of it. You think the knobs on the stove that make noise are really cool too.

Shelby, you are such a joy, and we love every day with you. It really is hard to believe that it's been almost a year...