Minimagpie at 11 Months.

Gulp.  We’re one month out from mini’s first birthday and I’m seesawing between nostalgic tears and beaming pride.  When I’m feeling weepy, scrolling through images of her when she was just three days, three weeks, three months old, I let myself wallow in the tenderness for a few seconds and then turn my focus to the present and its many blessings.  For starters, we’re sleeping through the night–we have been since she was about nine months old–and I won’t let myself forget how exhausting those first nine months were.  It’s amazing what you can do on very little sleep–but it’s even more amazing to score eight hours of uninterrupted sleep.  Ha.  So I’m still celebrating a full night’s sleep!

One of you smart readers wrote to say that though the going may get tough during the exhausting newborn phase or the terrible twos or the moody teenage years, “Never wish your child’s age away.”  The phrase struck me, and I’ve thought of it often–not so much from the perspective that I’m wishing mini would hurry up and get older, though.  I think about it more when I’m feeling emotional about how big she’s getting; I find myself swooning: “Ohhh what I’d give to go back in time and cherish those newborn snuggles.”  But then I’m not focusing my energy on giving her cuddles now, when she can nuzzle her head against my neck and put her arms around me and cling to me.

Which brings me to mini’s eleven-month update!  (Her 10 month update here!)

*In the above snap, mini is wearing a Kissy Kissy peter pan collar bodysuit, which I own in multiples and layer under everything, and classic Osh Kosh B’Gosh joveralls.

Minimagpie: Mealtime at 11 Months.

Mini’s eating habits have been a touch confusing to me.  She happily ate falafel drenched in hummus from Taim last Saturday, but Sunday afternoon wouldn’t touch it — she just flung it around the room.  Two days later, she would strain her neck away from macaroni and cheese; the next day, she was shoveling it into her mouth.  This brings me to three observations/thoughts:

1.  If at first she doesn’t like it, try, try again.  I continue to try to feed her eggs; she continues to spit it out.  But I’m convinced that if I expose her enough, she’ll eventually come around to it–just like with mac and cheese earlier this week.
2. I think she’s especially interested in food when it comes from my plate.  For example, I had been eating my falafel sandwich and breaking her off bits to eat — and she was excitedly eating from my hand, her little bird mouth open with excitement and anticipation.  Not sure where this leaves us, but it seems to be a tried and true way to get her to test a new flavor.
3. Occam’s razor: the simplest explanation is often the right one.  Meaning, maybe she just wasn’t that hungry at lunchtime on Sunday!

However, mini always has room for fruit.  She loves it.  Especially berries (we’re being bankrupted by the price of berries in winter in Manhattan), clementines, and kiwi.  She’s also a snack lover — she currently likes Ella’s Kitchen Milk and Vanilla Cookies; shredded cheese; Bamba peanut snacks; and, of course, puffs.

I am running out of what I call “fallback” meals — basically, lunches or dinners that I can pull together in a few minutes when I don’t have leftovers on hand or whatever we’re eating is too spicy/not going to be ready in time for her 5 p.m. dinner.  Lately, I’ve been feeding her lots of peanut butter sandwiches, quesadillas, raisin bread with cream cheese, fish sticks, Dr. Prager’s veggie bites, and pasta/mac and cheese.  What other suggestions do you guys have?

Minimagpie: Playtime at 11 Months.

Mini is officially on the move.  She’s crawling everywhere, pulling herself up on baskets/chairs, and testing out a range of new gymnastic feats (she routinely hoists herself up into downward facing dog).  She’s nearly impossible to keep in one place for more than a few minutes, unless she’s surrounded by a stack of books, which tend to hold her attention for a decent amount of time.  (Much to my delight.)

Mr. Magpie and I really need to babyproof the apartment a bit more — I have my eye on these for our coffee table, these for our kitchen cabinets, and these for our sockets.  The only alternative would be to buy a gate to section off her play area (one of my friends has this one), but the problems are as follows:

1.  Where would we keep said gate when not in use?!  We’re allergic to the idea of keeping it up permanently because our apartment is tiny and it would clutter everything and also make us feel like grownups living at Gymboree.  But I just have this sneaking suspicion that if we had it, we would tire of collapsing it and putting it away 10 times a day.  And finally — where is “away”?  We have no space left in our closets, and I’m loathe to keep it leaning against a wall (we’re already resigned to keeping her stroller out and on display in our foyer…sigh).
2. We own an expensive Nuna playard/travel crib, and though playpens are highly out of vogue these days, the crib is not that much smaller than the area we would confine her to with one of said gates.  (We would probably put the “pen” around the carpet in our living room in front of the TV.)  So, why would we buy something new when we have something that would suffice?
3. How long would we even use a gate?  Like, when does it stop being practical?  Once they start walking?  Which is…in a few months?  Meep.

Mini’s favorite toys right now, which aren’t too different from last month: her babydoll (our nanny has taught her to cradle it and rock it back and forth and OMG I DIE; she clutches it in her stroller; she even sleeps with her hand curled around it); her music set (Mr. Magpie and I were both percussionists — he, a drummer; me, a pianist — so this is exciting to us); her Maileg mouse set (<<this entertains her for about 20 minutes every morning while I am getting dressed and making the bed; I put her in her crib with this, and she happily moves the mattresses around from one stack to another); crayons and paper (<<requires heavy supervision, since she tends to like to “test” how the crayons taste; she also prefers the jumbo crayons to the egg-shaped ones — they’re easier for her to grip and control, but my mother informs me both are good at teaching he different motor skills); silicon bowls in the kitchen; vintage wooden nesting blocks that belonged to Mr. Magpie.

Minimagpie: Sleeptime at 11 Months.

I’m happy to report that we’re still in a happy pattern of going down to sleep around 7:15 and waking up for the day at 6:30.  The big change is that she’s shifted from two naps to one.  [Big sigh.]  I didn’t realize how much I loved and needed the twice-daily breaks to grab a quick shower or tend to emails or tidy the house, but…such is life.  Right now she’ll go down for a nap around 11 a.m. and sleep until 1; I’m trying to gradually shift that nap until 12 or 1 — after her lunch — because I think it will make more sense that way in terms of meals.  It doesn’t feel quite right to feed her at 10:45 a.m. and then put her down on a full stomach; and it also doesn’t feel quite right to feed her lunch at 1:15 or 1:30, after she’s woken up.  But then again, I’ve never been super into artificial schedules to begin with, so we’ll see how things go…

Minimagpie: Wishlist at 11 Months.

I’ll do a separate post on all of the items I’m eyeing for her big 1-year birthday (!!!!), but here are a few items less of the gifting variety I’ve been eyeing:

+This transportable playmat bag.  I love that hedgehog print, and it might be helpful for containing the mess while visiting friends/grandparents.

+Beaba cutlery — she’s getting to an age where she can start feeding herself with something other than her fingers!

+Stacking cups — she loves anything that stacks/nests these days.  These are super inexpensive and would be nice to keep in my diaper bag.  (Also, HOLY REVIEWS!  Have you ever seen a 5 star review across 1500 reviewers for a product under $4?!)

+I had SO many great reactions/responses to my post on wearing a backpack as a diaper bag — please check out all the ideas here if you’re in the market! — and then one of my good friends texted me and encouraged me to look at this one, too.  I’m still undecided, but it’s becoming increasingly clear that this may be a part of the puzzle for me when taking mini out.  I just got her Yoyo, which I will more fully review in a few weeks, after I’ve thoroughly tested it out, but the one thing it’s made apparent is that it will be borderline impossible for me to take her out of the stroller and fold it up while also holding a bag over my shoulder.  I guess that’s what benches are for?  Or…backpacks.  The other backpack I’m considering is this one, which you can get handpainted with your initials!!!!

+A friend of mine has a baby two months mini’s junior and she recently told me that she started giving her baby baths in the big tub.  I realized I had never even thought about when mini might transfer to “the big girl tub” — she certainly can sit up on her own now…!  Suddenly I imagined myself trying to bathe her in her baby tub until the age of six.  Womp womp.  Sometimes it takes another mama to make you realize something very, very obvious.  Anyway, I have this sitting in my cart because I’ve been very impressed with EVERY Boon product I’ve purchased thus far.  I also saw another mom on Instagram using this inside her bath, but I’m thinking that mini has probably outgrown the need for that…?  (Though — what a great idea for travel if you’re not sure if you’ll have an appropriate bath tub for baby?!  I can’t tell you how many times I had to awkwardly “bathe” mini in a fancy pants marble rain shower while we were waiting to move into our new apartment, while crouching on the ground of the shower with her…I would have killed for this.)

+This should give you a clue into what a baby gear geek I am: I was legit excited when I saw the new colors the Ubbi comes in.  Not that we’ll ever need a new one, but — what great and chic options for nearly any nursery!

+I snagged a few pieces from Primary — a few of these tees and one of these zipped footies in the stark white color (so yeezy season three).  I like their emphasis on inexpensive, unfussy, basic-colored cotton pieces; it makes for easy mix-and-matching.  But I have to say I’m a little underwhelmed by the quality of the cotton on the t-shirts.  The jammies seem to be better made.  I think this could be a good resource if you’re looking for something to coordinate with a specific pair of pants or overalls or need an extra pair of play clothes for school as a backup for accidents, but I’m not sure I’m bought…

+I seriously considered this dress for mini’s first birthday, but went with another…which will be a SURPRISE!!

P.S.  Have you checked out my updated LeShop page?  There’s a whole section just focused on minimagpie gear if you scroll down, and I’ve updated each to include a description!