Dear Riley Quinn- 11 months old

    

Dear Riley Quinn,

11 months. 11 whole months have come and gone. I cannot believe it. I know I say that every month, but the closer we get to a year, the more I am in shock! You are one incredible, spunky, happy, lovely to be around little girl. People that meet you and spend time with you ask me if you ever cry. So many people love you, Riley Quinn. You are so blessed. We are so blessed to have you in our lives. You love to make people laugh and when you know you are being funny you just keep doing what you're doing. It's hilarious. You make a sound like a hyena too. When you get excited. I'll have to get a video of it. 

You are walking all over the place with your walker still. You have been since July 4th. I can't figure out why you aren't giving it up yet to walk on your own. I guess because you are so efficient at your 1 legged crawl and you know we will carry you, so it's no rush for you. I'm OK with that though. You are already growing up WAY too fast for me! You stand all on your own now too. And when you stand you start to clap, since that is what we all do when you stand. It is too cute, because I think you think clapping is a must when you are standing!

You give kisses now too! They are the sweetest when unexpected, but you will usually give them to you now if we ask too. Big, slobbery, open mouth kisses! This morning you even added a smoochie sound to some of them. :)

You still love to eat pretty much anything. I would have to say your favorite at this point is zucchini. I weighed you last week and got about 17 lbs. Still so slim and so tall! I haven't measured you lately, because you won't sit still long enough (hence your 11 months photos...) You like whole milk. Even though we haven't replaced your formula yet, we have been giving it to you to try and you really like it. In the next week or so we will start to transition you one bottle at a time. You are still taking two naps now too, but I think you may drop it to one soon. You are shortening your morning nap to about 45 minutes now. It used to be about an hour and a half. It's still nice for you to get some rest and re-charge though.

You absolutely LOVE the ocean. All summer you played in the sand and in your pools and we tried to keep you under your umbrella. This past weekend though, you weren't having it. Every time we sat you down, you took off full speed for the ocean. One time Grandy even let you get to where you were pretty much covered and he grabbed you up right before the wave came. You have no fear, little one. Well... no fear of the ocean or jumping out of chairs. You are still scared to death of ma-lolo's exercise ball since it bopped you in the head. And any other medium-large bouncy type balls scare you to death as well. You started off scared of the witch ma-lolo has out for Halloween, but we put your cookies on it and you warmed up to her. :) Maybe we should put some of your cookies by the ball too.

You are having a birthday party next month and I am having so much fun planning it. I have been stressing out about your invitations though. I know it will all come together in the end and I am excited to celebrate your first year of life with us. I am just very sad that it has gone by so quickly. This has been the fastest year of my life. 

Riley Quinn, I've said it a million times- you are my EVERYTHING. Your daddy and I want to give you the world little one. Stay sweet, kind, loving and spunky! We love you more than the world. I don't want you to grow up. Please stay little forever. 

We love you!

Love,

Mommy and Daddy

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