11 Months

Today, sweet girl, you are 11 months old.

You have had the most amazing month! You learned so many new things this month, gained so many new skills, it's hard to even know where to start. You are growing up so fast, in so many ways. You no longer eat pureed baby food. You are on "real" food now, all the time. Mostly you just eat bits and pieces of whatever I'm eating. Your favorite is whole blueberries, followed closely by strawberries. You don't even like us to cut them up into little chunks anymore; you want to be able to take bites off the whole strawberry as if you were eating an apple. You love anything with a lot of flavor--mild spiciness? Yum. Pepper cream sauce? Yes, please. Regular steamed broccoli is fine, but if it's broccoli sauteed in Chinese stir fry, even better! You definitely take after your Mom in that regard!

You have seven teeth now (four on bottom and three on top) and your eighth tooth is about to break through. I think the top-teeth teething is harder on you than the bottom teeth. When you're getting in new top teeth, you tend to grind your teeth together. I imagine it feels good, but the noise! Ack!

You are now pulling up to stand on anything that will support you, even if it's a flat surface with no handholds, like the front of the refrigerator. You never went through a stage where you could get up but not down . . . smart baby to wait until you can master both directions before really delving into the skill! You are starting to cruise up and down our furniture in pursuit of items you want. Half the time you still drop back to the floor, crawl over to the item, and then stand back up, but you are starting to gain the strength and confidence to just stay standing and work your way slowly over to the item.

You know how to turn your toys on now, and you are so much fun to interact with. Rather than just banging buttons or turning pages, you can chase down balls and put them back in the funnel and you can make the little animals pop UP instead of just knowing how to close them. You love to roll a ball back and forth between us and to throw a toy across the room (you already have quite an arm on you, which makes this softball momma proud) only to gleefully chase it down. You are learning to play with your toys, using your imagination to entertain yourself and it is so much fun to watch!

You are also very helpful with your toys! You take all your toys out of their box, but then when it's time to clean them up, you help me put each one back in the box, too. You like putting things into other things, putting things up on shelves and stacking things, and in general building things and putting them together instead of just tearing them all down like you used to!

Your communication has grown this month in leaps and bounds! Not only are you mimicking more and more sounds, like the meow our cats make (your version sounds like, "eeeaaaahhhhhh"), the "ba-da-bum!" sounds on one of your toys, an exaggerated laugh that your dad or I make, or even a "ooooh!" when you turn on a cool toy, but you are also starting to vocalize things on your own, things that tell us what you want! Last month your dad taught you so say "Ah!" after taking a drink of water. Then you figured out that if you say "Ah!" when you're thirsty, we'll give you water! It is AMAZING to be able to communicate with you, to find out your needs and to be able to give you what you want. Not only can you tell us what you want through pointing or saying "Ah!" but you can tell us what you don't want, too. You have learned how to shake your head no, and even to say "nonono!" when you don't want something. So now when you point at something and we guess wrong, you shake your head and say "nono!" until we figure out what it is that you want. You are also starting to sign more and more. You sign "all done" when you don't want any more food and when we finish a book, and when you want more of something, you clap and point to it. It's not exactly the right sign for "more," but it gets your meaning across, and that's what's really important, right?

You have learned to blow kisses when someone is leaving. There are no words for how unbelievably sweet this is.

You have even started saying words! REAL words! Book was your official first word. You had just finished nursing and sat up, pointing to your stack of books, and said, "Buh!" I know it wasn't exactly enunciated correctly, but it was clear as day what you meant and what you wanted. Awesome! After book, you have said no, duck, bear, baby, and kitty. It is so COOL to hear you saying real words! My sweet little talker.

My very favorite new thing that you do is the questioning gesture that you use when you have a question about something. Whether it's "Where did my toy go?" after your drop something to the floor, or "Where did Dad go?" when he's hiding behind a wall, your hold your little hands up, palms to the sky, raise your eyebrows, and utter a sweet, lilting "eh?" sound. Melts.My.Heart. Seriously. You are the most adorable kid the universe has ever seen.

Eleven months old. In one short month, you'll turn one. That milestone will bring with it changes, not the least of which is the start of the weaning process. Rather than focusing on how sad I'll be to see our nursing relationship come to an end, I'm going to focus instead on the wonderful month ahead. Know that I am savoring every moment of having you cuddled up against me.

You are an incredible child. Your energy, enthusiasm, sense of humor, intelligence, and sweet, loving nature amaze me every second of every day. You make my life better than I knew it could be, and there is nothing that puts a smile on my face the way you do.

Happy 11 months, sweet baby girl.

Love, love, love,
Mom