11 Months Old

Dear Eva Kate,

You've been a blessing in my arms for 11 whole months now! Where did my tiny baby go? I'm not sure, but I love you even more now. In the photo above you are wearing one of my favorite bows that you got for a baby shower gift, and it's now really too small for your head.

I was thinking earlier tonight about your development this past month and the three words that I'd use to describe you right now are independent, determined, and social. You  have become so interested in the world around you. You want to feed yourself, so you eat lots of finger fruits and veggies now. You want to explore everything around you, so off you go as quick as you can crawl, usually making funny sounds as you journey along. You know which toys are your favorite (your rubber duck, a toy Mike Wazoski from Monsters Inc, your spatula, some black and white picture cards) and you know which toy bins they are each in, so you are quick to head that way, bend over, and reach for exactly what you want. You do not want to have your hands and face wiped down or your teeth brushed. You do not want to be still for more than a nano second for a diaper change. You do not want to be in your exersaucer anymore, you want to walk around it. You absolutely must climb up and down the stairs in our entry way at least fifty times a day. When you crawl into the kitchen you must push around my pink step stool. These things are nonnegotiable in your every day playtime.

Silly baby! You have started standing like this on your head all the time. You will be crawling along, then stop to stand on your head, and then you look at me and laugh. You never shy away from being the center of attention. This month you've also started pointing at everything and making a sound that shows that you are interested and want to know about something. When I pick up up from your crib you point out all of the fun things in your room. When we walk down the stairs you point our all of the pictures and you point to the front door. You point out every time the ceiling fan in moving. You point to your bowl of binkies that we keep on your dresses (wouldn't want me to forget where those are). You love it when we are outside and see an airplane and you point it out to me, just in case I missed it. 

You have discovered that grasshoppers like to land on our back door. When we walk into the living room you like to cruise over to the door and look for them. One day we saw four all at once and you smiled so big!!!! I love that you are so curious. Conversations with you have become very interesting as I explain the world around you to you all day long. 

You are starting to learn how to share. Mostly this means that you hand me something, I say Thank You, and then you want me to hand it back to you. At least it's a good start. You have almost learned to blow kisses - you put your hand up to your mouth and smile :) Close enough.You like to dance when you hear music - as soon as you hear a catchy tune your head starts bopping and your body starts bouncing.

What else is new this month? You have 8 teeth - 4 on top, 4 on bottom. You are pretty much down to 2 naps a day. You are sleeping a little bit better and usually only wake me up once in the night to nurse. You are loving some new foods -  canteloupe, grapes, shredded cheese, and spinach! I may have sneaked you a few teeny tiny bites of frozen yogurt. You jabber non stop - in the car, in your crib, in your highchair and playing around the house. You can follow short directions like hand me the toy, come here, uh-uh (stop!), wave bye-bye, and say hi. You like to initiate silly sounds with me.

And of course, you always look up to your Daddy. We love you forever, munchkin!

love, Mama