Thoughts On An 11-Month Old

Wow, you're amazing, exhausting, frustrating, hilarious and a dream come true! And I can't believe you're already 11-months old.

Physically you are still very strong. You love climbing up the stairs, but you haven't learned to get back down so we're constantly carrying you back down and watching you go up again. We've started taking walks outside where you actually walk with us behind your walker. Outside you don't have pesky obstacles like furniture and walls to stop you, so you walk very quickly in your cute, straight-legged gait.

Some of your new favorites include grilled cheese sandwiches, quesadillas, cheese slices (see a pattern here?), and you recently enjoyed black olives for the first time with Jana. You prefer eating "real" foods rather than strained baby foods, and after tasting your baby foods, we don't blame you. Food is one of my bigger concerns with you because I'm not a very good eater myself. I try REALLY hard to make sure you get a fruit, veggie, protein and grain with each meal. Of course, whether you eat the things I put on your tray is a completely different challenge.

You mimic us a lot, especially when we laugh. Sometimes we laugh at nothing just to get you giggling. You also stick your tongue out at us when we do. You talk a lot more these days, often babbling incoherently. You repeat "mama" and "dada" when we say it, but it's hard to tell if you correlate us with the words. You said "bye bye" for the first time at the right time during our Christmas trip to KC, so we're counting it as your first word. You also waved while saying it, which we took as additional evidence to your feat.

In just one month you'll be a year old. You might be walking, you'll probably be talking more and trying new foods. We're looking forward to each new day.