You are eleven months old! You weigh 22.2 lbs, and are between 30.5 and 31 inches tall (it's hard for me to measure your height at this age!).
What stands out to me the most this month is you are quite the chatterbox. Your words include Momma, Daddy, Izzy (sounds like eegggeee), uh oh (sounds like oh oh), ooooh, aahhhh, and wow! Right now, "Wow" is your favorite. All day long, it is stretched out and proclaimed with emphasis and exclamation.
"Woooowww!!! Oh! Wow!" I haven't capture it on video yet, but I will.
It seems so fitting to your exuberant personality, that your first major word outside of people's names, is "Wow!" It makes me so happy every time I hear you say it.
We visited the Tower of America's as a family a few days ago. When we reached the observation deck high above the city, you looked out and said "Wow!!!" over and over again. You also say it for simple things, like reading books or discovering something new, like being able to push magnets and photos underneath the refrigerator.
You've learned so many things this month, I can hardly keep up. They're piling up on top of each other, discovery upon discovery.
You can crawl backward down stairs. I taught you how initially, but now you can do it of your own accord. You crawl, see a step, perform an adorable crawling-in-place 180 degree spin, then put your feet or knees down first. That is how I taught you, by moving your body, then saying, "Feet down first! Put your feet down first!"
When you learn a new trick, you practice it over and over, cementing your new-found skill. Leading up to our house, there are three large steps. We can hardly pass by them without you squirming to get out of my arms. We can spend fifteen or twenty minutes outside there, and you will go up and down the steps the entire time.
Sometimes you don't realize you have reached the bottom level, so you continue scooting backward and backward and backward across the ground, seeking an invisible step behind you.
A week or so ago, you played in mud at Tita's house until you were covered nearly head to toe. It was the first time I've had to strip you down to your diaper, removing muddy clothes in the middle of the day. I know it won't be the last.
You have learned to wave bye-bye and hello, but it's kind of random when you choose to do it. One of our favorite books to read is "A Kiss For You," in which children say things their little hands can do. The little hands wave hello and goodbye, and I demonstrate. When we take you for rides around the house in your Little Tykes car, we wave hello and goodbye, and you laugh delightedly.
The Little Tykes car deserves a paragraph all its own. We thrifted in Houston over Christmas. When we bought it, we were in the checkout line after several hours of shopping. You were squirming and squirming in my arms, and I finally started looking to see what you were reaching for. It was the green Little Tykes car. I thought it was odd, since you've never ridden in something like that before. But I set you in the seat, and you immediately grabbed the steering wheel, started turning it back and forth, and laughing. This behavior is incredibly difficult for a parent to resist, and the car was only $8, so we bought it. The entire time, I was nervous, wondering if it would be yet another bulky kids toy that I'd have to turn around and sell because after a couple days, you didn't like it any more (such as bouncer, baby walker, door jumper, bumbo seat, etc.).
But you haven't tired of it. I imagine this is because it requires human interaction (to push or pull you), instead of being a place to stick you and leave you to play alone. Regardless, this car is now the light of your life. You have never loved a toy before, until this one. It's the first toy that will make you cry when we're done playing with it, and take you out (or even pause while pushing you). We use it indoors and outdoors, and you never tire of it. You have never been fussy to get out of it, ever. We are always done pushing or pulling you before you are done riding. If you're fussy, and nothing else is working, we can pull you around the house in it, and you are on top of the world.
It was in this car that you learned to wave hello and good bye. Benjamin was pulling you in circles around the kitchen island, and my mom, Tita, and I were sitting at the dinner table. As you two approached, we would cheer, "Hello!" and wave. As you departed, we would call out, "Bye Bye!" and wave. After several minutes of this (about which you were laughing and delighted), you finally waved at us.
More than words, you are learning to mimic sounds. Often animal sounds, kissing sounds, lip smacking sounds, "wooos" and "wheees" and more. In the same "A Kiss for You" book, there is a page where the child blows a kiss. The other day I heard you making kissing sounds behind me, and turned around to see you looking at that book, open to the page with the blowing a kiss.
You sign "all done", and can use it in context outside of meal time. At the library last week, I was playing with a stuffed animal, making it nibble his fingers. At first you laughed, but after a while, it seemed to bother you. You squealed and turned your face away. Then you signed "all done."
I haven't personally been teaching you signs, because there are some theories that it can negatively affect a child's speech development. However, my sister Esther, who watches you once a week, has been doing a handful of signs with you (all done, more, water, milk). From just that once-a-week interaction, you've been learning. I am okay with using these few signs, because it's better than having you screech at me when you don't like something, or want something, and I have no clue what you're trying to tell me. Well, usually I can figure it out, but it's amazing how most of the time either "more" or "all done" communicates your need.
You is responding well to discipline... so far I have disciplined you to teach you to hold still while I'm changing your diaper and getting you dressed; not to touch the knobs on the stove (you can reach them already), and not to bite me (either while nursing or on any other part of my body). It's taken about three times of discipline to teach you to respond differently. Now, if I think you're about to bite, I say sternly, "Don't bite," and you immediately remove your mouth from my shoulder or whatever you were going to bite.
Today while I was cooking, you came over, pulled up onto the oven door handle (which was closed). You looked at the knobs, looked at me, then shook your head "no" while waving your hand in the "all done" sign.
If you're squirming and trying to flip over while I'm changing your diaper, I can just look in your face and tell you firmly, "Hold still." That usually makes you cry, because you don't want to be still, but you know you have to. Most of the time I give you a toy while I'm changing your diaper, which helps stop the squirming.
You clap your hands when you are happy. (We respond with, "Happy, Happy, Happy!!!"). When you raise your hands, we say, "Praise the Lord." Once my mom and I were talking, and in the context of our conversation, we said, "Praise the Lord." You heard us, and immediately raised both your hands. Oh how precious.
You can put blocks into a single-hole container, and open the door to let the blocks back out at the bottom.
When we visit your cousins, your whole body explodes with excitement. Your legs kick, your arms wave, you squirm and giggle and your whole face lights up! They love to play with you so the feeling is mutual.
At the last part of the night when you come into bed with us, you can't stand to have covers on. We double-layer you in a cotton footed pj then a fleece one, to keep you warm in your crib with no covers. But in our bed, you will fuss and kick the blankets down off your legs. You have even been known to lay sideways with your head by my head and your feet by your daddy's head, to get completely away from the covers.
Some of your favorite foods include avocado, yogurt, kale chips, apple (in any form, raw, dried, or applesauce), vegetable soup, broccoli, and pretty much any fresh fruit.
My favorite time of day with you is almost all day long. I absolutely love our sleeping in mornings (every morning except the day I go to work). We cuddle and nurse and fall back to sleep and cuddle and nurse and fall back to sleep... and when you finally awake we lay in bed "talking" and cuddling some more. One morning, I was particularly tired, and even though you seemed awake, I closed my eyes, hoping you would take the hint and fall back to sleep one more time. Instead, you bopped me on the nose with your sock-covered hand as if to say, "Wake up, momma!" You still wear socks over your hands at night, to keep you from pinching and scratching my skin while you nurse at night.
Your favorite place to be is either in my arms, or outside. You will crawl around picking up leaves and sticks, and playing with tree bark, for as long as I'll let you. The weather has been delightful here, so I've taken you outside for an hour or more every day, once or twice, to crawl around and play. I'm so glad you're a nature lover like me!
