11 Months

Dear Rosebud,

YOU CRAWLED. It took almost 11 months to the day, but you finally did it. For the first few days you seemed a bit tentative, and then I got to watch as a lightbulb went off. It was as if you said to yourself, "wait...I don't have to stay in this room?!" And then you took off. The hardwood floors don't seem to dissuade you, though dresses pose a challenge. Your little knees trip on them, causing you to face-plant somethin' fierce. Now that you have access to pretty much whatever you desire, I find it endlessly amusing that you choose to go after our shoes. And paper. Any kind of paper.

(Leave it to my daughter to ultimately be motivated by a musical instrument.)

When you're not crawling, you spend a lot of time in a jazz split. Hopefully you'll be able to sustain the flexibility that you certainly won't be inheriting from your mother--sorry, kid. (And, fair warning, I've also got bad eyes and bad teeth, so...)

You still looooove the peek-a-boo game, though sometimes you're so lazy you can only be bothered to half-heartedly cover one eye. Then you wait for me to figure out what you're doing. It's adorable, actually.

We have definitely determined that your "D" word is "doggie." You're so enthusiastic about all dogs we run across at the park, on walks, and, of course, your own dog. You're infatuated by her tail, much to her chagrin, and she spends much of her day trying to stay out of your path of destruction.


You also seem to have another word for your brother's name, but I can't quite nail down the phonetics yet.

You're definitely saying "Dada," and you definitely know who Dada is. :)

You can hold your own bottle! Just in time to start giving it up!

And the pointing. Oh...the pointing. You point at EVERYTHING. Usually with no desire to label or hold. But it's darn cute. One thing you point at incessantly is your butterfly mobile. Then we practice blowing it to make it move. So sweet.

You took your first bike ride on June 24, in the Burley with your brother. To his credit, he really tried to be patient with you, even though you kept smacking him in the face, unintentionally. We took a short ride to the park to do your very favorite activity--swing. You could swing for HOURS--and have, actually, swung continuously for one hour on an afternoon we spent at the park with your brother's friends. You never fussed, you never even batted an eye when I kept running to the other side of the park to tend to him. What a gal!

You had two playdates this month; one with Little L (who you first met when you were a few days old), and one with Huey's brother (Auntie G, we need a blog nickname for him!). Unfortunately for both of them, you spent the majority of the time trying to pull their hair. Ouch. You also met Princess Baby A, and squealed with delight over her for a half hour. She didn't quite know what to make of you.

You took a vacation with us to Mackinac Island. Let me tell you, if ever there was a baby who didn't sleep well in the car, it's you. 14 total hours, 3 total hours of napping. Which meant you spent most of the rest of the time staring at your reflection and hoping someone (me) would crawl into the back seat and entertain you. Other than that, you were a trooper on our vacation, even though you missed several naps and were completely out of routine. You were SO EXCITED about the horses! horses! horses! Every time you saw one (which happened about 120 times per day) you would yell as loud as possible. Passersby were quite amused at your antics. You also ate quite a bit of ice cream and tried to learn to crawl on the floor of our hotel room--to no avail.

You remain a jolly, happy baby, for the most part, and I love being your mom and watching this process all over again. Next month is a big one!

Love,
Mom

11 Month Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/93pdwk0pj2ivu73/8brPF4W5d0
Mackinac Photos: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ob2t4pu3q8b3v2f/kjyVkFIOy8