11 Months

Grace turned 11 months old this weekend. I can't believe she's almost a year old. Her development is so amazing. Physically, she has 3 teeth. She is trying to walk. We practice letting her walk back and forth between Eric and I. She has taken four steps unassisted, but usually just takes two or three. She has been very talkative lately. She's starting to jabber. Her new thing is playing with her toy telephones (or real ones). She will put the phone up to her ear and say something that sounds suspiciously like "hello?" We have been trying to introduce more "real" foods. We haven't sent baby food to daycare in two weeks. We are still feeding stage 3's for dinner, but I'm trying to introduce more people food. She loves fruit and we just started eating Cheerio's instead of just fruit puffs. She also is very interested in drinking out of a cup. She wants to hold it though, so it's a struggle to keep whatever's in the cup from going all over her. Her temper is coming out too. When she doesn't get her way, she will now cry and throw herself face down on the floor. We aren't giving in to her, but it is so funny to watch her get mad. Unfortunately, this means there is more crying in the house than there was a month ago. I guess I'd rather have the crying than a child with no rules or boundries.

Here are the milestones Grace has reached according to "What to Expect the First Year." Grace's accomplishments are in bold.

By the end of the eleventh month, your baby
...should be able to:
- get into a sitting position from stomach
- pick up tiny object with any part of thumb and finger
- understand word "no" (but not always obey it)

...will probably be able to:
- play patty-cake (clap hands) or wave bye-bye
- walk holding on to furniture (cruise)

...may possibly be able to:
- pick up a tiny object neatly with tips of thumb and forefinger
- stand alone momentarily
- say dada or mama discriminately (no dada, but I think she knows what mama means)
- say one word other than mama or dada (She may be saying Zeus or hello, but I don't know for sure yet)

...may even be able to:
- stand alone well
- indicate wants in ways other than crying
- "play ball" (roll ball back to you)
- drink from a cup independently (sippy cup)
- use immature jargoning (gibberish that sounds like baby is talking a foreign language
- say three or more words other than mama or dada
- respond to a one-step command without gestures (give that to me - without hand out)
- walk well