11 months old (almost two weeks late)

What a big girl you are getting to be—you are now 11 months old! This last month has been so very busy for you. You went to the beach again, and you went to Sweden for the first time (well, you were not yet born the last time). At the beach it took you a few tries to warm up to the water, but once you got used to it, you loved splashing (you love water anyway, always hanging out by the running faucet in the tub), and you adored crawling in the sand and through tide-pools. There was so much open space!

You are still crawling absolutely everywhere, as fast as you can go. You can kneel and squat, and you learned very fast how to clap along to music once I started showing you. You draw your arms wide apart and slap them together (or near each other) very enthusiastically. These days you are amazing acrobatic, fearless, monkeylike. You want to climb up everything you see, getting footholds on people’s belts, on cushion outcroppings. My hands hovering below, you were like a little sailor scaling the ropes of the hammock going towards the tree.

All this intrepid investigating has led to some injuries, which is inevitable at this age. You get over things very fast, though; after a little cuddling and thumb sucking, it is easy to get you interested in a toy.

You’re not just adventuresome about your environment, but also food. Any food in front of you is worth trying and you have liked everything (except sauerkraut). Right now you love fruit and tomatoes especially—like watermelon and strawberries. But in Sweden you had so many foods, like Swedish meatballs! Your relatives there couldn’t get over how happy you were to try new things, and how much you ate!

You’ve discovered your tummy! Sometimes when you are just wearing a diaper you grab happily at it, and poke at your belly button. You love everybody’s’ belly buttons—mommy’s, daddy’s, mommy’s pregnant friend’s, your own. We call them beebos from one of your children’s books. This month you also got two more teeth, your fifth and sixth, on top on either side of your middle teeth.

You’ve started saying Mama (or rather muh-muh-muh) when you are sad. And you love to imitate sounds and have competitions to see who can be loudest (you usually win!) The most interesting linguistic development this month though was your ability to understand some instructions, like “Come follow Mama!” and “Go get your toy.” You also give kisses, the sweetest sight, when asked (sometimes). Your great-grandparents Lala and Granddaddy gave you a stuffed chicken when you visited them this month, and you just love that thing, and give it big kisses when you see it. You kiss people, too, which delights them—your mouth wide and aimed not too specifically towards their faces. Everyone wants more kisses from you! You’ll also kiss pictures in books and magazines. What a sweet girl!

Your family in Sweden was so delighted to meet you. You thought your Farfar was so funny when he fake sneezed, and you always giggled when your Farmor played Tittut with you. You and your cousin A gamboled about on the sunny front lawn and in the sandbox, and you also spent played with your Farmor’s Russian dolls with your second cousins S and F. You met your great-grandparents and went to your first wedding (when Uncle R and Auntie V got married). It was wonderful to see you having so much fun with your aunts and uncles and grandparents and everyone, and they were smitten and delighted with you. We took hikes as much as we could and you took in all the gorgeous scenery. You even seemed to say “Tack, tack” once when your Uncle R was feeding you strawberries. Your Auntie A and Uncle M were so pleased to get to know you and introduced you to all sorts of Swedish baby clothes, toys, and food.

It’s been a fun and busy month with you and you were a joy to be with throughout.

Love,
Mom