Elsa is Eleven Months

So this is it. The last month before Elsa hits the one-year mark. Incredible! And this month has brought with it incredible developmental progress. She is crawling, and though she doesn't yet venture much from room to room, she has discovered the dog bowls just outside the back bedroom on more than one occasion. Who knew playing with dog-slobbery water could be so much fun! She also very much enjoys crawling over to the bookshelves, the changing table, or the little rocker in her room and pulls herself up onto her knees. Occasionally she will pull herself all the way up and onto her feet, but usually prefers help with that at this point. She has definitely started cruising around a little when standing and holding onto furniture, but doesn't yet have much speed when it comes to cruising or crawling, which is fine with me!

Elsa is clearly understanding words now. She still only does the sign for "dog," but over the past few days has started doing it nearly constantly with much enthusiasm. She is even trying to say something when she signs that sounds very close to the word "dog." She often confuses the signs for "please" and "dog," as they are both done by patting -- one by patting the chest and the other by patting the thigh, respectively. So if she doesn't have good access to her leg when she wants to sign for "dog," she will just pat her chest instead. We continue to work with other signs, and I just assume she will pick up on them at some point. She is fascinated by lights right now and points to them on a regular basis. Fascination also surrounds photographs on refrigerators (especially when there are dogs in those photographs!) and, strange though it may sound, the clear shower curtain in the guest bathroom. She sticks her finger out to touch it very cautiously and then immediately draws her hand back. She must think it is strange that she can see through a tangible object.

The love of her books still continues. Her favorites these days are The Very Hungry Caterpillar, Peekabo, I Love You! (the book we were given in music class), Pajama Time, and Play (out of the priddy books line). She is still quite fond of her old faves, though -- Goodnight Moon, Easter Bunny (also by priddy), Wild Animals, and Curious Kitties. Now if you lay all the books out and ask her to pick one, she will choose the book she would like read to her, which is a lot of fun. I think the girl would let you read to her all day... as long as there is only a sentence or two per page, as turning the pages is half the fun.

Elsa now has five teeth (two on the bottom and three on the top), and another is about to pop through. She is still nursing four times a day, but I am considering beginning the weaning process here soon. She has cut out all other feedings on her own, so I have hesitated starting any weaning from my end, but I think we might be nearing that time. We shall see... I have a feeling the nighttime feeding might linger for a little while. She is still eating solids well, and has even decided that maybe she does like eggs after all, much to my liking.

She is officially down to one nap a day (except for days like this past Monday and Tuesday, when she decides to play games with me just to keep me on my toes, but those days are rare), and usually goes down around 12:00-12:30 p.m. and naps for somewhere around two hours -- sometimes more, sometimes less. And aside from a few disturbed nights of sleep due most likely to teething, she still sleeps really well at night, going down around 7:00-7:30 p.m., and sleeping usually until between 6:00-7:00 a.m. I still dream of that day when Elsa is staying with grandparents and Jarrett and I are off sleeping in together one morning, but I can't really complain.

We attended our last music class for the summer yesterday, which was sad, but we had a lot of fun over these past five weeks. Elsa really seemed to enjoy it, so I think we will look into enrolling her in the next session. She is still fairly enthralled with musical instruments, and still loves to play guitar with Daddy when he comes home from work in the evenings.

Happy 11-month birthday, Sweetie Pea.