Eleven Months

It's been quite a month!  Anna has gone from a step here or there, to walking between the coffee table and the couch, to taking ten full steps all by herself.

She is so busy.  She goes through about two dozen different toys in an hour.  She still has her favorites, but she plays with all her toys.  Anna is a whiz at climbing the stairs.  She is even getting down them on her own, but in her own way (of course).  She refuses to scoot down them backwards, because mom and dad don't go backwards so why should she.  She sits down, and scoots down one stair at a time. 

Thursday when Joe came home from work, Anna threw herself into his arms to welcome him home.  Then she decided that she needed me, so she wiggled out of his arms and took a few stutter steps, and then full steps back to me.  It was awesome!  She can walk!

Last week she woke up in the middle of the night every night, and would not go back down easily.  On Saturday, I noticed that there was something sharp on her upper gum-line, so I investigated further.  She has a tooth! No wonder she was miserable.

New Discovery

Anna has discovered that her toys can fit inside other toys.  She has been putting small toys inside bigger lids, boxes, cups and other  containers all week.  My favorite new "game" she thought of this week was the Cupped Binkie.  She played it for quite a long time.  And she played it again yesterday, and Daddy played it with her!

Ten Months

It is so much fun to see Anna grow and learn new things.  I can't believe she is so big, and she is becoming more independent.   She will sit on the floor and talk with her stuffed animals, she will giggle for no reason that I can see.  She is talking more and more.  The other day Joe was home, and Anna was carrying on a conversation with herself, and Joe was shocked that she was putting different tones and emphasis and inflection in her babbling.

Anna is figuring out more words, and Joe and I can actually recognize them.  She now says "kitty", "Andy", and of course "Dada", "Mama", and "nomnomnom."

Last week, Anna decided that she needed to find Dad during the day.  She walked up to the kitchen: "Dada?" no answer, so she went upstairs and banged on the bedroom door: "Dada?" we went into the room: "Dada?"  She was so disappointed that he wasn't anywhere in the house.  She sure does love her daddy.

She is even more mobile now than I think she should be.  She stands all by herself, and doesn't fall very often, she normally slowly squats down.  She is so quick with her odd crawl I can barely keep up with her.  But, when it comes to the stairs, she prefers to hold fingers and "walk" up rather than crawl up all by herself, even though she is more than capable.

The only small problem with her being so mobile, is it is almost impossible to get a picture of her sitting still.  When she sees the camera, she wants to come get it, and she gets pretty close.

This month, Anna got to meet her very first farm animals.  Joe's work had their summer party at Thanksgiving Point.  So we went up and enjoyed the Farm Country exhibit before dinner.  Anna wasn't quite sure what to think of the huge creatures that made loud noises.  The cow's head was bigger than her, I think she was convinced that he was going to eat her.  She was excited to try and touch the goats though.  We ate dinner on a blanket in the gardens at the Point, and Anna quite enjoyed rolling around on it, and onto the grass.  It was a fun day.

Craftiness

So, with the invasion in Pinterest I have been a bit more creative, thanks to other people's pins.  And I thought I'd share a few of my projects, and one that was gifted to me (or Anna rather).

                                                        The tutu my mom made for Anna

                                                           The hooded towel I made

                                                                     Sensory bags

Nine Months Old

I can't believe Anna has been here for 9 months.  It seems like only a few weeks ago we were bringing her home.

But, even though I think she is so big already she doesn't seem to think she is big enough.  She seems to want to be bigger and more advanced than she is.  She wants to be able to run around and keep up with the big kids.  She is getting closer every day.  She is a champ at climbing the stairs.  She is also an expert at standing up using anything and everything.  The other day she even stood without support for a second.

She is such a happy girl.  And she lets everyone know when she is excited.  She squeals with delight when she sees something she loves.  She claps when she is happy, even in her sleep.  And she smiles almost all the time, and giggles.  Oh how I love those little giggles.  She even chuckles at nothing that I can see.  When she is playing by herself she will randomly giggle.

One of her favorite things to do is walk.  She takes hold of your fingers and takes off, even before you are ready.  She wants to go, and she is going NOW!  But, when she is done she just plops herself down, leaving no doubt in your mind that she is done walking and you can pick her up and continue on your way.

Her favorite toy the past few weeks has been Raggedy Andy.  She will talk to him, hug him, crawl around with him, and fling him around her head.  When she is upset after a fall, she will cling to him and me.

The Doctor says she's growing and developing very well.  Anna is now 17 pounds 4 ounces placing her in the 25th percentile, and 27 inches long landing her in the 40th percentile.

Eight months

Anna is just loving learning new things.  She can crawl, although hers is not a normal crawl.  She wants to be able to walk, so she makes sure that one foot is flat on the floor when she crawls, so it's more like a crab walk than a crawl.  She can pull herself up to standing using anything that doesn't move as she pulls on it.

She had her first flying experience on her eight month "birthday."  She flew like a pro!  She didn't cry during take off, slept for the whole flight, and didn't cry for landing.  The flight back was a bit more rough: a screaming baby in the back of the plane, stewardesses talking loudly right next to our seat, people running into the arm rest every (what felt like) half hour, and the middle arm rest kept falling on her feet.

We were in Wisconsin because great-grandma Kath died after a battle with cancer.  It was nice to have every one meet Anna.  It was a lot of fun to spend some time with cousin Eliana.  They were instant friends.  When Eli was walking in front, Anna sped up her walking, holding onto my fingers, to catch up to her.

Seven Months

Miss Anna is quickly becoming her own little person, with a big personality.  She prefers to sit on her own, and grab her own toys.  When she is in her bumbo, she arches back, pulls her legs in and kicks herself out of it.  She loves being outside and looking at everything that goes on.  When there are lots of kids at the park, she watches them intently. 

She has recently decided that since she smiles so much, she should make a frustrated/mad face every once in a while.  It is so cute.  

She is becoming quite efficient in getting to where she wants to go.  It's not a full crawl, but she's getting really close.  She is best at crawling when she is mad, but it's backwards.  But when there is a toy in front of her that she wants, you can be sure that she will get there in no time.