Eleven

Almost a year. It has gone by so fast. I am having a hard time believing that in less than one month you will be a year old. A toddler. No longer my baby. But I will save all of that for the next post.
You have once again grown and changed in leaps and bounds over the last month.
You are pretty close to walking. Just today you stood up on your own with no support on anything. Your balance is getting pretty good. You stood up for about 30 seconds the other day by yourself until you realized what you were doing and slowly lowered yourself down to the safety of the ground. Your supported steps really crack me up. Your left leg steps way out in front and to the right and your right leg just takes huge steps. You have figured out how to get on your cars and move forward too. But you are more interested in opening the trunk under the seat of one and trying to climb in that.
You have discovered the "in" concept. Tonight your brother dumped out all of his cars and you crawled on over and started putting them all away. He was ecstatic because that was less he had to clean up. You have your little pink piggy bank that you love to put the big colorful coins into. Usually when I am cleaning up, I find every container filled with smaller things after you have been playing with them. Maybe this means you will start cleaning up after yourself. :)
I took you to the Dr on Friday and you weighed 18lbs 2oz. I think that is in the 10%. But you gained a lb over the last month. I don't know why you are not bigger. You eat as much if not more than your brother and you are still breast feeding 4 times during the day and 3 times at night most nights. But you are just long and thin.
You have added another food to the list of those you do not like. Cheerios. I thought that cheerios were a staple for children your age, but you just push them to the side and off the edge. You love eating, but your favorite is cheese. You get so excited when you see that cheese coming your way. You eat bananas just like your brother used it. I break it is half and hand it to you and you stick one end in your mouth and take it from there. You slowly shove that thing down until you have just the little numb sticking out of your mouth.
You have a few words now that you can say. You love to say "HI! Dada!" when you talk to your daddy on skype. And you say it just like that. You yell hi at him. You still say "tay-too" anytime someone hands you something. And your new word this month is baby. You love baby dolls and looking at babies and your favorite is the baby that is in the breakfront right by your highchair. She smiles and waves back at you during your meals. You call her and all other babies "Bay-bay." And your dog Tela is the "Daw."
You love that dog. And she loves you. She lets you crawl over her and sometimes bite her too. Everything still goes in your mouth. You tried some dirt last week. And then gave me a big black grin and started spitting it out. Along with your love of putting everything in your mouth you have become very good at spitting. All I have to do now is pinch your cheeks together and say spit and you spit out whatever it is and give me a devious look. As if to say, "Go ahead take it away now, I will find something else to stick in there."
You have also started imitating sounds. Your laugh changes to whoever is near you. You can imitate your brother laugh perfectly and the other day I caught you mocking my big loud laugh. Your brother and you will sit at dinner taking turns making different noises and copying them and then burst into uncontrollable laughter.
I love the looks you give me and I love your little "big" personality. I know you are going to be a handful. But I look forward to the challenge of it.