Eleven Months

Bailey is now eleven months. Only one more month until she's one year old. So crazy.

FIRST WORDS

Bailey has started saying her first few words. In the order she learned them:

1. Mama

2. Hi

3. Dog

4. She's even learned her first two-word combo: Hi Dog

Words we think she may be saying, but aren't quite sure yet:

1. Dad

2. Banana

3. Apple

She's been saying "mama" for a while now, but picked up "hi" and "dog" at my parents' house over Christmas. She started saying "hi" to my family probably because she heard them say it to her so much. Now she says hi to everyone wherever we are. She'll say hi to total strangers in the grocery store, airport, church.... They usually laugh and comment on how friendly she is. It's funny because we'll be standing in line at the store, and she'll say "hi" over and over again to the person behind us.

FIRST STEPS

Bailey has also taken her first steps! On Christmas Eve, she was leaning on a stool and took her first step or two to get to me. She wasn't prompted, and I was totally surprised when I saw it. The next day, she took two or three steps on her own. Since then, she usually takes a few steps everyday, but still isn't officially walking. She stands unassisted all the time. I think she prefers standing to sitting. I'm sure any day now she'll just take off and walk across the room.

OTHER NEW DEVELOPMENTS:

1. She has eight teeth--four on top, four on bottom.

2. She signs, "milk," "more," and "food/eat." It's so nice that she can use some signs now. It makes it a lot easier because she can actually communicate with us, and it takes out some of the guesswork when she's grunting and pointing.

3. She started eating a TON of her baby food. She would normally eat two containers a meal (stage 2 foods), but then started eating FOUR at a time. It was out of control. Now all of a sudden, she's hardly eating any of her baby food, and mostly wants solid food. Her favorites:

A. Cheerios

B. Bread

C. Gerber's biscuits (She LOVES them, but they make such a mess, so I don't let her eat them too often.)

D. Bananas

E. Apples

F. Water

G. (Milk, of course, is still her absolute favorite.)

4. She cannot get enough of her books. She LOVES to read. Her favorite book used to be Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you See? but now she seems to love any book that has animals. She's starting to get so chattery, especially when she's reading. It's like she's actually reading the book. A book can entertain her by herself for quite a while. She'll just flip from page to page, pointing and chattering and then starting all over again.

5. One day, she found her little comb. I never use her comb on her hair, just her brush. But she took the comb and held it up to her hair like she was going to comb it. It was so cute, and I was so surprised that she knew what it was for.

She insisted on holding some cauliflower, so that's what she has in her hand in these pictures.