11 Month Newsletter

Dearest Gwennie Bug,

Here you are a great big eleven month old girl. How time has gone so swiftly by. You are quite a character, and every day I enjoy you and the little sweet things you do.

Monday you learned how to clap. We were sitting down watching television and you crawled/walked into the kitchen. I went to make sure you weren’t into something you shouldn’t be. You were sitting in the middle of the floor, staring at your hands. Then you slowly brought them together. Clap. Clap. The joy in your face was amazing. It still takes a lot of concentration for you to complete the clap, but its worth it.

Your walking is nearly perfected, although occasionally your body gets moving a little faster than your legs and you topple. We clap and say “Good Job!” so you get up and laugh instead of cry.

Climbing is your all time favorite thing to do. You try to climb on everything. The dining room table? You have beaten that hurdle. The recumbent bike? Just a little thing. The stairs? Ages ago. You have even figured out the getting down part. I think the only thing you really want to climb and have yet to figure out is our bed. Its pretty tall. We have a blanket chest at the foot of it, and that serves as your step to getting down, but its just a few centimeters taller than you can stretch. It won’t be long now, and I am sure the day you make it to the top, it will be as though you had climbed Mount Everest!

Everyday when we drop your sister off at school, you long to play with the kids. You stretch in the sling, twisting first left then right in order to get a better view of what those kids are doing. You push against me, trying to get down. I put you down and you try to run and play, but you are also quite shy. All of the people walking around make you nervous and you often retreat to your place between my legs reaching up for me to hold you again. In the afternoon when we pick her up you once again want to play. This time is better, as its mostly the kids and her teacher Mr. J. In your book, he is ok. The first time we met him, you willingly went to him, reaching high into the air so he would carry you about the room. I take that as a good sign, he is a decent person if you are willing to go to him.

I can see your fourth tooth pushing against your top gum. It is pressing gently for the moment, not causing you grief. However soon you will have those teeth, the bucky beaver teeth. Hopefully the rest of your toofers come in shortly, and easily.

You still want mama milk all of the time. You don’t let up. Every time you fall or can’t have something you want, you grab at my shirt, trying to pull it up. I think you have even figured out how to sign milk.

Only a month left until you are a whole year old, time is just spinning out of control.

Love always,
Your mama