Happy 11th Month Clare

I'm writing today (a couple of days late, but the sentiment was expressed in person on time) to wish my baby girl a very Happy 11th month birthday.

I feel like this past month for Clare has not really been about new tricks or accomplishments. When I look back at our posting for her at 10 months, I can see that many of her accomplishments are more or less the same she's just stronger at each of them. She has taken a few unassisted steps but it's really hard to convince her to do it. Almost always, if she doesn't have a hand or table to hold, she'll sit down and then crawl to where she wants to go and then stand up again. We convinced her to take 4 steps on her own last weekend. That's been the max.

I can see this month that Clare is understanding even more of what I say that in past months but she herself doesn't have too many new words. She's pretty reliably saying 'dada' when the time is right. What I have noticed is very consistent repetition in her babbling. Clare babbles ALL THE TIME. And if you say something to her like "That's paper. paper. Can you put the paper on the table?" Her babbling has a lot more p's in it. She'll try it 'pa pa', 'pffaapa' 'paypaypa'. I've also clearly heard k's and s's when I tell her about kisses and g's and d's when we're talking about the dogs or Pugsley.

Her trick last month was finding her tongue. She can still do that. If you ask her about her nose, hair, eyes, ears or any other part - she sticks out her tongue. The only other thing she can find consistently is 'Bellybutton' (and that's mine, not her own). The waving is really strong now though, she waves at her toys, the cats, Mum and Dad, friends, family.. pretty much everyone.

The one person she will not wave at under any circumstances is Santa. Clare still is scared of Santa. And now, it seems, most men in general excluding her Dad. She's especially scared of older gents. She won't have anything to do with YeYe or any of the great-uncles she has. This is one area where I've seen a lot of progress with Clare since one month ago. Socially, Clare has made a lot of changes. She's expressing herself with growls and grunts and cries differently and is so much better at communicating what she needs or wants. Clare always wants to be where the action is and to participate in whatever it is we're doing. Some call it 'nosy', some call it 'busybody', but I call it social. She's been great at playing with the other kids when there are some around. And laughing, laughing, laughing. She'll try to get you to laugh, she'll try to make herself laugh; Clare has really been loving a good laugh. On the otherhand, some of her increased awareness has led to fears. Big noises, strange men (as I mentioned) and being left alone are just not things Clare likes. When she gets scared she needs Mum or Dad to give her a tight squeeze and then she's usually ok again.

Needless to say, we're still having an awful lot of fun!

Talk to you soon,

B.