Letter to Lissi on her 11 month bday

Dear Lissi,

11 months old today. Only one month away from a year. Wow! You are hardly a baby anymore and we’re already preparing for your toddler years.

You stand without holding on all the time now and have begun to cruise around the furniture. You’ve attempted one step, but haven’t tried again since then. You easily crawl up and down stairs, crawl one-handed, and even crawl on just your knees with no hands. You love to dance by shaking your head, bouncing up and down, and shaking your bottom.

Your dancing always comes with plenty of vocalizations. You squeal with delight when dancing. You continue to make silly growling noises, but many of your noises now are more understandable. You are saying three words, “More, Nai-Nai, Mama” and sign “more”. I was thrilled to discover recently that you understand that the word “more” is not just for food, but for anything that you enjoy. An example was when you were watching a neighbor’s cat and every time it moved away from us you started saying and signing “more”. You have started to imitate a few more words and today enjoyed imitating the inflection and vowel sounds in animal noises while reading “Moo Baa La La La”.

Your comprehension of language continues to develop as well. You understand stated and unstated common rules and will look to us with a twinkle in your eye when contemplating disobedience. You race crawl down the hall to us when your name is called and are getting the idea of looking for people when their names are called out.

Your eating continues to astound us. You eat more than mommy and Cal combined for some meals. You love all finger foods, but have started getting sick of bananas. Some of your favorite foods include noodles, cheese, peaches, cereal, waffles, lunch meat, and bread. You don’t like to drink your bottle very much, but have learned to sip from a straw and are always trying to drink everyone else’s drinks.

This last week you have been taking your first swimming class. You are obviously very cold in the water and shiver often. However, you are doing a spectacular job of playing in the water, floating, and being comfortable in this environment. If the days were just warmer then I think it would be a perfect activity.

You are a beautiful little girl and we are so proud of you and filled with love for you. Happy 11 months!


Much love, Mommy and Daddy