Sofia, 11 Months

Sofia is almost always happy. She recovers from bonks and frustrations easily, but lately I have seen glimpses of a force within her to be reckoned with. Recently, when she doesn't get something she wants, she looks straight into my eyes and starts to rear her head back, threatening to flop back onto the floor. I don't know where this is leading, but for now it makes me giggle to see thirty inches of chubby rolls act so dramatic.

She loves putting objects into containers and taking them out. Especially herself, into baskets, drawers and suitcases. She gets exhilarated and giddy when I wave a sheet near her and she feels the wind in her face. She bounces to my brother's electronic music and she loves Winnie-the-Pooh.

A couple of weeks back she went through a two-day spell of non-stop babbling. And I mean NON STOP. Her chosen words were Takata, takata, takata and tika, tika, tika (accent on the second syllable like Degas.) She is not saying any (English) words consistently although from time to time she will say something that makes us do a double take. She almost certainly said "thank you" when I handed her a yum-yum during a meeting at Lucas's school. If she was trying to score points in advance of her Montessori interview I think it worked. Anu, the primary director seemed impressed!

She's waking up once a night. I'm not rushing to do anything about it because otherwise she is a great sleeper and I don't want to rock the boat. She goes down happily and on her own at around 7pm, wakes up around 3-4 to nurse and then sleeps til 7:30. She naps 9-11 and 2-4.

Still four teeth on the top and two on the bottom. We seem to be stalled out here.

She is an amazing eater! With all the energy she expends she is very hungry at mealtime. She eats a combination of finger foods and pureed foods that I spoon feed her. I just fed her couscous pudding (milk, yogurt, raisins, cinnamon and couscous) and she liked it. She usually eats about four meals a day with a nibble or two in between. Today it was oatmeal and eggs with onions for breakfast, buttered toast and banana for lunch, a fig newton for a snack, and chicken nuggets, cheese, and sweet potatoes (which caused a rare tongue-thrust rejection) for dinner. Couscous pudding was bed-time snack.

I've started to serve her food on a plate, and not the plastic kind. This makes Lucas nervous since he's seen her throw pieces of food off the tray, but how will she ever learn if I don't take a risk? Besides, she is not usually into throwing heavy or potentially loud objects, like our everyday China. The first time her food was presented this way, she was quite occupied with lifting the plate and almost overturning it. Thankfully we did a practice round with plastic because she ended the meal by chucking it overboard. But since then she is more interested in the food. And I just keep an eye on her. When she starts to lose interest in eating, before the idea of throwing enters her mind, I zoom into the "all done" routine.

I never thought we would have an eleven-month-old crawler, but here she is. She likes to stand, and can easily stand from a seated position without even using her hands. But despite this, she seems to have no intentions of walking any time soon. And although I'd like to have her off the ground for outside play, I am happy to retain her babiness for a while. :)

I think she and Lucas are going to be great playmates. Although he can be a bit Tigger-like around her, I see his protective side coming out more and more. He's very proud to introduce her to people we meet and he is obviously happy to have a sibling. We're fortunate to have bypassed any major baby jealousy issues. We just get comments like "it's not fair that she's staying up later" on the rare occasions that she does, and things of that nature. I shouldn't complain.