Eleven Months

Can you believe they held a big parade in honor of Eliana's 11 month birthday! What's that you say? It was for the Fourth of July? Ah, well, I suppose that's reason enough. Ellie was able to be in the parade with Mommy and Daddy because of the Freedom Festival baby contest. We were to wear as much red, white, and blue as possible and decorate the stroller. All my decorations came from the dollar store. I'm cheap that way. Or just poor. Take your pick.

Here's Eliana just before the parade, studying her medal. I didn't take any pictures during the parade because we were moving. My parents got pictures, though.
Wait, I was supposed to be updating about Eliana, wasn't I? When I weighed her this morning she was 21 lb. 3 oz. I tried measuring her a few days ago and she was still exactly at 28.5 inches. Her next well baby visit is next month, so hopefully I'll have more accurate numbers then. I really doubt she wishes to stop growing taller at this young age.

Accomplishments: Ellie is a star walker. She'll do that just to keep herself entertained. Right now she's working on building up speed. I'm sorry to say that she is succeeding. Really, I am sorry to say that. Nothing in the house is safe anymore.

On that same note, so is also learning to climb. She likes to climb up on our bookshelf, over Daddy's belly, and onto the back of couches. Ellie is also standing on tiptoe for a better view of things whenever she has something to hold onto.

Eliana still crawls to the nearest object to pull up on when she falls down, but is trying to do it without support. This morning she used the Wii Fit balance board to get her into standing position again. Before too long I think she'll have it figured out. Her back and legs are certainly strengthening, as Ellie can bend over or squat to pick up objects without having to fall to sitting. That certainly speeds her travels along.

Speaking is a lot of fun. She says "hi", "baby", and "mom". It's entertaining to hear her say "hi" whenever the phone rings. My dad can get her to say "hi baby" and is trying to teach her "book". Right now her attempts at that word sound like "bwish". Ellie also makes a lot of nonsense sounds.

Exploring is always of interest. In the picture below Eliana and Grandma are at the BYU Laundry sewing room. Ellie crawled under the sewing table and came up between the metal bars, like a cat or a caterpillar. She was standing, but sat down before I could get the picture.
Other developments: Ellie is really wanting to feed herself. She can put the spoon in her mouth, but hasn't figured out putting food on the spoon. She would probably do better at that if I gave her opportunities to learn it.

Teeth seven and eight pushed through, so now we need to be sure we brush those little teeth every day. She likes to play with the toothbrush, especially when we give it to her when we're brushing our own teeth.

We've gone swimming a few times and Ellie loves the water. She will usually lay flat in the water and her favorite part of the outing is walking into the water while holding on to a parent's hand.

If I come up with more things I'll write them down. For now, here is Eliana on her 11 month birthday in her decorated stroller just before going on to the parade route.