Saturday was Alethea’s eleven month birthday.  Happy Birthday, Baby!

For most of this past month Alethea was only willing to walk when someone was waiting to catch her if she’d fall, but just over the past week she has started to branch out on her own and can even sometimes stop or turn while she’s walking.  She still looks a bit like Frankenstein or as one friend said, a drunken sailor, but she is getting more fluid every day.

Although she has put most of her energy into walking, Alethea has also added a few more words to her vocabulary this month.  She now says ‘ball’, ‘clock’, ‘that’ (which she uses as she points to things she wants you to name) and much to my delight, she finally says ‘mama’… so sweet.  She did say ‘puppy’ quite clearly the other day while playing with her toy dog, but she hasn’t said it since, so I’m not sure if it was on purpose or not.

Feeding has gotten a little easier this month.  Alethea is more willing to try new things lately and will pick up some things that aren’t dry, like strawberry slices.  (She is turning into quite a strawberryaholic actually.)  She also has begun feeding herself using a spoon, although I have to hold the container she’s spooning out of to prevent it flying across the kitchen.

Sleeping has been so much better this month.  Alethea now will generally go to bed between 7 and 8 p.m.  I wake her up for a late night bottle at around 11:00 and then she sleeps through until between 5 and 6 a.m.  Then I feed her again and it’s back to sleep until between 7:30 and 8:30.  It’s so amazing how much better I feel now that I’ve gotten a few weeks worth of good night’s sleep.  And Alethea seems to be in a much better mood as well.  She’s downright funny these days.  Such a ham!

Well that’s about it for month eleven.  The year has gone by very quickly and I now I have to decide what we’re doing for a birthday party!  Can you believe that it’s less than a month until Alethea’s first birthday?  I can’t.  I’d better go get planning.