Extra Double Happy: Adi at 11 months

Dave realized that Adi has a 'theme song'. It's difficult to transcribe, but it like eh-ehem or mmm-ahem (repeated). She sings it while she's playing or eating and will sing it back to us if we do it. But she seems less delighted with music than she used to be- she'll still bounce up and down to 'dance' in place, or twist side to side while standing when I hold her hands, and loves it when I dance with her in my arms- but singing rarely gets her to stop crying like it used to.

Ever since she saw her first dog, Adi has been fascinated with them. It's difficult to hold her when one is near because she tries so hard to get out of my arms! There was a dog at Dave's uncle's house in Vermont where we spent a lot of time and Adi would crawl directly to her, then stop when she was about in touching distance, looking a bit unsure of herself. She would eventually touch the dog's foot although I had to stop her from pulling at her fur.
Her fondest for animals seems to extend to the soft toy variety; she now goes to sleep cuddling the 'sleep sheep', which is about as big as she is and, when we hand her a stuffed animal, she almost tackles it to cuddle it and looks at us with such delight, like "how did you find him?!"

One of Adi's favorite activities is being chased. We crawl after her, saying "I'm gonna get you!" and she scrambles away, then chuckles when we do get her. She likes being tickled and turned upside down and likes it being kissed and generally having someone's face close to hers. One day when I was changing her diaper, Mae kept laying her head on Adi's stomach and Adi thought it was the funniest thing ever. She also just learned how to "kiss"- lean in and touch her mouth to my cheek. She won't do it all the time but I really am trying to encourage it! She can also blow kisses but it isn't obvious because she puts the back of her hand in her mouth, instead of pressing her palm to her lips.

Also recently, she started handing toys to us (although only occasionally lets them go) and is raising her hand as a precursor to pointing at things. She is not shy about taking toys away from Mae but she gets very upset when something is taken from her (or when I prevent her from stealing). Since she was about 4 months old she's had a 'phase change' cry where she just suddenly bawls like she was stung by a bee-- mouth wide open, face bright red, not breathing. At first she did it when a stranger was holding her but it seems she's learned it's a pretty good way to get what she wants or get sympathy when she takes a tumble. I'm not sure how I'll know when she does get stung by a bee.

Her sleeping has been pretty good- she sleeps deeply and goes down very easily. We often hold her and sing to her right before bedtime and sometimes she just struggles and pushes away. It's hard to let go when you think she needs soothing, but when she's ready to sleep that all she wants to do; she'll roll onto her side and snuggle into her sheep and we won't hear another peep from her until morning. She is also fairly utilitarian about breast feeding-- when she's done she just rolls off the pillow (I sit on the floor now to facilitate this) and crawls away to play.

She's been eating solids pretty well lately-- often we just stop feeding her when her enthusiasm wanes, because she'll never reject the spoon. She likes peaches and other fruits, oatmeal, carrots and canned beans. Tofu, lentils and zucchini are not high on her list and when I gave her a bagel chip yesterday she didn't seem to even try to eat it. She can do the sign for 'more' and has an adapted version of 'all done' (which involves making a certain noise, too). She is still just noisy; in the evenings she has a kind of constant whine that can drive us crazy. The theme song is much nicer!