Kathleen's nearly eleven months old, which is a little hard to believe. She's growing and changing and learning so much, so quickly. I thought that we'd try to give you a bit of a snapshot of not-so-little girl.
She's walking like a champ! Kathleen toddles all over our condo, exploring everything. She still topples over some -- all twenty-six pounds of her thudding into the floor. But she can bend over to pick things up and right herself and manages to catch her balance when she's momentarily thrown off. She particularly likes to carry things around with her while she walks. She carries her toys, Mommy's purse, cups, and yesterday she attempted to move Daddy's boot.
She's not talking much, really. She says "Mama" and "Dada," but not consistently. Mostly she babbles, practicing her consonants. She can understand us, though. If she's feeling cooperative, she'll follow through on small commands like, "Will you please bring your book to me?" She can do the same for her dog Aloha, the ball, and some other toys. She knows the word "no" and just about jumps out of her skin if you come up on her playing somewhere she knows she's not supposed to be, like near the toilet.
She loves the water, whether it's at the beach or the pool. The jury's still out on the sand, though. We think she'll like it more as she gets a little bigger. She loves to watch other children play, and waves to them and tries to get their attention. She still loves her stuffed puppy Aloha, and sucks on his tail to soothe herself to sleep. She also loves her stuffed pig and another stuffed dog, which she walks around the house hugging. She loves eskimo kisses. She loves being tickled, watching Mommy be tickled, and playing peek-a-boo. She hates having her face wiped after meals and will yell if you try. If, however, you wipe her face while saying, "Let me see you, Kathleen. Oh, you're so pretty!" she has no complaints at all.
Kathleen's very much her own person of late; she has distinct ideas about what she'd like to do, and she's not afraid to express her displeasure, should we elect to do something else. For example, Kathleen has recently decided that she has not interest in eating anything from a spoon. (That effectively ended my love affair with making baby food, which we won't mention to any other children we might one day have, as I suspect it was a first-child undertaking!) She loves to feed herself, so it's all finger-food, all the time. The only possible exception is if one of her parents happens to be eating something on the sofa. Then Kathleen's a little beggar! She almost doesn't care what she gets that way, because just getting it from Mommy and Daddy is the fun part.
We like to say that Kathleen has a "big" personality (which is in keeping with the rest of her, I suppose). She's funny and stubborn and clever and rather impatient. Pray for us, please, because even though she's the most fun we've ever had, I think that parenting Kathleen is going to be the biggest challenge, too!
