11 Month Milestone

Astrid is 11 months old today.

Why is it that time seems to speed up as you get older, and then once you have a kid it seems to speed up exponentially?

A grocery store clerk saw me with Astrid one day and told me to "enjoy every minute with her because they (children) grow up so fast." Ain't it the truth?!

I can't believe Astrid's one year birthday will be next month. On her birthday (April 19th) our nuclear family (me, Uwe and Astrid) will be together at home to celebrate. Then the Sunday following (April 23rd) we're going to have a large birthday bash for Astrid with family and friends over to celebrate. The party will be fully catered with lots of Korean food and drinks, and traditional decorations. Astrid, myself, and my mom are planning on wearing traditional Korean dresses (Hamboks). It'll be a sight to see - 3 generations of women in our family decked out in traditional Korean costumes.

Customarily the big party takes place when the child turns 100 days old. (When the baby is one hundred days old outside of the womb, the baby is actually 1 year old from the date of inception.) I wrote about it in a July 2005 post when Astrid turned 100 days old. You can read all about it by clicking on the following link: Happy 100 days birthday Astrid! I had a 100 days party when I was a baby and that was something I had always planned on doing for my child as well. So since we didn't do it back in July 2005, we are going to combine the 100 days tradition with Astrid's one year birthday party. In regards to Astrid's development:

Speaking

Astrid is pointing to everything she sees and making sounds associated with each thing she's pointing to. Her spoken "words" are becoming closer to the actual sound of the word. In some instances the word she says will have the same first and last sound (and the same number of syllables) as the word she's trying to say. Like she will point to our dog and say, "Berba" for "Bertha".

She will also mimic what we say. After hearing us say a word a few times she will try and say it back. Sometimes she'll say whole strings of words in sentences. We still have no clue what she's saying but it's a lot so we're happy about that.

Uwe and I are making a conscious effort to talk to her all the time and point out the names of things and their color, shape, etc. Like osmosis she's soaking it all up and I'm sure when the time comes the floodgates will burst open and she'll be talking nonstop.

Understanding

Astrid seems to understand that everything has a name. I know that she also understands some words (mama, papa, Astrid, Bertha, book, bye bye, hi, clap, yeah). For example we read to her all the time and she has a large collection of books that we've purchased for her, as well as books from the library. She now says the word "book" on her own and whenever she sees books she'll point to them and say "book". Sometimes she cries when I put her in her pack n' play (when I need to wash my hands or the dishes) and I tell her, "Astrid, read your book", and she'll do just that. She'll sit down, pick up her book in her hands and start flipping through it, looking at all the pictures.

There are times when Astrid does something and I'll praise her and make a fuss and say, "Yeah!" She'll immediately smile, kick her legs and start clapping her hands together. It's so cute.

Also, recently Astrid has started crying when I leave for work in the mornings. The first two weeks she was all smiles when I kissed her and said good-bye, however at the start of the third week she started crying. She now realizes right away when mommy is about to leave and starts crying. She'll throw back her head, bawling with lots of tears. It breaks my hearts. We calm her down by either a) winding up a music box with spinning ducks on the top that she loves to see and hear, or b) our nanny will distract her and take her over to the window to look outside. She starts crying now even before I say good-bye as she can sense I'm ready to leave the house. I hope that will soon stop as Astrid gets used to the idea of me going to work during the week. I don't know if it's just wishful thinking (or projection), but it seems like she's really happy on the weekends when both Uwe and I spend the entire day with her. It could also be that it's a break in the routine, as we always go out and she gets to see new things. But part of me still thinks she loves it when she can spend all weekend with mama and papa. (Uwe and I love being able to spend the weekends with her as well.)

Physical Development

Astrid is constantly pulling herself up in the standing position and moving her legs to scoot to the left or right when holding onto something. She now hates to be placed in anything where she has to sit and is restricted (like her Ultrasaucer). So I removed the seat from her Intellitainer and it's now more of an activity center where she can pull herself up and play as she standing, and the two sides can support her as she practices walking. It reminds me of the horizontal bars they use in physical therapy when they reteach someone how to walk. In this case Astrid has toys on both sides she can play with as she's learning to walk and support her weight on her two legs.Astrid can turn pages of a book by herself and for the most part single pages at a time (when flipping through board book, vinyl books and electronic books). She loves to turn the pages.

Here she is standing between her Intellitainer. More and more now I see that she balances on her own with only one hand or no hands.Her movements are also more coordinated and she has rhythm. With out any prompting she's moving, clapping and tapping her hands to music.

One day I came home and our first nanny asked me, "Did you know that Astrid is musically inclined?" I asked her what she meant by that and she told me that she'd sing a note to Astrid, and Astrid would sing the same note back to her, and that most young babies can't do that. That nanny loved to brag (and exaggerate) about Astrid's accomplishments/abilities. Yes, I did know Astrid could do this, as it was a little game we played in the car, but I never thought anything of it. I wanted to connect with Astrid in the car, since I couldn't see her (with her being seated in the backseat in her backward facing car seat), so I would hum a note, and she'd sound it back to me. I just thought it was a sweet way for us to connect with each other while in the car.

I also sang to Astrid since she was a little baby and she has children's CD's in both English and German that she listens to everyday, so she's grown up listening to music.

One side of her Intellitainer has buttons and things she can push/roll that play music. Uwe calls it her piano, as she will stand on that side for periods of time and loves making music.With Astrid standing up and trying to walk on different surfaces, socks with grip are a necessity, (especially when she's trying to get around on slippery wood or tile floors, or in this case walk over the plastic on the floor of her Intellitainer).

She's ready to walk anyday now. I can't wait to see her taking her first steps.