Baby Talk

Willa is 11 months old now, and getting pretty chatty! She babbles all the time. I'm convinced that she knows what it is she wants to say, but still has trouble getting her mouth to say it. Sometimes she gets lucky, and something comes out crystal-clear. Some words she says often:
Daddy
Bye
Hi
Light
Cat
Hat
Boo (as in peek-a-boo)
Bur (bird)
Muh (more)
Buh (bunny- pretty much any animal other than a cat or a bird)
hop-hop-hop (what "bunnies" do)

She likes to try to engage us in conversation. She'll run through all of her material in rapid succession. She'll put a cup on her head and say "hat", then hide her face with her hands and say "boo!", then point at the rabbit picture on the wall and say "buh, hop-hop-hop" (while bouncing, to make her point clear). If she sees something hanging from the ceiling (like decorations), she'll puff-puff, so that we will blow at the decorations to get them to swing around.

She also has a few signs that she makes use of, although we haven't taught her as many as we taught Eve when she was a baby. Just the basics- more, all done, milk, eat. She'll sign "eat", and when I ask, "Really? You're hungry again?", she nods slowly and emphatically, yes. She must be growing. She eats almost everything we offer, although she is especially fond of cheese (must be genetic). I tried to feed her green peppers, and she did not like those. We use her Happy Baby food mill to grind up whatever we're having for dinner. I try to get the consistency pretty thick, so it will hold together in little balls for her to self-feed. Messy, but effective. If you could ask her what her favorite foods were, I think she would say cheese was number 1, and number 2 would be "food balls".

She is a super-speedy crawler and cruiser. It seems like she's been on the cusp of walking for a while, but I'm in no hurry. She's growing up so fast.

She loves music, and bops along whenever she hears any. Her favorite toy was a little radio that would play music when she pushed the button on the top (but we've misplaced it, boo, I hope it shows up again soon). She even figured out how to play the kazoo. It's hilarious, because it's not like she's playing a song. It's just "ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ"- one long, loud honk. But she thinks she rocks. She also likes to bang on pots.

She's sleeping pretty well these days. Most days she only takes one nap. And she often wakes once in the middle of the night to nurse. She had been sleeping through the night, so I know she can do it- but my milk supply is starting to diminish, and I think the night-nursing is a way for her to get a little more nutrition (and keep my supply up). Pumping at work is a drag. I would rather have one midnight waking than have to pump twice a day. Most days she takes a few ounces of formula, too. I was sort of surprised to discover that I don't really mind about that. Maybe it's because she's almost a year old, and eating so much food- formula's just another thing I can put in her hungry little belly.