Esther 11 months

11 months old today!

Esther can stand unassisted for quite a while. She seems reluctant to take steps if she's not holding onto something, though. On December 8th, we were at the home of some friends who have a dog - Esther is quite fond of dogs, and she took 6 or 8, very deliberate, controlled steps to get to the dog. I think she was so focused on the dog, she forgot she wasn't holding onto anyone. She hasn't done it since.

She is at home in the middle of the chaos....and actually, she is the biggest mess-maker, leaving piles of toys and books in her wake as she crawls around and gets into everything.

Esther looks an awful lot like Cora at this age, but I also think she is the first of my children that resembles my baby pictures.

We have had a fair amount of whining this month...I guess she can't be happy all the time!

Esther eats so much food!! And she's not terribly picky, but there are days when she turns up her nose at certain things. Most of the whining she does during the day occurs during meals - give me more, I don't like that, I'm all done. But mostly she is goofy, and Daddy enjoys making her giggle.

She is really starting to talk. Most of it is still pretty unintelligible to anyone but Mom, but she says things that sound like: kiss, hug, yes, eat, dada, and uh oh. And sometimes it is even contextually appropriate - ha! I caught the tail-end of a fun moment of play between Jonah and Esther, you can just barely make out her "ahh-ooh" [uh oh] at the end.

When Brandon puts Esther to bed at night, he sings to her and she often joins in and sings, too. So thankful for this sweet, cuddly, goofy little girl :)

(There is nothing to see in this video...I was standing outside Esther's dark room while Brandon rocked Esther before bed)