Eden's growth spurt

Perhaps I should have been more ready for everything, since I did go through all these developmental phases just 18 months ago, but Eden continues to amaze me. With Israel, I remember reading all kinds of word books and sign language books and the like together, anticipating new words all the time. I wasn't really surprised when he had a rather large vocabulary early-on. "We've been working on that," I'd say. Eden, however, sits in on storytime with Israel, reading things with paragraphs and actual plot lines, not getting much of the pointing and saying, "Look at the truck.... Can you say, 'truck'?" She's more left to figure out everything from context and repetition. But recently (as in the last week or so), she's taken to "reading" books to herself, carrying them around the house, turning them over and over to look at them. Two days ago, just for kicks (and because I was curious if she is actually saying the word, "cat" or if we're just imagining it...) I asked her where a cat was in a book. She stuck out her little pointer finger and pointed right to it, saying something a little less clear than, "tuc." I had no idea she knew that.

But today, while she was playing by herself after storytime, she looked at the page and told HERSELF what something was. I had never heard her try to say the word before and then there it was, clear as could be. I happened to still be in the room and ran for the camera. She did it again...and again...and again...for three takes!

I decided to post this one because you can also see some of her other developments of late. She can walk all over the house now, sometimes going the full length of it, stepping over toys and gates without falling. She can turn around on her own and two days ago, she started standing up without pulling up from time to time. Pretty good for just having started walking last week! (Is that right?) Things you can't see in the video are the way she now sometimes says, "Hey!" to greet people, how she tries to imitate all kinds of words (when she feels like it), how she hides her own eyes and plays peek-a-boo, and how she dances on her own to music (bobbing up and down and clapping). Nearly all these things have happened suddenly in the last week. Today, she is 11 months old. Amazing.