What's new with Calla?

What's new with Calla? She just turned eleven months old this week! The year is going by so quickly! I'm planning her first birthday party now, already a bit behind schedule on getting invitations out, but we're getting there!

Most recently, she has begun humming a little tune A LOT. Sometimes she does a little bouncy dance while humming it, too. Not sure if it's an original composition or if she is copying part of Laurie Berkner's song Rocketship Run, which she loves. It does sound a bit like the part of the song where Laurie sings "When I get there, I'll go dancing through the air."

She has added the word "uh-oh" to her lexicon. She says it like "ahh-ohhhhh" - very cute. She also may be trying to say "bear" and "baby" - not positive about those, yet. Her latest sign is "thank you" - she does this when I say it (I always tell her "thank you" when she turns off the light switches for me when we leave a room, for example).

It's amazing to me, who never knew very much about young babies before becoming a parent, how much she already understands. I can ask her to go get a book, and she will scoot right over to the stack of books by her toy box and grab a favorite, then deliver it to me and wait for me to read it to her. She can do the same if I ask for certain toys like her fish or giraffe. She can point out birds or babies in her picture books. She can point to her nose, when asked. Of course this all depends on her being in the mood to play along, bear in mind! Anyway, I can see now it's true that babies understand words long before they can say very many of them, which is fascinating.

Elimination Communication continues to be awesome! I'm so glad that we decided to give it a try. Yesterday, for example, Calla only peed in her diaper ONCE!!! All her other pees (and poop) went into the potty, except once when she peed on the kitchen floor during naked time. So much easier to clean a potty than to deal with wet or dirty diapers. YAY! I strongly recommend giving EC a try to any new parent who is interested in it!

She is still crawling by dragging one leg, which she folds beneath her. She can crawl really fast nonetheless! I have a feeling she will not change her crawling style. We had to step up the baby proofing efforts in recent weeks. She pulls up on furniture a bit, and she can balance herself standing up for a few seconds, too. Getting closer to walking, I suppose, but I hope she's in no hurry!

According to our scales at home, she weighs 26.5 pounds. She's around 30 inches tall. She has at least six teeth, but isn't too keen on letting me get a good look to see if there are more yet. She's definitely working on some more, though, as evidenced by all her drooling and biting lately. She's very healthy and happy and such a joy.

Okay, here I'll post a video of Calla humming her little song, and I'll embed the Laurie Berkner song too, just for the heck of it. Sorry the video is not the best example of Calla's song, and she was being coerced by her dad to sing it, but it's all we have for now. If you watch them both, or are familiar with the Berkner song, let me know if you think Calla is singing that song or making up her own.

Calla's Song:


Laurie Berkner Band's video for Rocketship Run, which Calla LOVES: