Claire is better; her fever broke yesterday. Now I have a sore throat and a low grade fever, and I hope this passes just as quickly.

My morning started with feeling punky and then turned odious. (Warning: somewhat gross details follow.) I was eating my toast at the table and Claire was playing on the floor. I had not done a visual sweep of the room as I have learned, having a cat, to get in the habit of doing. For some reason I happen to look over at Claire, who was sitting by the sliding glass door playing with ochre-colored chunks of something. It took me a couple seconds that it was not Cheerios. Yep, Stella had regurgitated right there, and for a couple of minutes Claire had a ball playing with all the squishy stuff. Ugh. I caught her just before she put the hair ball in her mouth. I whisked her away, washed her off, and then proceeded to work on the mess. Thank goodness for the Spotbot. It took me about a half an hour because the mess covered about four square feet. Thus began the day.

Right now she is napping and I am stealing a few moments to get this post written. So, what is Claire doing at 11 months?

• She has a habit of swinging and banging her right foot and only her right foot. When she goes down for sleep, she rolls to her stomach and starts banging her right foot on the mattress. Sitting in the high chair, she’ll kick the tray rhythmically.
• The last few times I have taken her to the baby story hour at the library, Claire has ambled off on her hands and knees right up to the front of the room to be near the librarian. It’s a large room, and all the mothers and babies sit on the floor. Claire rarely looks back to check if I’m still there. So, on the one hand I am happy she is so confident, and on the other hand, I’m aware that this extroverted child who likes everyone she meets is quite independent, and I’m going to need to keep both eyes on her so she doesn’t walk off with the nearest friendly hand. I also felt a little twinge while I sat there among the mothers who were all playing with and singing to their babies, while I had no one — a reminder for me that all is in transition and to embrace what emerges rather than cling to what is passing.
• She is becoming aware of funny situations. Recently was in my arms having her bottle and she passed gas. Then she laughed about it! Claire has this habit of wrinkling her nose a little when she is being silly and funny. It’s really beguiling.
• The words “kiss kiss” will often garner a kiss from her, though she hasn’t learned to plant them on a cheek. She also often makes a kiss sound in response to one made to her, and often, she will make a kiss at me (or her father) just because.
• There’s a section in a book we read that says, “These are the things that babies hear: songs, whispers, claps, cheers,” and Claire will clap her hands every time.
• Claire understands the sentence, “Do you want to read books?” She will crawl at top speed over to her bookcase and sit in front of it, ready to pull off her choices one by one and be read to.
• Claire is beginning to self-feed more adeptly. Chunks of banana, cut up beans, carrots, and broccoli, bits of pasta or chicken all make their way into her maw. And she has also started feeding me bits of her food. She has great fun trying to get a Cheerio or bite of peach into my mouth, laughing throughout the attempt.
• Claire has a standard way of sitting on the floor in a position that enables her to take off into a crawl any second. The photo below will show this. It’s the hurdler’s stretch position and she’s very cute in her consistency. (It’s not an ideal photographic back-drop with the vacuum cord and chair nearby, but it’s candid!)

I’m in the process of coordinating her first birthday party. I’ve decided to keep things simple: serve appetizers and cake, do only a little decorating, and skip the party favors until next year. The party will begin at 2:00, and the singing and cake serving will happen at 3:00. My mother-in-law will be here to assist, and I surely will need it!

Eleven months. Wow.