Josie likes to climb everything these days.

On the opposite end of the spectrum from Celia’s 11 months, my grandmother just celebrated her 93rd birthday now here in the Boston area. My aunt and uncle came in to visit for it. Maybe someday my cousins will visit too (hint hint Will). We had flourless (dairy-free) chocolate cake much to everyone’s enjoyment, especially my grandmother who is not so thrilled with her new dairy and gluten free life everyone’s trying to keep her to.

We had a nice lunch at a local Chinese restaurant the next day and spent some time socializing and giving gifts at her apartment. May we all live to be 93 even with the dietary restrictions.

Last week Celia turned 11 months old and boy is her personality coming out more and more. She has strong desires and watch out when they are not met. She points, she hits, she screams. I can’t wait for the screeching phase to be over! Right now I can get her to stop by singing ‘if you’re happy and you know it…’ sometimes but I otherwise would like some earplugs.

She is having major developmental leaps and along with those a desire to never sleep again. She’s mostly only taking one nap, two hours at most and staying awake otherwise from about 6am to almost 8pm. I couldn’t get her to nap until 1pm today! There is a ton going on in her brain.

She is anticipating and starting to understand how she controls her world. She knows when I get her shoes, to go to the couch so I can put them on. She understands when I say shoes, to go stand near the shoe rack. She knows to hand me a book and turn around and back herself into my lap to get me to read to her. She grabs her sippy and gives it to me pointing at the top when she wants it opened. She’s working on communicating to get her needs met, but has little interest in using our sign language. She does sign for washing hands though, usually when I need to do so after changing her diaper. She insists on banging on the doorbell before we come into the house every time (although she hasn’t figured out how to ring it yet, I think she’s just imitating Josie). She’ll start smacking kisses when Jordi comes in the door at night.

She also knows when she’s doing something wrong, and runs away. She does this in the bathroom and kitchen when she tries to just get as far into the rooms as she can while we chase her. Thankfully she isn’t trying to do this in the street yet. She rarely listens to me but does sometimes acknowledge that I’ve said her name and goes and does what she wants to do anyway.

She’s learned how to start climbing now. Most kids get this a bit sooner from crawling, but she’s now learning how to use all four limbs to climb up onto the beds and stairs and the couch when the mat can be a step for her. She has just started to learn to notice the edge of things like steps and beds and show some caution around them. She still reaches out for my hand though instead of turning around and crawling down herself to get down.

Otherwise at the park she still is trying to put everything in her mouth, but she loves to swings so that works well for both of us. She will walk across Waldo park to get herself to the swings. Like Josie at this age, she loves to push her own stroller.

She likes to read some now but doesn’t have patience for long books. Her favorite is ‘Doggies’ By Sandra Boynton. She often throws it down in the middle for some reason, but occasionally will sit for the entire thing. She will also look at books on her own, turning the pages, throwing them all on the floor.

She’s vocalizing a lot lately, probably thanks to non-stop-talker Josie. I think she’s also trying to say the word Josie, kinda sounds like ‘dough-dee’, but maybe I’m just hearing things. She definitely says dog, sounds like ‘dah’. She repeats sounds right after we say them which makes talking on the phone especially difficult as I try to listen to one person out of the three that talk to me at the same time.

• Size/weight: size 12 month are getting short and some size 18 months are fitting, no ideal on actual measured sizes
• Favorite food: breastmilk, avocado, organic cheerios, cheese
• Favorite toy: ball, doll stroller
• Favorite book: Doggies
• Favorite activity: Pushing things, eating, being outside
• Sleeping: bedtime ~7:45; one nap; gets up 6am (on the good days, 5am on the bad)
• New skill: demonstrating her listening skills and understanding
• Teeth: 8. holding steady but the doc says more are coming
• Vocalizations: screeching, saying what we just said back to us, ‘dah’ dog (used for any animal)

On the way home today Josie said that she didn’t like the color of my mom’s car, beige. She also didn’t like the color of my dad’s car, dark gray. She thinks our car is ok, it’s a light blue. So I asked her what kind of car she wants. She wants a red one with no roof and a tire on the back. I’m guessing that means a Jeep without the roof, great. We asked her what she’d do when it rains and snows, she said she’d stay home and put the car in the garage.

My mom asked what she’d do if she needed to go to the doctor and it was raining. She said she’d walk. Duh.

Way back in April, before Josie turned 3 the four of us went on a weekday outing to the Big Apple Circus when it came to town. We were in the third row right near the front. Celia was only about 6 months old at this time so she still napped pretty frequently (unlike today, where she napped only once). It was a great show with horses, clowns, stunts, trapeze, contortionists, dogs, and goats.

We all took public transportation downtown to Park Street where I waited with the kids and played while Jordi dropped his stuff off at work. We walked over to government center and quickly found our seats. We learned very quickly what Josie does and does not like. She loves the animals and the tricks. She did not like the clown that pretended to cry. She could sense the insincerity and just kept asking us to make him go away. I’m not a huge clown fan either so I can see where she’s coming from. The contortionists made me cringe, especially when hang all of their weight on the roof of their mouth. The animals were graceful and beautiful. The climbers were amazing, a group of men from Africa that could climb straight up a vertical pole.

Celia refused to face me. Instead she faced out away from me, and fell asleep. Somehow in the middle of all the flashing lights and crazy things going on in front of us. Now I have to get the timing just right to get this kid to fall asleep, ahh the good old days.

After we had lunch at quincy market and I took the girls to the aquarium while Jordi went back to work.