Hannah has learned how to play games. She plays peek-a-boo, ducking down and then standing up to show her face, over and over. She also plays chase, when she knows that you’re on her tail and starts crawling faster. I really see her personality emerging, as she’s able to engage in give-and-take activities with her parents.

Other new skills? Jumping on her crib mattress, pounding on objects to make rhythmic sounds, and dancing.

Hannah can stand on her own now, although she doesn’t really like to do it. If you distract her by handing her a toy, she will remain upright for 20-30 seconds before realizing that she’s been tricked, and dropping to the ground. You can see the distraction technique in action here:

Hannah is 11 months old today. She has seven teeth, her scar is healing nicely, and her stork bite is starting to lighten considerably.

Hannah’s physical skills continue to expand dramatically. In the past month Hannah has become an expert at pulling up and cruising around. She also walks by pushing objects around, or holding on to her parent’s hands. On a couple of occasions, Hannah has stood unsupported for 5-10 seconds, but no unsupported steps yet. Our little adventurer is also learning how to crawl backwards down stairs, which is great because it’s an important safety skill for a little person.

In the past month we signed up for daycare, had our railings replaced, and started making plans for my return to work. Lots of big things are happening at our house, for sure. The biggest, of course, is Hannah’s birthday, a scant 31 days away. Our baby is almost a toddler!

And here is the traditional monthly photo:

Hannah has been steadily improving her ability to get around. It’s something she would like to practice day and night if we’d just let her stay up long enough.

Here’s some video of her walking with the help of her Hungry Hippo. Uncle Aidan chose a very good present indeed

As Jon mentioned, Hannah got a great push/ride hippo toy for Christmas from Auntie Gretchen and Uncle Aidan. Over the past couple of days, she’s learned how to use it to walk. So far, she can only push it in a straight line, but she’s definitely got the basic technique mastered. Can it be long before she’s walking on her own?

Hannah’s physical and cognitive skills are just exploding. Every day she does something new. At the heart of it seem to be two main building blocks. The first is that she is physically adept enough that she can manage to do what she wants to do a lot of the time. The second is that her memory seems to be much longer now. When she was a baby, if something wasn’t in her view, she didn’t show any awareness of it. Now, she will bang on a closed door because two days ago there was something fun in that room.

The result of Hannah’s amazing new skills is that she is an increasing danger to herself and the world around her. Whether it’s pulling toilet paper off of the roll, getting water to come out of the water cooler, or pulling the top off her garbage can, it’s one mess after another. Thank goodness for my new baby carrier, so that I can strap her to my back when I can’t take any more destruction. Or, when I just need to clean up after all of the baby mayhem.