11 months

Anya is 11 months old today. Here's where she is developmentally:

Locomotion

• Anya walks a little more with each passing week. I think the farthest she's ever walked is 4 or 5 steps. Her walking balance still isn't very good (probably because of those freakishly small feet! ;) ) and she is not confident when trying, even when she succeeds. She'll have little moments where it seems to click, but then goes right back to acting like she doesn't know how to do it the next day. She wants an adult's hand to walk for the most part.
• She has gotten good at standing without any support and can also squat and bend down to pick up objects without needing the ground or objects to keep her from falling over.
• Anya has become quite the climber. In this, she seems to have no fear and her balance this way is impressive (definitely inherited from Chris and not me). I've watched her at the co-op preschool navigate these big blocks and she looks like a little rock climber.

Speech

• There hasn't been a big change in words she says over the last month. Actually, it seems like she no longer says some words she had been saying before...some things she used to say the words for she just now points and says "dah!". But she has picked up "crow" "cracker" and "doll", though. Oh, and "quack, quack, quack!"
• Understanding words is another story. There is a lot she is picking up. Understands and follows some commands, knows the names of a lot of her toys and various objects. And I've noticed if I just casually say a sentence, she'll sometimes pick a word out and react to it (2 days ago I said something about stars and Anya crawled over to a book of hers that had stars and pointed to them). I think this is a sign Chris and I need to start watching our language because she's going to pick up on things we don't want her to - if she hasn't already.

Other development

• After a month of serious teething, those top front teeth finally poked through and are staying out. There still isn't much tooth showing, but she doesn't seem uncomfortable anymore. Poor thing.
• Anya knows where her head is. If I ask "where is your head?" she'll point to her head. Of course if I ask, "where is your nose/eyes/ears, etc" she still points to her head. She can find some body parts on a doll. I don't think it occurs to her yet that she also has those parts. She is just one giant head and that's it.

Food

• Anya seems a little pickier food-wise. You never know when she's going to eat something she previously liked. Very annoyingly, she'll look down at food and if she decides she doesn't want it, she chucks it over her shoulder onto the floor. We're having a bit of a battle over this. For the moment, my tactic is to give her a few chances to eat (with a definite "NO" on throwing food) and if she doesn't, mealtime is over. Crying/screaming ensues. And then once I'm guessing she's forgotten about her poor behavior at the table I'll offer her some milk or something so she doesn't starve. I don't know if this is the best thing for me to be doing and I'll gladly take any advice on the best course of action here.
• I think I'm going to try wheat again after Anya gets over her cold -- if she does have a reaction, no point in making her sickness even more miserable. I'd like to know for sure before her birthday so I know what to do about her cake. I have found that wheat starch causes no reaction. I'm hoping this is a sign that wheat isn't an issue, although it is possible for the problem to be wheat protein (not found in wheat starch, or only trace amounts). But worst case scenario, her food choices are slightly less limited.