November 25th, 2008:

Celeste will be 11 months old tomorrow. Time is flying by and I feel like I’m missing so much of her life. It’s not that I haven’t been there for nearly every new and interesting moment, it’s just that I lose track of when they happened. For instance, she can climb stairs now. But I can’t remember how old she was the first time she did it. It feels like just a week or two ago, but maybe it was longer.

As far as what I’ve documented online of her life I really have dropped the ball. At the very least my intent was to take a portrait of her once a month. While I’m sure I’ve taken at least one photo of her each month, I didn’t get the portrait I wanted. There just isn’t enough free time. Even though I feel like even that is an excuse.

Regardless of all that, she’s happy, and healthy, and growing so big I can hardly believe it. In case I missed something, here is a list of things she can do now:

• crawl. very fast.
• close doors. in my face.
• climb up stairs. going down, she thinks it’s okay to just jump.
• pant like a dog. which she learned by mimicking my mom’s dogs.
• growl like a lion. my personal favorite.
• cluck like a chicken.
• baaa like a sheep. though this seems to require all of her concentration and comes out in one quick burst.
• call the cats (“kitty kitty kitty”). this causes them to run from her even faster.
• cough on cue.
• dance. especially when music with a strong beat comes on.
• pull up on any surface at her eye height or lower.
• find the volume up button on any remote control within 10 seconds.
• press previously mentioned volume up button until everyone is out of their seats trying to make it stop.
• laugh uncontrollably at the above spectacle.
• climb over almost any obstacle. even if it means walking on her hands and feet instead of knees.
• feed herself finger foods. usually done by cramming the food and all four fingers into her mouth.
• slurp spaghetti noodles. I’m a proud dad.
• drink from a sippy cup without help.
• say up, all done, more, milk, and food in sign language.
• give kisses. mouth wide open. lots of drool.
• crawl all the way across the room just to give kisses.
• sleep in her own bed in her own room.
• say dadadada and mumumumum and know which is which. dada is usually used during playtime. mumum is reserved for crying.
• play guitar. and hand drums. also enjoys using random surfaces for drumming. she takes after her dad.
• melt my heart over and over again.