Eleven Months Old

Well, Nora, yesterday was your last cumplemes that we're going to celebrate. From now on, it's just once a year. We weren't going to do much of a party this time, but in the morning your Aunt Belén called and informed me that she was bringing your grandmother and great-grandfather to see you for your 11 month birthday...and that they expected there to be hamburgers! Before heading to the butcher for the ground beef, we took a walk around town in the wonderful sunny weather. At one of the many playgrounds we saw our neighbor from an adjacent building, Olga, with her granddaughter Ana. Ana is almost two years old now and races around the playground like a puppy off leash. She also understands how the swing set works and how to hold on when swinging. You don't yet. They were nice enough to get off the swing to let you dangle there for a bit, looking precariously cute.

Don't fall out!

After the grown-ups ate a meal of delicious hamburgers (you were napping, sorry), you got to play hooky from daycare and lounge around the house with your aunt, grandmother, and great-grandfather before having a big plate of fruit puree and going for a walk to meet up with your mother.

The fact that you look fabulous in your aunt's scarf surprised no one.

It took you about a half hour to reacquaint yourself with your great-grandfather, much to his chagrin.

Your aunt is very fond of you.

Eventually you all came home in time for your evening cookie.

Mmm! Cookie!

Then a bath, some papilla (a sloppy milk and cereal mix), and off to bed. We decided that it was long past time to start a rigid bedtime ritual, so your mother read you The Going To Bed Book before putting you down. You didn't complain one bit...

...until thirty minutes later...and thirty minutes after that...and a half hour after that...and again...and again... The abnormality of your day must have made you restless.

And all of a sudden, here we are on the final stretch of your first solar lap. When we make it to the starting line again, that will be worth celebrating!