11 Months Today!

On the eve of her 11 month birthday...her face is all smashed up against her crib!
Greta and her balloon. Yesterday while we were out and about Greta was given a bright yellow balloon to take home. The first time she was introduced to a balloon a few months ago, Greta was pretty wary of it--she eyed it suspiciously and kept a good distance from it. This time, however, Greta has made friends with her balloon! She loves grabbing it by the string and pumping it up and down into her face, and she loves laying down on top of it and rolling around.
Greta is really into balls lately. So yesterday--at the same place we got the balloon (a stationery store of all places!) I bought her this great little "confetti" ball. Her love affair with balls was encouraged when Aunt Jenny and Uncle Dalton let her take home the raquetball their cats played with a couple weeks ago--she loves to make that ball bounce, and she loves to put it in her mouth (don't worry, I've washed it since the cats had it!), and she loves to let it roll and then chase after it. This confetti ball offers her the same excitement, but is even more fun to look at.
Such a happy girl! Greta always ends up making eyes at someone when we're on the bus, and she almost always waves "hello" and "goodbye" to the bus drivers. Strangers often comment on how Greta is such a "happy baby". After some serious bouts of separation anxiety recently, and a week or so of feeling very under the weather, Greta is back to her usual self: pretty easy going and full of smiles, chuckles, energy and a curiosity to explore all that's around her. She does get frustrated and grouchy at times, though. When she gets frustrated it's sometimes hard not to laugh at her--she balls her hands up into little fists and her face gets all red like she will explode!!! (Matthew recently pointed out to me that I do the same thing.)
Today I worked a little bit--I picked Jett up from school and helped her with her homework. It was such a beautiful day, though, so before we went to her house we played on the school playground. Greta really enjoyed watching all the big kids running around. She spotted a basketball that had gone astray and really latched onto it!
I had to get this photo of her with a football for Matthew. Greta had never seen a football until today, and she was very interested in its strange shape. Someday maybe they'll "toss the football around" together?

Happy 11 Month Birthday Greta Bess!