11 Months Old

We're almost there, only one more month and we are officially done with our first year of life. These past eleven months have flown by, although mommy and daddy said they flew faster for them than for us. Whatever! All I know is that this past month has been a good one, and one of many firsts, especially for Lily. We are still growing every day, and mom keeps putting away more and more of our clothes to make room for bigger stuff. I am wearing mostly 18 month clothes, although a few of my 12 month shorts and shirts still fit me. Lily has finally grown out of almost all of her 9 month clothes and can now claim she is a size 12 months. We continue to try new foods including zucchini, kiwi, plums, black beans, turkey goulash, and our favorite, mommy's chocolate rice cakes. I still have not found a food I don't like, but Lily is getting pickier and trust me she lets mom know when she doesn't like something. I've never seen a tongue stick out so far. Lily cut two more teeth this past month and started standing independently on the 14th. She got the no hands award when she took her first step on September 23rd. She took two more on the 27th, and then took seven, fell, got up, and took 5 more on the 29th. I've just been a casual observer during all of her motion, although the walking thing looks interesting. I'm pretty good cruising along the furniture, but the whole no hands thing isn't quite for me yet. Mom said that's a good thing and I should take as long as I'd like so I think I listen to her for once and walk when I'm ready. Other big accomplishments this month included being dunked in the pool, which we actually enjoyed, and going on our first camping trip. After such a great month, we've decided that we need to live it up for our twelfth month so stay tuned to see what will happen in our world!

Independence

We've been independent at holding our bottles for a few months now, but I guess mom didn't catch it on film until now. I will admit that I get lazy at times as you can see, but I must say using the table instead of my hands was pretty innovative. Little does dad know that I only get lazy when he is feeding me, but let's keep that between you and me. We typically only get our bottle when we are sitting in our highchairs as well, but it looks like Lily got one in the family room while I was at the store with dad. She sure gets lucky when I'm not around. I may have to have a talk with mom about this.

Discovering Dots

We've always known that our wall was covered in dots, but now that we can reach them (via standing and climbing) it's an entirely different story. We spent a good part of our afternoon hanging out in our room playing with the dots. Lily was working on her acting skills too and smiling like a mad woman every time mom asked her. Mom was happy though because she gave us a good view of her four teeth. Don't you just love lazy days!!!

Practice Makes Perfect

We made our weekly visit to Babies R Us today, and instead of coming home with new toys, we got these pictures. The photo studio there was doing some promo deal where they would take a bunch of pictures of us and then mommy and daddy could get one free picture. Mom and dad took them up on their offer since they thought it would be good practice for next month. I guess mom and dad are planning on taking us somewhere at the end of October to have our pictures taken for our first birthday. All I have to say is I'm glad Lily enjoyed the whole experience today because I was not happy about it at all. Lily was posing and laughing, and meanwhile, I was crying so the lady tried even harder to make me smile which just made me cry harder. Oh well, at least I have a month to prepare myself for the next round.

Lily's Early Birthday Gift

9/19/089/21/08

9/22/08

Grandma Williams gave Lily her birthday gift a little early, which you can blame me for, since I kept finding it in the bedroom and playing with it. It was definitely a great purchase and Lily and I have been having fun with it for the last few days. There are so many buttons to push, and mom and dad have helped us ride it since our legs are a little short yet. Lily is even using it to help her walk. She's even good enough to do it one handed. We are getting really excited for our birthday ever since we found out how much fun birthday presents can be! Too bad I got busted looking for more presents though. I'm sticking with Lily made me do it.

9/22/08

We Love to Jump

We stopped by to visit Braden this afternoon and got to play with his jumperoo. Daddy won't let us get one so we have to take advantage of it while we can. We've used it once before, but I think we forgot just how much fun it was. I think the pictures do a good job showing how much we love to jump!

4-2

Lily here again. The score is officially 4-2 ME!!! My second front tooth cut through last night while I was sleeping. Those things sure do pop through fast. Mommy checked me before I went to bed last night and said that she thought it would come in this week, and then this morning, ta-da! I'm also standing for a longer time after just one day. Today I stood long enough for mommy to run and get the camera and then take my picture. I've tried to take a few steps as well, but I'm not so good at that yet, at least without hands that is. Ryan doesn't have much going on, at least for now, but I posted a cute picture of him since mommy said it would be nice of me to do.

Lily Standing

Lily here. I've been cruising around the furniture and just about anything else I can get my hands on for a few weeks now, and mom and dad said it was just a matter of time before I took the next step and tried standing on my own. Well, I guess tonight was the big night. I decided to climb up on mom and just let go. What prompted me to do it I may never know. It kind of freaked mom out at first, but then when she asked me to do it again she got really excited. She even took a break from the bazillion loads of laundry she had to fold to try and help me do it so dad could catch it on tape. As you can see she succeeded. I didn't stand for long, but you have to start somewhere right!?!

The Mogollon Rim

This weekend, mom and dad took us on our first camping trip up to the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona. Mom bought us new fleece pajamas for the occasion so that we could be warm sleeping in the tent. Dad built us a campfire as soon as we got up there Friday night. The fire was amazing and we enjoyed just sitting on mom's lap watching the flames. They must have understood us when we said we liked it because dad built us another campfire Saturday morning. Isn't he a great guy!?! We were also able to go hiking and we checked out Woods Canyon Lake. Dad got to try out his new backpack while hiking, and we gave it two thumbs up. The only bad thing about the whole weekend was that when mom and dad needed to do something important they made us hang out in our pack n' play. For some reason Wrigley didn't have to stay in the pack n' play with us...no fair! Maybe when we get older we'll be able to roam free too. Overall, the weekend was great, and we can't wait to go camping again!

3-2

I am winning 3 to 2! Mommy said my upper left tooth is coming in so I am beating Ryan again! Check out my new ride too. Braden let us borrow his walker since he still has some growing to do. You should see the things it can do, and Ryan and I have figured out how to play bumper cars now that we each have our own walker. I bet that is just what mommy wanted. Ha, ha!