Lily is 11 months!

Lily is now 11 months old, and yes, I am late again in getting this up! She will be one in just a few weeks, but I don't want to talk about that right now! As much as I enjoy her getting older and all the fun that comes with that, it still makes me very sad to think she will not be a "baby" for much longer, and that all of those days are behind me now.

Lily is still a joy and such a good baby. People comment on that everywhere we go - shopping, restaurants, get-togethers, etc... I am often asked "Is she always this good?" And my answer is "Fortunately, yes!" Don't get me wrong she is still very active and into everything, but she is always just so happy and sweet. She can still be a "momma's girl" quite a bit, but she is slowly becoming a bit of a daddy's girl too! She LOVES it when he comes home from work, crawling to him as fast as she can with a huge smile on her face. It melts both of our hearts to see it!

Cecilia seems to be tolerating Lily's mobility more and more, as I am not having to referee quite as much. I think Lily has calmed down a bit as far as "exploring" and Cecilia has gotten used to the fact there is another little body patrolling the house. Plus, I think as Lily is getting older Cecilia has realized it is more fun to "play" with Lily rather than spend her time keeping things away from her. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!

On the subject of Lily's mobility, she took her first step about a week ago! She has been standing unsupported for short periods for a while, and one night last week while we were playing, she decided to take a step! She has taken several "one steps" since and even one "two step." I think she is still quite a while from full blown walking. Knowing her personality, I would not be surprised if she is the kind of baby that continues to prefer to crawl because it is easy, and she can get places much faster! If I haven't mentioned it before, she can crawl REALLY fast! Especially if you are going after her, she will turn around and look at you, and then take off with a smile! Little stinker!

She is becoming so much more interactive, and we think she is saying a few words. I remember not being sure of "words" at this age with Cecilia too. She has been saying "mama" for quite some time, and of course at first it was just a sound. But we think as of the last several weeks that she might mean it now. We are not sure if it is coincidence or not, but she also seems to be a really good repeater. I swear last night she repeated "baby jesus" to me twice. Christian heard it too and said it was eery how good it sounded! This has happened with several other words too. She will say it a couple times with you, but then not again after that.

And of course with every monthly post, guess what? Lily is still little! We are pretty well in size 6-12 M clothes, but many of them are still too big on her. One pieces (which are my favorite!) seem to even harder to fit her because she is so petite and is so active. She often ends up with her legs up in the body part; however, if they are "footless" ones, it works much better. She is still in a size 2 diaper. Lily is also still usually getting up once a night to nurse. Being as little as she is, I have decided to continue to feed her during the night until she is at least one, and then we'll go from there. Other than her night feeding, she usually nurses 4 times during the day and has three meals of finger food a day.

Here are the outtakes from this month's photo shoot and a couple cute videos:

This was taken at the end of the photo shoot; she had
actually calmed down quite a bit at this point.
She just loves playing on that chair!

This is one of Lily's new favorite past times. She usually
does it without Cecilia in the chair and will do it for like
10-15 minutes at a time and usually goes MUCH fast without
stopping during rotations. And she usually just holds
on with one arms and walks forward, so I think
it is really good practice for her. I'll try to get another
video of it. It is so cute!