eleven

eleven months old

the final month of her first year.

hard to believe.

It's true what everyone says, it really does get better with every stage. The only problem is how fast the next stage seems to come. I wish I could just slow things down and enjoy her for a little longer just exactly as she is right now. I'm not ready for her to not be a baby anymore. I'm not ready for a toddler yet. Even though I know she will be even cuter and more fun (duh), I just don't want her to grow up so fast.

She is getting such a little personality. She is sweet and social and fun and so very happy. She has definitely gotten a little more wary of people she doesn't know, but for the most part... she loves people, she loves being on the go and she's almost always content and smiley. And oh what a cute smile she has with her four little front teeth. I have been thinking for several weeks now that she may be getting more teeth... but so far, she has has the four.

She is getting more and more independent all the time. If she doesn't want to be held, there is no point in trying. She's way too strong. Gone are the days of snuggling her until she falls asleep in my arms. Don't get me wrong, she'll still sit on my lap and cuddle for story time and some songs, but when she's ready to sleep or she wants to get down.... she wins. She is great at jabbering herself to sleep and all she needs is her elle-elle-elephant. It's a little sad that she doesn't need me to sooth her to sleep anymore, but it's so nice to be able to just put her down and walk away.

She is still rocking the 7pm-7:30am schedule and it's awesome. She takes 2 good naps a day, both about an hour and a half... sometimes as long as 2+ hours in the morning. I'm going to be sad when she decides to give that morning nap up.

With her new found independence, she's not loving being contained in her jumper anymore. She wants to be right there with me, underfoot to "help" me with whatever I'm doing. We spend lots of time in the kitchen and if I give her some kitchen tools, she goes right to work...

...and she likes to lick her spoon just like mama!

She is a big fan of self-feeding and is actually really good at finger foods. She is eating lots of regular food now and if I cut things up into small bits, she does a pretty good job of doing it herself. However, I'm nowhere near letting her use a spoon yet. I'm not ready to wipe yogurt and applesauce off the walls.

She is a great eater and is especially loving cheese, yogurt, watermelon, peaches, sweet potatoes and zucchini these days. The only thing that we've yet to find that she doesn't like is oatmeal, salmon and green beans. Almost everything else that she's tried, she's wanted more off.... even pickles!


She is giddy about football season starting and Daddy has already been working to teach her the rah, rah, rah-rah-rah in the Cougar fight song.

Hopefully she'll get it down by next weekend, when this lucky littlemiss attends her first live football game... which will require an airplane ride and trip to Austin!
yippee.


Leah LOVES dogs. She goes crazy and gets so excited when she sees a dog... big or small it doesn't matter, as evidenced by this picture....

...you can tell that her arms and feet are swirling uber fast in pure delight. That's the way she shows us that she really, really loves something. It's actually one of my very most favorite things about her. I hope she never ever outgrows showing her excitement about simple things so freely.

Littlemiss Leah is learning how to get into trouble. She has been crawling for almost a month now and she has it down pretty good. She seems to goes straight for trouble any chance she can.

She's learned how to open her drawers and if I turn my back for long.... she's got them all emptied on the floor. Although a little frustrating, it's mostly adorable. At least for now... maybe in another month or two, not so much.

Leah has quickly learned no-no-no. The other morning as she was going for a wallflower in the outlet, I called her name to get her attention and she turned with a huge mischievous smile and started shaking her head back and forth as I said no-no-no. Now nearly every time she is going for something she shouldn't or if I tell her no, she shakes her head and smiles. Again, it's pretty dang cute right now, but might not be for very long.

She also waves hi and bye, does patty cake and jabbers almost non-stop. Her chatter is becoming much more conversational and context appropriate. She listens then answers and does that back and forth. She also has lots of gibberish that is starting to sound like the beginnings of real words. Anytime she hands me something, she mumbles gibberish with the perfect intonation of "here you go". It is so fun to see her learn so much so fast, although it also terrifies me.

She still absolutely loves music and waves her arms and bounces at the first sounds of a tune.

She is starting to realize her power and independence and we have began to experience the very beginnings of little tantrums if we take something away or if she is frustrated. She can get really mad, really fast and it's hard not to just give in to her... but we are all learning as we go and trying really hard not to do that.

She is definitely her mama's girl...

(and yes, it's empty)

Leah continues to teach me a whole new dimension of love. Throughout everysingle day, she does things that melt my heart, touch my soul and make me love her even more. I always knew that I wanted to be a mother in the worst way, but I never knew it would be this good.

I feel so lucky to be her mama!

Happy Eleven ElleJay!!

lately, around here, this summer...

we've been busy. doing nothing terribly significant. and loving every minute of it.

...{summer highlights include}...

Picnics. Lots of Saturday and Sunday afternoon picnics in the park. There is nothing better than a cool shady spot to waste away a summer afternoon, especially when Daddy can join us.

More summer evenings at the Deer Valley Music Festival. We've loved seeing the Utah Symphony perform up there along with some really incredible guest performers like Indina Menzel (who I just so happen to be obsessed with).

Leah totally loves it as much as CJ and I do, and I love exposing her to such great intelligent music.


Sno-Cones. What would summer be without sno-cones and slurpees, right? Leah is just as in love with her chewy straw and plain ice-flavored shaved ice as mama is with her beetlejuice!



Outdoor Cooking. Finally having a grill has been one of my favorite parts of summer this year. We've been loving cooking anything and everything outside. Steaks, chicken, salmon, pineapple, veggies, burgers and more. yummo.

Swimming. Lots of swimming. Usually until our piggies look like this....

Gardening. We have loved having a garden this year and have been devouring all of the fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers and more. Leah got to pick the very first ripe tomato!

We've been putting our abundance of zucchinis to good use with treats for family and friends!

Family Time. Lots of it. Between swimming with cousins, playdates at Grandma's and a weekend family reunion in Idaho. We've spent lots of time lovin' on our families this summer.

Homemade Ice Cream. Oh my. Without a doubt, the best/worst thing that has happened to us in a long time. CJ's sister suprised us with an early birthday gift for Chris earlier this summer and we have done a bang-up job breaking it in. Lemon gelato, fresh peach, natural vanilla bean, rootbeer freezes, frozen raspberry lemonade. Oh and the salted caramel custard ice cream from last weekend might have changed my life. so.freaking.delicious.

Child-Proofing. The littlemiss is now fully mobile and on the move which means all kinds of annoying things... like child-lock gates with doors so skinny that it's nearly impossible to walk through with anything in your hands (like, oh um... a baby, or groceries.)

Good thing she's so ridiculously cute. It turns out she's totally worth it. Go figure.

Friends & Neighbors. Last night we closed down our entire street with barricades (and police approval) for a back to school street party. CJ was a large part of making this party happen and it was a huge success. There were ice cream cones, treats, waterballoons, a sidewalk chalk art gallery, wide open spaces for scooter, bike and big wheel races and loads of fun with some of our besties. We love our neighborhood so much.... for reasons exactly like this!! It was so fun to have so many out... from old to young, visiting, dancing, playing and running through the street without a care in the world. Lucky, lucky us!!

Although it's hard to believe (and a little sad) that summer is already drawing to a close and the kiddies are back in school... we have a few things that we're looking forward to as we prepare to usher in the cooler (I hope) days of fall...

Canyon Campfire. Next week's FHE with hot dogs, s'mores, roasted banana boats and all of our neighborhood besties.

Kindermusik Classes. We're scheduled to start her first class on September 16th and we are giddy with excitement. I'm pretty sure she is going to LOVE it. Music and being around other kiddos is right up this girl's alley!

Football Season. Another fun year is about to get underway. And thanks to Aunt JoJo, Leah is all set with her gear!

A Mini-Vacation. We're looking forward to a fun weekend trip to Daddy's old mission stomping grounds... and a football game to boot.

Birthday Girl. It's hard to believe that in less than 6 weeks, Littlemiss Leah will be a year old. Crazy and surreal. Plans for her birthday bash are well underway and we couldn't be more excited!

Creamery's almost closing. :)

Halloween and Leah's homegrown pumpkin. (it's so cute and starting to turn orange!) Oh and costume time.

And this little girl and her mama are both looking forward to sweater and boot season!!

or, even better... sweater boots.

♥

Laughing Leah

No one can make this girl laugh quite like her daddy can...

(and a bouncing pillow pet helps too!)

I especially love when she "timbers" backwards and just keeps laughing even harder.

This Is The Place...

A few weeks ago, one of my dearest friends was in town from Seattle with her family. She had a little girl less than 4 months before I had Leah. We hadn't seen them since Leah's blessing day, so we were especially excited to see them.

We decided to do a playdate and take the kids to "This Is The Place". Seeing how it's practically in my back yard, it was nice to do some exploring up there.

We got to ride the train...

And tour Brigham Young's Summer House...

And these cute girlies got lots of time to play and have some fun together...

The picture below might be one of my new favorite pictures of Leah.... I love that her toes are buried in the grass and I love seeing her smile as she's watching Hope run around (the difference that 4 months makes at this age)...

Two little cuties...

As we were wandering through the village, who should we run into? The coolest oxen handler chick ever.... the one and only Becky B. It was so fun to see her and get up and personal with the big bulls, even if Leah wasn't too sure what to think!

After a short break of relaxing in the stroller it was off for pony rides...

We were lucky enough to get this sweet little pony and Leah got her first chance to saddle up!

We also didn't miss the chance to check out the petting zoo and all the smelly animals...

You can get really up and personal with these cute little guys...

Sometimes too close and personal...

This pig was even trying to escape his smelly self...

Most of all, it was so fun to hang out with some of our favorite girls!!

A pretty good day, indeed!!

littlemiss mohawk

the morning sunshine caught it perfectly this morning...

ten

ten months old

double digits

time just seems to go faster and faster every month.

She is still the light and joy of our lives. Go figure.

So often, as she is being smothered with love and attention, I think about and wish that all sweet innocent babies could feel so much love. It hurts my heart that many may never feel a love like that. Leah is surrounded by loving grandparents, aunties, uncles, cousins and friends who adore her and spoil her and she has a mama and daddy who are pretty sure that she hung the moon. We honestly couldn't love her any more!

She is a very happy content baby. She is very social and if she's awake she's nearly always happy. It's rare that she is super high maintenance or overly fussy, though she does have her moments.

She still loves books and loves being read to. She likes to turn the pages when it's time and loves to hold them herself (though we're still working on not eating books). Some of our favorites right now are... Barnyard Dance, Welcome Little One, The Biggest Bear Hunt, Farm Fun, Pat the Bunny, If Kisses Were Colors and of course, Time for Bed.

She loves music and has a cute little bouncy dance that she does whenever she hears music. She loves any toy that plays music.

She also still loves mamas silly songs... The Wheels on The Bus is her current favorite. It literally cures ANY ails these days.

She loves water. Loves the bathtub, loves swimming, love other kids. LOVES it!

She HATES getting dressed. HATES it.

She likes to have her teeth brushed.

She is a fantastic eater even as we branch out and start experimenting with new foods. She is still breastfeeding and doing great, though she is starting to seem a little less interested in it all the time (which actually makes me more sad than I thought it would) She eats almost all fruits and veggies now and she especially loves butternut squash, carrots, watermelon and pears. She loves yogurt and cheese and applesauce and is starting to really want to feed herself. She loves finger foods that she can pick up and eat herself and now wants to help with the spoon as well.

Heaven help us.

She likes to bite the spoon when we're feeding her and not let it goes. She thinks it's really funny and laughs out loud at herself. I don't think it's nearly as funny.

These monthly pictures are getting harder and harder as she's getting more and more mobile. She no longer wants to sit and pose. She wants to wiggle and dive for the camera and play.

She finally started crawling last week and is getting better and faster every day. It's an adorable, akward sort of crawl still and she is so proud of herself. However, it has definitely changed everything.

She still doesn't love to stand up and bear her own weight for very long, but I'm sure it won't be long and I'm not in any hurry for her to grow up any faster than she already is!

She is still a great sleeper and loves her crib. She sleeps 11-12 most nights and then 3-4 hours during the day between 2 naps. She loves her crib and plays and jabbers for a long time before falling asleep and sometimes after she wakes up as well. I wish I had a hidden camera (or video monitor) sometimes, I'd like to see what exactly she's doing in there and how her crib looks like this when she wakes up sometimes...

She is starting to give loves and hugs and kisses. Mostly to her stuffed animals, but occasionally we're lucky enough to be the recipient and although it's more like an open mouthed headbutt, there is pretty much nothing sweeter that I have ever experienced.

Pure-True-Joy

That's what her little smile is all about...

Love You Littlemiss!

xox

uh-oh

It looks like I better start baby-proofing.

(I guess she is almost 10 months old afterall... she was bound to figure it out sooner or later!)