11 Months

I think I've been avoiding doing this blog post because I know that only means that the next "month" blog post will be for her one year birthday.  Since last Thursday when Mady turned 11 months I've started having this inner battle with myself.  I am loving this stage she is going through.  She is so much fun right now and I love watching her become her own person and seeing her personality really come through.  But I'm also sad that a year has already passed by.  I can't believe that this time last year we were so excited to meet her.  I realized that we'll never again experience the first year of our first child but we still have a lot of great times ahead of us!

Mady has now in the past week started taking her first steps.  She started small with a step from the coffee table to the couch.  Now she is getting braver and will try and walk any chance she gets!  The most she's done at once is twelve steps!  I wasn't quite ready for this milestone but I love watching her face light up when she takes those steps.  She looks so proud of herself!

She has also started saying her first words.  Her very first word was bubble. We bought her bubbles for her Easter basket and she loves them!  We will sit there for several minutes (which for Mady is a long time) and I will blow bubbles while she smiles and tries to grab them. I kept calling them bubbles and she repeated it after me and now says it anytime they come out.  She also says ball, mainly for Lucy's ball.  She will also repeat random words here and there that you say to her.

Her personality is really coming out and my belief that she would be a strong willed girl is starting to prove true.  While she was such a great eater when starting her purees, she has become a lot pickier.  It has been a battle lately to get her to eat her vegetables.  She would not eat them so I started dipping them in yogurt which helped for a while.  Now, she will put the veggie in her mouth, lick all the yogurt off and then take the veggie out with her fingers!  And if you leave the vegetables on her tray and don't give her something she wants (like fruit which she loves) then she will get quite an attitude with you.  She will get real loud and say "dadadadadada!!"  Oh, I can't wait to see what I have ahead of me!

For the best part:

She's so cute when she's sleeping

We've been enjoying the great spring weather

She loves to stick out her tongue

Getting her 11 month picture was a little harder this month

Opening her Easter basket

Isn't she cool!

Wasn't a big fan of the hat, haha

Little Reader

Lately, Mady has become a lot more interested in her books.  We would always read to her, usually before her naps or bedtime but she wouldn't pay much attention.  But lately she has been paying more attention to them and if it's one of her favorites (yes she has favorites) she will sit quietly as you read the whole book.  She even turns the pages for you.  It's so cute! 

Here are a few of her favorites right now:

 Snuggle Puppy is really fun to read to her because the book sings a song to Snuggle Puppy and several times throughout the song will give him a kiss.  We'll give Mady a kiss too, so now when we start reading that book she'll give it a kiss.  Love her!

Now that the weather is nice and the days are longer we can take her to the park close by and she loves the swings.  We got some really cute pictures the last time we went.

Can't believe she'll be eleven months in about a week!