Month 11

First off, I know that the dates on these posts can be confusing as I'm usually about a month off from when a post goes up. I keep notes during the month and then go back to write the full post later. So to be clear, this is from August 24 - September 25. I have notes for month 12 and I hope to write so that these aren't so late. Anyway, the past few months with her have been a lot of fun, so I guess playing with her instead of writing about it is a good excuse. Enjoy.

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Lily is at such  a good age now. She's lots of fun. She likes to laugh and seems to have some sort of sense of humor. She's mobile, but can't walk yet. I would venture to say that it's kind of easy right now. At least easier than it was and easier that it'll be when she can walk and climb things. I think it seems easier now too because Danielle and I are actually now fully used to being parents. It's getting to the point where the idea of Lily is being injected into our memories of the past. Subconsciously, Danielle was trying to figure out what we did with Lily when we went on vacation to Vegas a few years ago. 

Lily's been doing a lot of learnin' around here. We've been trying to teach her some of the basic sign language things that you teach babies, like "more", "milk", and "poopie". We've only gotten to the first one, but I think she's getting it. When we are feeding her, we ask if she wants more in between spoonfuls and point with one finger to the other hand. We've been doing it for weeks if not months and one day she finally did it. I was actually very proud of her. I know I've said this before, but I'm really starting to understand the parental pride when your kid does something awesome or even just learns something new. Achieves something. Even if it is something like touching her palm with her pointer finger. Seems silly, but we know that she's learning. She doesn't do it all the time and I think she forgets about it, but I'm certian that she knows what it means. And when we're done with whatever we're feeding her, we do the sign for "all done", which is to rotate both hands back and forth as if you're saying something was "so-so". I also like to throw in "no mas". Maybe she'll pick up some Spanish too. Though not much more from me.

I think she's also learning a lot verbally too. When she's doing something she shouldn't do, we started telling her no. The cool thing is that she stops what she's doing and puts out her bottom lip and pouts and whines at you. Like she knows that she's in trouble. Sometimes she goes right back to what she was doing, but the concept of "no" along with some sternness when saying it is getting the point across. She also understands "I'm gonna get you" because that's all you have to say and she starts crawling the other way. We haven't figure out how to actually make her come to us yet though. As far as her verbal skills, it's still at "dada", "mama", and "baba", but just randomly, not in the context of "dad", "mom", and "bottle". I still love hearing "dadadadada" though. She's also developed this little monster voice when she babbles sometimes. She thinks it's funny.

It addition to all the other things, she's getting close to walking. She figured out how to stand herself up along the side of the couch and just loves to walk along the perimeter. It's just a matter of time until she figures out how to walk without it. And now she can go fully up the stairs and does so every chance she gets. We have to be careful about that. Every once in a while. she'll escape the corral and just book it, knowing that it won't be long before we catch her. And the first place she heads is the stairs. She can get up them, but hasn't figured out "down" yet. At least not the head first way. Now that she can stand, when she's in her crib in the morning and hears you coming, she gets so excited and it standing for you when you open the door to see her. I love that. I hope she gets excited to see us for a long time.

Overall, Lily is just a happy, energetic baby. Just always moving. It's ridiculous. Now that she has the clapping thing down real good, she claps whenever something exciting is happening or when there's clapping on TV. She'll stop what she's doing and just clap for a minute and then go on back to her business. The only time she's not moving is when we're feeding her. Everyone once in a while, she'll be looking out the window and just get stuck. Like she finds something so interesting that she can't look away. Like she's daydreaming. I hope she doesn't grow out of that.

Month 10

The summer continued with a bunch of visits to the Martin Family pool and a seemingly endless list of errands that you have when there's a baby in the house. We've started to give her some of our food at dinner and stuff, but the little thing still has her special food that we always need more of. At least every other weekend, we end up at Costco for formula (and free samples of course) or Baby's R Us for diapers, wipes, baby food, clothes, or any other random crap that Lily ends up needing. I'm getting to know that place pretty well. I should be foursquare mayor soon.

One of the best purchases we've made recently was a set of these standalone gates. It comes as a set on 6 so that you can make a hexagon and then just put the kid in there with their toys. When we first put them together, we did just that. Lily wasn't having it. I guess she felt like a caged animal, which is exactly what she was with that configuration. So then instead we set it up so that the gates went up around the entire living room, encompassing the edges of the couches as the other walls. So now it's like we're all in a cage together. We like to call it "the corral". I like to think that we're raising Lily free-range. Since she started crawling, it's been really good to be able to keep her in an area that we consider safe, while not keeping her in that little hexagon. Having the couches as part of this was also a good move since she started figuring out how to pull herself up to stand.

We have to be careful with the corral though, because if there're any holes, she'll find it. And when she finds one, she books it. It's liks she knows the concept of "freedom!" or "give us us free". And when she's free, she goes right to the stairs. At first, we were like, "oh it's fine, she can't go up stairs". But she figured that one out right away. I was pretty shocked the first time I saw her climb up the first step to the landing. The only problem is that she has no idea how to go down a stair. Well she tries, but it's always head first. Also she doesn't have the strength to go up an entire flight of stairs, so halfway she gets tired and without us there, she'd just tumble back down.

So in one month Lily went from army crawl to crawling to pseudo standing to climbing up stairs. Another thing she started figuring out is clapping. I think it started with taking two objects and banging them together to make sure that they're things. I thinking she likes the sound. So then we tried to get her to put her hands together WITHOUT the toys, hence clapping. It took her awhile, but she got it.

Overall, she's very aware of her surroundings. So aware that she's starting to get into the phase where she doesn't want you to leave the room. Sometimes. Like most girls, she either doesn't want you to leave or doesn't care if you even exist. One extreme or another. Or maybe that's just a baby thing.

She also had some teething days that were not fun for her, but at least it's starting to pay off. She looks very cute with those bottom teeth. And the top fronts are starting to show too. I'm just grateful that Danielle stopped breast feeding. I don't know how people have the courage to stick and body part into a hungry toothy mammal voluntarily.

PS. Oh and I finally mounted the mirror over our fireplace after 8 months or so. A few days before the earthquake. It didn't fall of course, but that was all I could think of while it was happening. Great timing.