11 months?!?!?

MacKenzie,

I cannot believe you are already 11 months, we have to start planning a birthday soon and it isn't just woo-hoo you are another month older either!!! This has been a great time to spend with you, you are learning so much and changing each day. The little baby we wondered so much about is really starting to show her personality.

First, you have become so willful in the past few weeks, you have a definite mind of your own. Usually that works well with the will of others because you are very easy to please, but if someone does do something you do not like...watch out...you can shriek like a banshee when you don't get your way. If someone takes something away from you, you make it very well known that you are not happy about it. You are also very determined when it comes to proving that you can or cannot do something. You will crawl all over mommy when she is laying down next to you just to get to something out of reach. You crawl like a mad woman around the house and have begun cruising around the furniture. You will also pull up and stand on your own, but don't like it when we try to force you to stand or walk.

Second, you have just been funny the past month. Mommy has some very favorite moments with you this month because you are doing little kid things that make grown-ups laugh. You were carting your raisin box around the house as you were "exploring" the other day and in the process of shaking it you managed to get it open. I looked over at you to see you surrounded by raisins and you were furiously gathering them and stuffing them into your mouth as quickly as you could. You would see a raisin and reach for it and 10 raisins would fall out of your hand! Kiki was here to see that so she was laughing along with Mommy. Another favorite time was when Mommy accidentally got a little bit of yogurt on your nose during a meal and started laughing because it looked so funny, you began laughing as well, which made Mommy laugh more and the pattern repeated. You really like to ham it up!

Third, you are really in to playing these days. You love to cart around your puppies (which you will say "Puh, Puh" as you do so and you like to chase after some of the toy balls we have for you (which you will say "baw-luh"). You enjoy climbing around as much as you can and just general exploring. You love music and will bounce and rock to any type of music we have on. You like to look out the living room windows to look outside, Mommy is looking forward to the weather cooling off a bit so we can have fun outside. You love to look at books either with someone or on your own. You will pull all of the books off of your shelf and flip the pages. I don't know that you have an absolute favorite book, but you like any of the books with animals. You will say "ca" sometimes for cat, Ma-Ma and Da-da all the time, and wave hello and goodbye. You wave your hands frantically in the air to sign "all done" and will sometimes sign "milk". Yesterday while watching signing time you were working hard at mimicking some of their signs like "ball" and "dog".

Fourth, you have been sleeping amazingly (8:30 to 7:30 at night and two 1.5 to 2 hour naps) and you eat like a pig. For breakfast you eat yogurt with cereal in it, have milk before nap, wake up and eat an entire banana, will eat lots for lunch, have more milk before second nap, eat applesauce, raisins, and crackers through the afternoon to snack, and will eat a good dinner. Your lunch and dinner is usually whatever we are having. For example yesterday you had chicken, green beans, and tomatoes. There really isn't a food you won't eat, but you love veggies. I will often times give you frozen peas or green beans to snack on.

Lastly, as far as fun things we did this month... We went to the opening Aggie football game which was interesting. The tickets were standing room only so we ended up sitting on the lawn and watching the jumbo tron instead. We have hung out with family and friends a lot and you got to go visit Daddy at work. Mommy tries to take you somewhere every day (even if it means splitting up errands) so that you can get out of the house. You have moved up from the Bunny baby nursery class to the Puppy class at church so we were excited for you first official "advancement". When the weather cools off we will go for more walks, but until then we only go every once in awhile. Daddy had several days off earlier this month so it was nice to hang out with him!

We love you so much MacKenzie. As tired as I am growing your Baby Brother or Sister I love spending the day with you. While I enjoy my sleep in the morning there are times I am sad you aren't snuggled up next to me in bed. When you are a bit older maybe you will snuggle with me in the mornings!

All of our love, thank you for being a part of our lives,
Mommy and Daddy