Stair Climber

We had a semi-surprise visit from Papa Pascal on Saturday morning! With a last minute change of plans, he ended up being in Seattle for the weekend for work and was able to get away to see us for a day! I was worried that Lilah might be a little shy or scared, but she didn't have any problem. I was away at work for a few hours Saturday morning, so I missed his arrival, but was able to be home again by lunch to join in the fun. Jonas and Papa worked outside a good bit, and Lilah loved peeking out the window at them. She is just tall enough now to rest her chin on the window ledge and see out pretty well. It was really cute and we LOVED having him for a visit. Next time it will have to be longer!

While the boys were outside, I let Lilah do some exploring around the house downstairs (we typically play in the room above the garage which is full of her toys). She hasn't had much interest in the stairs so far until about a week or two ago when Jonas let her explore a bit and she made it halfway up before calling it quits (he was right behind her). Yesterday I let her climb them. She made it to the top without help, and it took her about five minutes or so... less than ten at least. Today while I was working in the kitchen, Jonas watched her climb them again. It only took her about two and a half minutes! Her motivation is mainly our littlest cat Shelby. Lilah has become a huge fan of Shelby's favorite toy, a tiny wiffle ball with a bell inside. She loves to shake it for Shelby and watch her dance for it. Lilah just laughs. So she was chasing Shelby up the stairs, ball in hand. We are getting a gate next week.

In other news, Lilah has decided now in her eleventh month that she is too old for an evening nap. She is starting to take a longer lunchtime nap at least, which makes everyone more pleasant, especially Lilah. No new teeth since the last one, and not really any new words either. She does like to say, "yeah, yeah, yeah" and "whoa, whoa, whoa" but just to herself. I thought I heard her say, "yeah, boy!" the other day (can you hear that in your head? sounded like flavor flav...) - gives me ideas for what we should practice. It sounded pretty funny.

Birthday Season

We have started the birthday season in our playgroup. The first was one in late July, but we have had two this weekend, and then three in October. Hard to believe this huge milestone is almost here for little Lilah. It has been really neat to see these little babies change so much over the last year. Half of them are walking and it's crazy to see these short little people wobbling across the floor on semi-steady feet. After seeing some of the recent first birthday parties we have been to, I am realizing that I need to get busy planning! I was asking Jonas what sort of theme we should have for Lilah's party. He said, "How about a birthday theme, like balloons and cake". Looks like I will have to rely on the other moms for ideas.
Today's picture comes from this past Thursday when we watched Clemson's first football game that has aired out here this season. Lilah was around for a game or two last season but wasn't so interested in TV then. She still isn't much, but if you talk to her about what's going on she'll look for a few minutes. During Clemson's almost winning comeback, we were working on "TOUCHDOWN!". Very similar to "how big is Lilah" which we used for the picture. I like the latter anyway.

ps- This picture looks EXACTLY like Jonas did as a baby. It could very well be a picture of him.

One Smart Baby

Listen as Lilah says "stop, go!"

And we also had a day at the park yesterday. The kids had so much fun in the swings!

New Words

We have all finally recovered (mostly) from the stomach bug that ended up hitting all of us. Lilah seemed to have it pretty easy but is still working on getting her appetite back. She has been so funny lately, talking up a storm. She is always babbling to herself, but she has really started repeating a number of words lately. A few weeks ago she started with "uh-oh" and then once we got back from our trip she will sometimes repeat "meow" when talking about the cats. I told her to call daddy the other day though, and she said, "meow." We still have some stuff to work on. She says it in a really high pitch voice though, very different from her other words. On Sunday morning we were talking about toes; I was showing her mine and tickling hers and saying "toes." Like a little parrot she repeated it, "toes!" And then later that day (and several times since) when you ask her where her toes are, she grabs them! The next is a funny story from tonight. Jonas was making a strange noise very loudly, so I said, "STOP, STOP, STOP!" Lilah was right there in her highchair and joined right in! Her's sounded more like 'dop, dop' but I think we are going to have a talker.
One last one - She has been saying 'dadadada' for months now, but this morning I brought her to bed with us at 2am and she rolled over and saw Jonas and said "Dada!" This was a first time for the word 'dada' to be directed at him. Yay, Lilah!
She gets a kick out of doing things that we find exciting, and has started to clap for herself when we are pleased with the things she does. What a funny baby!
AND... Lilah has enough hair to hold a bow! No glue, no tape, no magic! Just a cute little bow (on a clip). I caught her finally with my phone/camera in a non-blurry picture. No John, she's not wearing make-up, just naturally rosy cheeks from playing all over the floor, and dry lips from always licking them when she's thinking. Jonas asked if we should cut her hair - just the part that is starting to come over her ears. YIKES! NO WAY! I told him that was boys not girls that don't usually have hair over their ears, but all bets are off under one year and possibly even two years old in my opinion.