11 months

Okay, getting to 11 months has been a lot of fun. And the last couple of months have been super fun seeing Eva's little personality really develop. She is such a fun, easy-going, funny girl. She loves to laugh and make us laugh. There is so much to love about this little girl. I meant to start a list as she started doing new things, but I never did. So here are some of the things that I can remember are new in the last month.
-She has two teeth finally coming in! In the last week, her top two teeth have finally started coming down. They have been playing peek-a-boo for the last month or so. But they are now beginning to show. So cute!
-She crawls up the stairs with the greatest of ease now. She especially loves to climb the stairs at church.
-She has figured out how to crawl normally. Well, sort of. She started out by doing a sideways crab crawl. That evolved into a sort of forward crab crawl. And then she figured out she can crawl on her knees instead of like a crab. But she usually chooses to crab crawl or do her army crawl for long distances. All of this instead of walking. If only she would just go. But she is slowly gaining confidence in walking by herself.
-She loves to walk with her little scooter. She will walk all over the place holding on to it. Then when she gets to a wall or a corner (she hasn't figured out how to steer it), she turns to whoever is there and holds out one hand for help.
-She walks holding onto just one of our hands. She wasn't too sure about that at first. But Kyle kept encouraging her walking that way, and now she loves it and has no problems.
-She is no longer people-shy. She isn't always ready just to go to whomever is there, but she doesn't shy away from other people and doesn't cry if we hand her to them.
-She loves to wave hello or bye-bye. What is adorable is when we talk to someone on the phone and we tell her to say hi or bye, she looks at the phone and waves.
-She claps! Just like her friend Brooklyn, the day of her 11-month birthday she started clapping. We didn't even get her to try. We just cheered and clapped our hands, and she did it on her own. Now she claps all the time when she wants us to cheer. After I give her food, she claps. After we read a book, she claps. After she does something we ask, she claps. It's so funny.
-She finally drinks out of a sippy cup. That, too, was all of a sudden. I had given up on the sippy cup for a while because she just wasn't taking to them. Then one day I decided to try it again, and ever since then she loves drinking from them and has no problems drinking from the sippy. She still likes to drink from a cup like normal, but I am grateful that the sippy cup is no longer an issue.
-She has begun to notice things on tv. The first thing she noticed was a commercial for the new Yogi Bear movie. She and I were reading books and the commercial came on, and she full on squealed and laughed and cheered. It was hilarious. Granted now I am a lot more aware of what is showing on the tv so that she doesn't see anything bad.
-She bobs her head back and forth when she hears music. Of course, she does that when there isn't music  also. So there must be music going on in her pretty little head all the time.
I'm sure there is a lot more, but that is a pretty good list for now. Here are some pictures of her lately.

Thanksgiving with cousins

Priorities

In the grand scheme of things, we have the same priorities. That's what makes us work so well together. But occasionally we are reminded that we are, in fact, individuals with different priorities. And quite obviously a man and a woman. Here is the reminder for today as we prepared breakfast:

Kyle: Oh! You know what we need to do?

Me: I can think of a lot things. But what were you thinking? (I was trying to give him the benefit of not having to hear EVERYTHING I was thinking about.)

Kyle: Well, what were you thinking?

Me: Well....do the laundry, clean the kitchen, walk the dog, feed the baby.... (Kyle: raised eyebrows) What were you thinking?

Kyle: Rent Robin Hood.

I love this man. He keeps me laughing and sane (most of the time ;) ). 

Love you, babe!

Five Real Moms

My friend Cheri and her sisters have created a new blog: Five Real Moms. They have great ideas ranging from kids to decorating to recipes to relationships to even more. You should check it out!

Birthday

First of all, thank you to everyone for your many birthday wishes! I SO appreciate your notes and cards and phone calls!
Thank you, thank you! :)

I had such a wonderful birthday. It started a couple of weeks ago when I got an awesome new road bike for the triathlon plus a swimsuit and new running shoes. I was set. And boy did those gifts make a difference during the tri. Thank you!

Then Kyle surprised me with these beautiful flowers!

He has such a good memory. I really need to work on mine. Anyway, these are alstromeria, also known as Peruvian Lilies. They are also flowers that we had at our wedding. So sweet!

Then he surprised me with a wonderful night out to Texas Roadhouse, our favorite restaurant. And then to see the movie RED. That is a fun movie! And it was a really fun night!

Sunday morning Eva gave me her gift...

A nice messy breakfast to clean up. :)

Kyle's mom made us a wonderful roast dinner and a delicious chocolate cake. Combined with all the birthday wishes, I had such a fantastic birthday. 

Thank you everyone!

Arizona State Fair

Fairs are fun! 

Lights sparkle attracting kids of all ages. Smells of good (greasy) foods fill the air. Cotton candy and other sweet treats share their aromas hoping to entice. 

Everything is bigger at the fair.

It's where adults transform into kids again

and try to win the big prizes.

It's where go big or go home exists. 

And you try to go big as many times as you can before you have to go home.

 And it's where little ones soak in new memories.

Walking!

Yes, you read that right. The little miss is W-A-L-K-I-N-G! For the last month or so, she would walk a few steps from Kyle to me and back again. But then she decided for a week or two that she didn't want to do that anymore. So we reverted back to always walking holding onto someone's hands. Then this past Sunday, Kyle decided to try and walk with her holding on to just one of her hands. She was a little unsure about it at first, but soon got her balance. Then on Monday, I set her down on the floor after a diaper change so she could sit while I washed my hands. Miss Eva decided that she didn't want to sit and stayed standing and then took about 5 steps on her very own! I was very excited and tried to get her to do it again throughout the day, but she decided not to. 

Wednesday, she decided, would be the day she was ready to walk A LOT more! (Just like you said she would, Mom. :) ) I was making dinner and heard laughter and praises from Kyle and his mom upstairs. Then Kyle called me up to see what was happening. And to my great surprise, little Miss Eva was walking as steady as could be much longer distances than she had before! It was such a happy and proud moment for us. What a joy! Kyle and I decided then to try a really long distance (the length of our upstairs hallway) and see if she would walk it. She did with no hesitations or problems.

First Halloween

It was difficult to decide what Eva should be for her first Halloween. I knew she would be cute dressed up as anything, so that made it harder to decide. After all the options I told Kyle about, I chose one that I hadn't even mentioned to him. Haha. Best of all....she loved it! Well, she didn't try to take it off at least. :)

Our cute little ladybug

My friend Danielle made the wings. Aren't they great?!

Presenting...

The many stylings of Missy Moo.

Her favorite hair product? Her after-meal (dirty) hands.

She even tries the occasional hat now and then.

Hiking Devil's Bridge

We are so lucky to have our good friends Aaron and Amber close by to hang out with. We always have so much fun. Some nights it ends up being the boys playing video games while Amber and I chat and blog-hop. Other times we get out and do something like (try) to go bowling or go for ice cream in "orange"dale (aka scottsdale). We always have blast no matter what.

We decided to go for a mini roadtrip on Columbus Day up to Sedona, AZ. It is so pretty up there. AFter we watched some crazy boys jump off a huge cliff into a river at Slide Rock, Amber led us to a fun, easy hike up to Devil's Bridge. It was perfect weather and a good workout. The funniest part might have been that everyone we passed by on the hike were amazed that we would bring a baby on a hike. Is that so crazy? Pretty sure tons of people do it all the time. At least they do in Colorado. Anyway, we went hiking with our baby and enjoyed it and she loved it.

Devil's Bridge up above

Closer. Try again without her pacifier.

Darn. She closed her eyes. She's still cute though.

The fam

Aaron and Amber. Aren't they a cute couple?

The view from on top. Kyle's favorite part of the view was the golf course in the distance.

This is looking at the bridge. If you look closely you can see under the bridge.
(hint: right in the middle of the picture)

Crazy boys walking across the bridge.

A little too close for comfort.
Amber and I stayed on the other side telling them to come back.
They just love to push our buttons.