Lily James is 10 Months Old!

We're into double digits now!! Here is what Miss Lily has been up to this month:

- Walking!! She can take a few steps before she falls, but she won't do it unless we ask (beg) her to do it. It's hard to get on camera because any kind of distraction ends any chance of getting her to walk for us.

- She can stand for a long time and balance really well. She can even go from a squat to standing, and it freaks me out every time I'm not paying attention to her and I look over and she's standing straight up in the middle of the living room. She loves practicing this trick much more than walking.

- She started taking swim lessons this month and can go under water without crying. She loves the water now and loves to jump in my arms off the steps.

- She understands a few commands. She understands "where's mama's nose", "where's Lily's tongue", "dance", "kick", "walk to daddy." She still does "So Big" but won't do "patty cake" any more, but she'll clap her hands sometimes when she stands up. Just tonight she started giving her baby dolls a hug when I say "hug your baby." It is super cute and I need to get it on video!

- She's starting to like books, and will just keep opening and closing them to new pages over and over. Her attention span is getting better and she'll sometimes sit in our laps and make it through half of a book before she has to grab it and open and close it herself.

- She is becoming aware of strangers. She cried during the last swim lesson when the teacher held her, which she's never done before, and she screamed when I left her alone with the nanny the last time.

- She's eating tons of food. She will often eat half a banana and half a mango, plus a puree packet for just lunch. I feel like I can't keep up some days and she is eating as fast as I'm cutting it up. One night she ate 10 small strawberries plus 1/3 a banana and a puree packet for dinner.

- She's discovered she can take half-eaten food out of her mouth, then sometimes put it back in her mouth and continue eating, or other times throw it on the floor. Fun times.

- Her meals are now a typical breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner. However, since she wakes up at 5:30 am, lunch is usually pretty early, at 10 am. She has finger foods at each meal except breakfast, and has a puree still at every meal except her snack.

- She wears size 12 month clothes, a few 9 month pieces still fit, and 18 month pajamas. The legs in her PJs are too long, but the other night I could barely zip them up over her butt and thighs. Sadly, I think the days of footie pj's are numbered. She's also in a size 4 diaper and wears size 3 shoes.

- She fell off the bed for the first time on my watch. I was going to leave this out, but Jim is making me add it to the list.

- She's still not saying any words, but we know she understands! Sometimes I think she mouths words, but doesn't say them. I always say "Up, up" when she crawls over to where I'm sitting and reaches up to sit in my lap, and she'll form her mouth like she's about to make a 'P' sound.

- She's giving wet sloppy kisses!! She even understands us when we ask for a kiss and she'll lean down and put her mouth on ours.

- She's up to 18 mins twice a day for independent playtime and doing great! I love when I go get her and she's sitting there with a book open in her lap.

- She weighs 21.5 lbs (75th %tile) and is 30 inches tall (91st %tile). Thank goodness her weight is finally plateauing out.

Happy 10 months Lily Monster!!

Lily Swimming

I remembered to bring my video camera to swim lessons yesterday, and the instructor was really nice about taking the videos. I thought we would just record the first swim, but she offered every time after that. Then for the last time the other mother in the class offered to record it while Dawn (the instructor) dunked Lily under water and I caught her.

The last video down below is when Jim and I took Lily swimming last weekend. She does this non stop when I take her now: she holds on to the edge then turns around and dives at me. The swim lessons have made her so confident in the water. I've even seen her spitting out water instead of drinking it lately. I love this instructor, and she this is what she does full time. I think she teaches kids up to age 5 and then they go on to club swim teams.

Lily's Newest Trick

Lily discovered how to stand up from a squatting position in the last day or so (and watch Masterchef Australia at the same time...multi-tasker). I had to record her from behind otherwise she would stop everything and attack the camera.

She does this all the time now, and she is always so proud of herself. If she's close enough to me she'll grab my hands and clap them together as I say "Yaaaaay Liiiily!!"

It seems to me like usually kids start taking more steps first, and this is the limiting factor that keeps them from being full-time walkers (because they have to crawl to a surface and pull themselves back up when they fall). I guess our munchkin decided to do it opposite, which means as soon as she gets the confidence to start taking more steps, she'll quickly be a full-time walker!

Six on Saturday

1. I discovered we have a farmer's market across the street from us when my mom was visiting and I've been wanting to check it out ever since. It's only on Fridays, so we finally walked over yesterday, but of course it has ended until winter because of the weather!! So, we went to Starbucks and the playground instead. I love the second picture of Jim and Lily on the slide.

2. Lily is much braver with her walking in the last few days. She's taken a good 3-4 steps on her own, and she knows what to do when we say "walk to mama" or "walk to daddy." She puffs out her chest and works up the courage then lets go of whatever she's holding on to and takes a few steps. Then, she squeals with delight and is SO happy with herself. We're trying to get it on video but our timing has been really bad so far.

3. Jim and I are finally caught up with Mad Men. I love this show, and I'm so glad Don didn't turn out to be a murderer! I was going to be really disappointed if the show started going in that direction.

4. My summer school has had a really slow start. Classes started on May 21st, and we just now got our first HW assignment. Usually I get the first within the first week. I also managed to sign up for a class that has no midterms and no final exam, which is a HUGE relief!

5. I finally went to the doctor this week and I have a sinus infection. I'm pretty sure it's my first, because I don't ever remember having a cold and congestion this long before, but I'm finally feeling much better. I still can't hear very well out of my left ear, but it's getting better.  

6. I found a recipe for Zucchini bread I want to try. It doesn't have sugar in it so I want to try giving it to Lily for a snack, but Jim is very hesitant to give her stuff like that to eat. We're both such poor eaters we want to make sure Lily likes fruit and vegetables. I finally convinced him if we end up with a toddler that will eat sugar free Zucchini bread we will be winning. I'll share the recipe if it turns out yummy.