11 months

Eleven months!  I can't believe it.  This month has been so great!  This is such a fun age because she's still a cute baby, but I can see toddlerhood around the corner.  We can actually play games with her and she gets that it's a game, we can all communicate better (not necessarily via words, but by tones and actions), and, probably most importantly in my book, we've SLEPT!  Seriously, three straight weeks of really good sleeping (minus a night or two because of reflux/congestion) and we're all our best selves. haha.  So here's a little about the Gooster at 11 months:

• Currently 20.5 lbs., but not sure of her height since she doesn't have an appointment this month.
• One day, Lucy decided she was going to eat real food.  She really went from just having 5 bottles a day and that's it, to eating three meals a day with bottles in between.  Yay!  She has loved carrots, peas, corn, jam sandwiches, any kind of bread, peaches, bananas, kiwis, crackers, pasta, and her very most favorite of all- cheese.  She does not like scrambled eggs and broccoli.
• She has been sleeping 12-12.5 hours a night, usually 7:30pm- 7:30 or 8am (which of course is probably the biggest change this month brought!) and takes two 1.5 hour naps at about the same times each day (10am and 2:30pm).
• Lucy finally clapped for the first time, ironically at the Giant's game when they won. :) haha. She saw enough people around her clapping for a few hours, so I guess she figured it out and she's been practicing ever since.  
• She also waves like crazy with one hand, both hands, whenever and at whatever. 
• Lucy explores like crazy, getting both into and on everything.  She has started getting into cupboards, drawers, and baskets, as well as climbing up onto the back of the couch and onto our tables and even going from couch to couch via the couch's arms.  
• We go to baby storytime at the library each week and it's right up Lucy's ally.  There are a bunch of other kids her age there and they all sing and dance and play instruments and with puppets together.  She loves it. 
• I've tried teaching Lucy a few signs (really I've just tried to drill in "food" and "more" since those seem to be the two words she could really use right now), but she wants nothing to do with it.  She does, however, understand a lot of what we are just saying to her these days.  I just wish she could talk back somehow!  It's coming, I know.
• She stands here and there for about 5-10 seconds on her own until she realizes what she's doing and then cautiously wobbles back down to the ground.

I love the following pictures because they are all distinct "Lucy" faces that we frequently get these days.  She's full of expression!!

Loving eating carrots finally (she eats a ton more than what this shows, fyi... she must have already eaten most by this point).  Here's to hoping this helps her eyesight incase she inherited my terrible sight.

 This was the first time I actually got a bow to stay in her hair.  I was pretty excited since she won't let a headband stay on her head longer than .2 seconds.  Since this day it seems to be growing fast.

Lucy likes books.  This was Ryan reading with her after work one day.

"Doggie! Woof Woof!"

I've been trying to repeat one animal over and over to Lucy until she picks up on it and since there are a million dogs everywhere, we started with that one.  Whenever we'd see one, I would say "doggie!  woof woof!" and pretty soon she knew what I was talking about.  Our neighbors across the street happen to have two dogs and Lucy knows them very well now.  There have been many times where Lucy will stop everything she's doing, gasp, and look at me, and then if I focus I can hear the neighbor's dogs barking.  The girl must have excellent hearing!  I'll then say "doggie?"  and she'll crawl super fast over to the window or door and try to see the dogs.  It's pretty funny.  When I actually take her over to see the dogs, she can hardly handle her excitement and is kicking and squirming all over the place to see them and get to them as fast as possible.  Sometimes now she'll even mimic my "woof woof!" with some deep growls of her own. :)

Here's Lucy running over to the door to see the dogs.

She'll sit here from the inside of the door watching them for a long time.

If I bring her out on our steps, she'll start waving like crazy to them

 And when we're all done, she'll climb back inside and up all of the stairs to the front bedroom window where she can see them some more.  This girl is a funny one!

Running

One of the two of them did all the running, while the other one just sat and drank the water. ;)

Now that we're out of the heat and humidity of summer, Ryan and I have been itching to start running again.  It always sounds like a good plan until it actually comes time to go out and run.  We both definitely needed some motivation, so we signed up for a race on Thanksgiving Day.  It's a 5 mile Turkey Trot through downtown Columbus and it looks pretty fun.  While I consider 5 miles to be a little more than a trot, it's what I needed to give me that push to start again.  It only took about a week this time to get back into the swing of it, but Ryan and I are going strong with running most days and it feels so good.  One of the best purchases we recently made was a clear weather cover for our stroller so that Lucy can still enjoy the ride but not be affected by the weather.  She hates wind in her face and there have been a lot of cold, windy fall days, as well as some rain, and this thing keeps her super warm and dry the whole time.  So, here we go again!  Yay!

General Conference weekend

General Conference weekend always seems to go by so fast since there's not much free time between sessions.  We lucked out this time because Lucy either took a nap during the session or she played really well with her toys in our living room while we watched, so we felt like we still got to hear most of the messages.  

Before conference, I had to help a friend with something.  She brought this little chair with her and Lucy just plopped right into it and sat there watching us (and her toes) for a few minutes.

 Lucy and Big Bear both crashed like this for a little while during one of the Saturday sessions.

 Between sessions we all needed a little fresh air outside of our house, but unfortunately the weather was not on our side.  It was freezing cold and raining... but that didn't stop Ryan (it stopped me, though).  Ryan bundled himself and Lucy up, and threw the weather cover over our jogging stroller and walked around the neighborhood.

Giants game

When the Giants won two playoff games in a row here in Cinncinnati, we assumed a third would be a long shot, but figured it would be fun to go see Ryan's favorite team in baseball play in the playoffs.  So at about 11pm last night, Ryan decided to take the next day off work and we got online and got tickets (which happened to be surprisingly cheap!).

We had so much fun!  Our seats gave us a great view of the whole game as well as the beautiful river and rolling hills covered with fall foliage, the Reds fans were all really nice, and Lucy was amazing the whole entire four hour game.  The awkward part was that when the Giants did something good, the place was silent (there seemed to be about 10 other fans in the whole stadium).  So we kept pretty quiet ourselves, but when we scored 6 runs in an inning, including a grand slam, there were a few awkward cheers from us while everyone else sat in silence.

It was pretty intense during the last inning, but the good news is that the Giants won!  The funny thing is that I knew the game was over as soon as it finished, but I had to do a double-take to the scoreboard and field to make sure because is was dead silent and I guess I expected a few cheers.  Anyway, the ride home wasn't as great as the ride there, but as long as we listened to the theme song for Mickey Mouse Clubhouse on repeat, Lucy was happy.  I'm sure that song will haunt me in my dreams tonight.

The pictures aren't the best quality, but I wasn't about to take my nice camera in with a diaper bag stuffed full with food and extra layers of clothing (oh yeah, it was a bit chilly!), and a baby.

Family time

My mom gets to come see us a bit, but last week both my mom and dad were able to come and spend some time with us here in Columbus and it was so much fun!  We enjoyed the beginning of our beautiful fall weather by taking walks and going to the park.  We also enjoyed good food, including a little eating out, and just hanging out enjoying each other's company.  Also, surprisingly, Lucy did pretty well warming up to them and would often let them hold and play with her for a little bit at a time.  I wish they could come more often, but we'll take what we can get!

Little Bear and Big Bear

One day I was walking through TJ Maxx with Lucy and she started kicked her legs and going crazy in the cart.  When I saw what she was reaching for, it was a bear costume that was a mini version of Big Bear.  As soon as I picked it up and put it by her she got the biggest smile and snuggled it up to her face.  Funny, funny girl.  Given her obsession with Big Bear, Ryan and I thought it would be cute for Lucy to be Little Bear for Halloween and we could pull her in a wagon with Big Bear.  But then we found a different costume from Costco that everybody else probably has too, but it was still super cute, significantly cheaper, and has tights and a shirt that we could continue to use all winter long.  But before I returned Big Bear, I had to get some pictures of our little Lucy Bear playing with Big Bear. :)

This picture pretty much sums up Lucy's feelings about actually wearing the costume...haha!

She sure does make a pretty darn cute little bear though!