11 Months

our baby girl is almost ONE! she has accomplished quite a lot in such a short amount of time. i am amazed every day at the new things she is doing and learning. she is growing up so quickly! sometimes i really miss holding her in my arms and just watching her sleep but i truly LOVE watching her explore everything and babble to us, watching her grow into her own little person is the most amazing thing ever!
11 month stats (estimated)
she weighs around 21-22 lbs. and is around 29 inches tall...healthy girl! :)
she has 3 teeth, two bottom and one top, working on the second one up top now
wears some 9 month clothes still, mostly 12 months
wears size 4 diapers
favorite foods are macaroni and cheese, bread, pizza...really her favorites depend on the day, one day she will love peas the next day she will spit them out! mac and cheese seems to be a staple and bananas...i think she might turn into a monkey she eats them so much!
we are also working on transitioning from the bottle to the sippy cup for her formula...with not much success yet!
her "tricks" at 11 months
walking (she still crawls mostly because she gets there so much faster) but she will just let go and start taking steps when she feels like it too! watch out!
talking...says dada all the time, says baby (especially when looking at her books with real baby faces), we think we have heard mama a few times (my mom claims she has too when watching her) but she hasn't said it nearly enough for me to count, ha!
shakes her head no (she cannot shake it yes so this gets pretty comical, everything is no!)
waves hi and bye bye
is starting to blow kisses (kisses the outside of her hand) so cute!
will sometimes give kisses (open mouth!) when asked
can point to her ears (we are working on other body parts now!)
claps
does SO big
her favorite things...
playing in her "drawers" (the two drawers we have designated for her...one in the kitchen with all of her bowls/utensils) and the other in our bathroom with a bunch of my junk in there! i think i pick up these items about 100 times a day! we need to work on putting them all back, we have mastered taking them all out!
reading books, she just recently will sit still in my lap long enough for me to read her a few books (she loves when i whisper the words in her ear)
touching/playing with the blinds in the kitchen (yes, not a good thing...we had to start using a firm "NO" and moving her away...the start of discipline...yikes! i'm not looking forward to that!)
playing in her "house" she got for christmas from nannie (going through the door and playing with the mail are her favorite things to do)
watching/dancing to the yo, gabba gabba theme song and mickey mouse club theme song
playing peek a boo (she will initiate the game herself now when given a cloth/blanket)
we are so lucky to have such a sweet baby girl!

Christmas in Iowa

we headed up to stanton on the night before christmas eve to spend time with brian's family. christmas eve we spent the day letting lilian and the twins entertain each other, always a fun sight! christmas eve we exchanged gifts with everyone and had a wonderful meal brian's mom prepared. then we all went to church together. we thought lilian would be sleeping at this point (church started at 9:30) but she didn't want to miss out on any of the action! she stayed awake and was starting to get antsy halfway through so we didn't make it through the whole service, but we gave it our best shot! we'll try again next year!
christmas eve morning

lilian with andrew and lauren (4)

lauren and her barbie car we got her

andrew opening his fire truck

grandma and lilian

grandpa with lauren and andrew

our first christmas as a family

christmas afternoon we drove back to kansas city and did our little family christmas which was mostly watching lilian open the gifts we got her and pull things out of her stocking. that night my parents came over for dinner and watched lilian play with her new assortment of toys (which by the way i am on toy overload and she is not even one yet!) the best christmas gift of all...lilian took her first steps on christmas night!!!
our new stockings, love them!

lilian discovering what was in her stocking

playing with daddy in her new tunnel from santa


i'd say she made out pretty well for her first christmas, wouldn't you?

we are so blessed! we hope you all had a wonderful christmas with loved ones!

More Christmas Fun!

one of my immediate family's christmas traditions is going out to a nice christmas dinner sometime in the weeks leading up to christmas. in the past we have gone down to the plaza (which i love being able to see the lights) but now with the little ones we thought it would be easier to stay closer to home. we tried a new restaurant in lees summit, called rumors, it was delicious. before dinner we exchanged gifts at my parents' house since bryan and alison were going to be in maryville over the holidays. enjoy the pictures!
curtis opening his yo, gabba gabba boombox

helping lily open her gift from grammy and pops

she got her very own chair!

doing "SO BIG" in her big girl chair

we got mom professional pictures of all of her kids/grandkids, she loved them!

the lute family

1st Family Christmas

our first family christmas gathering was with my side of the family on sunday, december
12th. i invited everyone over for taco soup and then we opened presents. we did our christmas a little early this year since both my brother and i would be traveling for christmas and nannie and ross would be spending time with ross's family. nannie and ross got lilian her laugh and learn house. it is complete with all sorts of fun noises (door bell, open/close, windows opening with birds singing) and fun things for her to do. it is definitely a toy that she will grow with and use for awhile! thanks, nannie and ross!

nannie and ross

nannie helping lilian open her first christmas present ever!

curtis and uncle bryan

the lute family

nannie got lily this christmas bench as well, her and santa fit nicely together on it!

Bath Time Fun

these pictures were too funny not to post. lilian LOVES bath time! she has started getting mommy VERY wet in her fun as well. she loves splashing the water everywhere and making a huge mess but her grin is too darn cute to resist! as you can see, ralph enjoys when she takes baths as well, he literally tries to get in with her. is there anything better than wrapping a baby up after bath time? it is the best scent on earth!



"SOOO big!"

Visit with Santa

we have always heard that bass pro shop has the best santa so we knew we wanted to take lilian there for her first real visit with him. :) some friends from work said the line was usually crazy on the weekends so we decided a monday night the second week of december we should be great! we picked her up from laurie's, changed her into her christmas dress (thanks grammy!) and headed straight there. since santa didn't even start seeing children until 5 we thought we would be one of the first in line...nope! we waited over an hour but it was a success, well, sort of...no tears, but no real smiles either...we'll take what we can get! the whole place is set up so adorable though, it will definitely be one of our christmas traditions to go see santa there each year. enjoy the pics! she wasn't sure what to think of that beard, he was so nice!

daddy and lilian before santa, you can see how cute everything is decorated

success! no tears!