Ila - Eleven Months

Really?  Eleven?

ELEVEN?!!!!

I know it's completely cliche, but I cannot believe how fast this year flew by!

But really!  How is she almost one?

Didn't THIS just happen:

That will forever be one of my favorite pictures of her.  I really don't know why I like it so much; there are much sweeter pictures of her from our time in the hospital, but this one has always stood out to me.  It's hard work being born, y'all!

And now she's all, "Look at me, I'm so big drinking out of my sippy cup!"

Actually, the sippy cup is about the same size as her whole chest/tummy.

Her birthday party outfit is sitting folded in her room, ready to be worn.  The party invitations are stuffed and ready to be mailed out in a few days.  

AHHHHHHH!

Milestones:

She took her first steps this month!  At the gym where Eden takes gymnastics.  OF COURSE she took her first steps while we were out and about at one of Eden's activities, because this poor child just gets dragged around to all of them.  Oh, it was so exciting though!  Ila is no longer content to play on the ground on the side of the gym where the parents sit.  She wants to be in on the action!  And Eden's gymnastics instructor is AMAZING, so she has no problem with Ila crawling over and under and around mats on the floor during Eden's class.  On September 1st, Ila was sitting on one of the mats, and I was sitting on the ground facing her.  Suddenly, she stood up and took two steps to me before falling into my lap.  YAY ILA!

She's taken a few more steps here and there since then, but I think it'll a be a while before she's walking over crawling.

When you say "bye-bye" to her, she'll say "bye-bye" back now.  Actually she says "bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye-bye."  And she (sometimes) says "mama" when she's crawling to me.  

The girl loves to eat and will eat anything we give her.  From mangos to spinach to steak to shrimp, she loves it all and has NEVER turned down anything we've offered her.  Not even once.

Oh, and when I took her back to the doctor to get her head checked out out again, there was absolutely no problem.  Girl just has a big head.  :)

She's always so, so happy!  

Except when she and Eden fight.  Which they do now.  Usually over toys.  Because Ila wants anything she sees her big sissy playing with.  And so she steals it.  And Eden steals it back.  And then Ila screams and cries.  And I go in and make everyone happy again.  But secretly I think it's adorable and I love that they sometimes agitate each other because that's what siblings do.  And I'm still just over the moon that there's TWO of them!

Ila has added to our family in ways I didn't know were possible.  Life was sweet, I didn't think it could get much better.  And then she came along and made it even sweeter!  

As far as Ila and her puppy, Blue, go, Blue just LOVES Ila.  When he comes inside or we go outside, he is all over Ila the second he spots her.  He will go to her over any of the rest of us; he's all about the babies I guess.  He's always trying so hard to cuddle with her.  So far Ila still isn't sure what to make of him.