one month to toddler-dom

Our baby turned 11 months old today!

It has been a pretty big month for our Lyla Bee... we thought she was on the verge of crawling, but she decided that it was time to start cruising instead. She absolutely loves taking steps and is always trying to get down from our arms to walk around... I wonder when she will start walking without our hands or a couch for support. Looking at her it seems so strange, she looks too small to be trying to walk still! She can also stand on her own for short periods at a time.. very short.. like maybe the longest has been 20 seconds, but mostly it's like 10 seconds probably. We were so shocked the first time because she was very clearly trying to balance herself and stood for quite a few seconds and we just couldn't believe it!

She maybe started cruising a week ago and has already gotten so much faster, it is amazing!

I've read very contrary opinions on babies who skip crawling, some say it isn't an important developmental milestone at all, while others say it is very important, especially for a baby's vision. Actually I had a yoga instructor tell me once that a baby who skips crawling should be encouraged to crawl a lot during playtime. So we'll do that I guess, just to be safe. Who knows, she may still crawl before she walks on her own, we'll see!

Some of my favorite things that Lyla does... she has a hilarious fake cough that she does whenever someone else coughs.. she has been doing this for awhile now, but I don't think I've ever said something about it before... It's so funny, she's like "look at me, i'm a poor coughing baby!" She also buries her face in our chests and clutches onto us whenever anyone gets close or tries to hold her, and looks like she is trying to hide! This started maybe about a month ago I think.. She sometimes sticks out her teeth on the bottom and looks so goofy! She has so many silly faces! And of course, the babbling! Mostly "Da da da da da" but a lot of "ma ma ma" and "ra ra ra" .. lots of other sounds, and some mixes of sounds too! It's so fun to hear her talking and expressing herself! I bet Dada will be her first world... definitely a daddy's girl.... She also started signing the sign for Dog this month! Whenever she sees a dog she does the sign, and sometimes when she sees a cat too... that's ok, i think the sign for cat is kind of hard haha.

Today, I was actually feeling a bit sick for the first bit of the morning... The one good thing about this was that I got the afternoon off of work! Lyla and I went down to see my parents.. They live right by where Erik works so we walked down to see him and surprise him!