Eleven Months

Yesterday, Juliet turned eleven months old.  Milestones this month:

• She is very squirmy, so it's hard to get a good measurement of her height, but I'm guessing (based on what I could tell while holding a measuring tape next to her as she tried to grab it out of my hands) she's about 29 inches tall.  She's holding steady at roughly 20 pounds, too.
• Juliet has a total of six teeth now!  Her two bottom front teeth and her top four front teeth.  The two top front teeth are still just erupting, but they're through!
• She eats and eats these days. Her favorite thing to eat is chicken, though.  She will only eat her veggies if I offer them first without letting her see the chicken.  I consider this preference proof that she's my child.  But the fact that she will actually eat her veggies proof that she's Ray's child. :)
• If you are eating, you will have to share with Juliet.  She wants to share what you're having.  And, for the most part, I encourage this.  I want her palate to be more diverse than mine - I was (and still am compared to many people) a very picky eater, and I want her to eat better than I did.
• She continues to enjoy playing with Filch and Ninja, and they both continue to tolerate her very well.
• Juliet hasn't officially said her first word in my opinion, but Ray disagrees.  She has, on more than one occasion, said, "Da-da" on command, and that's all he needs.  He claims that as her first word.  :)  She also consistently says, "Key" when she sees Filch, which I think is her version of  "kitty," but I'm not totally convinced it's intentional yet.  I think that until I believe she's making noises intentionally (and not just mimicking us), I'll have a hard time saying she's "talking."
• She understands and responds to her name.
• She definitely knows the word, "No," and she really doesn't like it.  In fact, if it's something she really wants to do, and she is told, "No," she starts to cry.  It's hard not to laugh at her when this happens, but I try really hard to keep a straight face.
• One of the coolest things she's started doing this month is being loving.  She will hug me back now, and she also frequently comes up to me, pulls up, and hugs my legs.  This weekend, she was particularly loving to both me and Ray.  She would be crawling all over, being her usual crazy-baby self, and then just stop for a few moments to lay her head on one of us while wrapping her arms around whatever she could.  She also started doing this with Ninja, who is very patient.  This morning, before Ray left, he was hugging me.  Juliet crawled over to us and let us know she wanted to be picked up.  So I grabbed her, and Ray and I both hugged her.  She smiled the hugest grin ever.  I love our family so, so much!
• First steps were taken on August 31, 2013.

Juliet has been taking accidental steps for more than a month now.  But two days ago, in front of Ray (and many of the others who were gathered at our house for my birthday), Juliet took three deliberate steps.  A few moments later, she took another five steps.  And since then, she continues to take more and more steps.  It is so fun to watch her let go of whatever she's pulled up onto and make the conscious choice to walk.  You can watch her think about it, concentrate, and then go.  I cannot express how proud I am of this milestone or how very, very grateful I am that Ray was home to witness it.  I know that Ray struggles being away from us, especially while Juliet is changing and growing so much.  Watching Juliet walk and then seeing Ray's face reflect everything I was feeling was awesome.  Thank you, child, for giving us that gift!

Courtney, our nanny, has been working with Juliet on waving bye-bye.  I've seen Juliet wave good-bye twice now, so I know she's getting it.  I can't wait to hear her say, "Bye-bye!" while waving... But that will probably make it even harder to leave her behind.

A couple more pictures of this month:

I can feed myself broccoli... It's a little messy, but that's okay because it's fun!

Thanks, Aunt Vicki, for giving me this great shirt!  Mama's been itching to put me in it since we got it, and today was the perfect day.  I'm getting really good at the "Whooo!" part in the fight song.  The Chop comes next!