This little cutie is 11 months old today. This week with Halloween approaching I have been trying to remember what life was like without her around. I do remember we got a lot more sleep...
She is a spunky social butterfly. She has always been interested in the world around her. She wants to know what is happening and be involved in whatever is happening. Crawling meant she had to further from the action, so at 8 1/2 months she took her first independent steps. She was walking along things before that, but I can't remember when she started that.
It took her a few weeks, but once she mastered walking there is really no other way. (Even when she is tired, she still wants to walk. She will drag her head on the ground while walking. It's pretty hilarious. We really need to capture it on video one of these days!) She can even walk in her sleep sack. Jeff chases her, and she will get so excited and start running. So cute.
We were so excited for her to walk, but she is so much harder to contain! She went on an airplane for the first time to San Diego to visit her Great Grandpa in September (around 9 months). She did awesome! Thankfully, we were able to bring the car seat along for the ride.
She loves books, which makes me so happy. She will sit there and read to herself, sometimes she will even start laughing. Most people bring books to church because it is a quiet activity. Malorie's "reading" is too loud, so we have to be more creative for quiet activities for a walking 11 month old.
Malorie loves to spend time with other kids. She is learning to play nice, but we still have a lot of work to do. She is starting to learn to share. She has even started giving us her Cheerios if we get close while she is eating. (Even if she has already put it in her mouth. Still working on that...) Sometimes she expects it back, sometimes not.
In the last few days she has started to play with her play cups and plates. She will bring me the cup and gets so excited when I take a drink. She will then take a drink. She will also bring me the plate and seems to expect me to "eat."
During meals she refuses to let us feed her. We actually just gave a way a bunch of baby food because several months ago she decided she was done. It is much easier during meal times to just cut up her food and let her feed herself. (A bit messier though!)
She still isn't very interested in climbing. She can climb up the stairs (if we let her get near them). Today she was even trying to walk up the stairs instead of climbing. We still need to practice going down the stairs. If we are near the couch she will try to climb up and has moved things in place to help her climb on occasion, but that is only when there is something on the couch that she really wants.
Malorie is also a very determined child. She wants what she wants. This is often my phone. It amazes me that she is able to find it no matter where I hide it. She won't see my hide it, but she can find it.
Several weeks ago (maybe months, I forget). She started to say, "Hi Dad." When she hears him coming in the house she gets so excited and will say "Hi Dad." She will even wait outside the bathroom waiting for him to come out. Jeff can call to her from another room and she will say "Hi Dad" and get so excited to hear his voice. She is very much a Daddy's girl.
Don't worry though, she is Momma's girl too. She says "Ma ma ma ma" when she is sad. The other day we left her with a sitter and she kept trying to look around the house to find us and kept saying "Ma Ma Ma."
She has started to give kisses, she won't always do it but sometimes you get lucky (or unlucky depending on the kiss!) She only has two teeth, but her kisses are soggy open mouthed sometimes with teeth sometimes with out. It still melts my heart.
She is learning what she is and isn't supposed to do. When she gets to something she knows she isn't supposed to play with, she will turn and look at me. If I don't do anything after about 10 or 15 seconds she will get this huge grin and go for it. She also loves to put things in other things. We have to be careful about how close she is to trash cans...
A few weeks ago, I purchased a little car toy for her. She LOVES it. (Pictured below somewhere). She loves to climb all over it, lift the seat and put toys inside of it, sit on it (with the lid up or down), move around in it (the way it is built it is hard to go forwards on it on the carpet, so she has learned to go backwards). The other day she sat down on it backwards and went as far as she could. She stood up, and sat the other direction. Due to how it is built she couldn't move it, so she stood up and started pushing it. Our little problem solver :).
She has the cutest mischievous grin, has an adorable laugh, claps her hands, stops when she hears a TV show theme song, and is just so adorable.
She has the cutest mischievous grin, has an adorable laugh, claps her hands, stops when she hears a TV show theme song, and is just so adorable.
There are a million other stories I could tell, but this will have to do for now.
We love this girl so much! I can't wait to celebrate her birthday with so much family (at different times) in the next month!
