Keelyn's Growing Up!

Well, I think I'm pretty much in denial of how close my baby girl is to turning one..... But today, that denial is getting harder & harder to keep up because she started taking her first steps. She had taken one or two last weekend when going between two places to pull up that were very close together. But when I tried to stand her up and reach my arms out to her, she would just lean forward and collapse in my arms. So, I didn't push it too much. But today while we were just hanging out around the house. I noticed at one point she had stood straight up with nothing to hold onto in the middle of the floor - which I thought was interesting that she could balance from a squat to standing on her own. But then she sat back down and crawled. A few minutes later, she was standing up again without anything to hold onto anywhere near her, and she just took about 2 or 3 steps. Then, sat down and crawled. I got my camera all ready to video her & then she hasn't done it again! Probably just a matter of a week or two and she'll be walking all over the house!

Another fun thing she has started to do is mimic us a lot. She likes to talk on the cell phone, brush her hair, give kisses (complete with the "mwa" sound!), and pretend to eat & drink! She is way more into mimicking than I remember Mackenzie being. One funny story is that Brannon was holding her one night while eating nuts out of can. I look over and she is chewing on something & I'm worried she's picked up a nut that he dropped or something. So I do the finger swoop through her mouth and find nothing. So I watch her for a few seconds, and she reaches over to the can like she's grabbing something (but didn't) and then acted like she was putting it in her mouth & chewing! So funny :)

She's started saying a few words. Of course, just like her sissy, she loves to say da-da. She'd been saying it a while, but over the last few weeks, she is definitely associated it with daddy. He'll come home and she'll repeat it loudly & proudly! She also has started to say 'uh-oh', but pronounces it like her sissy did when she was little....'uh-uh'!

She loves to clap & if she hears you saying 'YAY!!', she'll start clapping her hands with this big grin on her face! And when she stands up on her own, we will start saying "YAY!" for her and she just claps and is so proud of herself! She just started waving too & really enjoys being able to wave and see you wave back at her!

One thing that she continues to excel at (and mommy is very happy about!) is that she is really good at playing by herself. She is so content to play with toys and explore a room on her own. I just love this (since I had not experienced this much with her sister - who requires an audience in much of her playtime! Thank heavens that she is slowly getting a permanent audience in her sister in addition to her mommy!).

These pictures are of our baby girl at 10 months. I will have to get myself in gear and get some 11 month pictures soon since she is very (too) close to turning the big 1......