11 months!!!

It's true. Allie is only 4 weeks away from turning ONE!

This has been a really fun month for Allie. She is picking up on so many things and developing such a neat little personality.

She will stand up to play a lot more often. Those little legs are getting much stronger. She used to sit right back down when I would stand her up, but now she will stay there and even seem to enjoy it! She is content in the place where I put her to stand, though. I haven't seen her trying to cruise on to other places or attempting to do any walking. Allie did pull up on her own this month, but it's still not a typical thing that I see her doing all the time. I don't mind at all that she's taking this slow. It keeps her in baby-mode just a little bit longer. Once she starts walking around, she will be all grown up!

This little girl is ticklish! She will laugh and laugh if you get her her tickle spots. Tyler didn't seem to get super ticklish until he was a little older. Allie will start to giggle with just the anticipation of getting tickled. Funny girl.

She said "Tyler" this month, pronounced "i-ler." She calls after him when he goes running by her, and then she proceeds to try and chase him. She has also started saying "mama" all the time. Music to my ears. We are still waiting on "dada." Sometimes I think she calls Todd "baba," but then again, she says that a lot, so it may not be just him.

No longer does Allie stay in the room where she is put. There is way to much to explore and see and do. You never know where she will end up, so you better keep a close eye on her!

She loves to play with doors, both big doors around the house, and little doors on toys. She loves to open and close, open and close, open and close. Turning pages is another fun thing to do...back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

Loud shrieking is a favorite thing to do, but not for the rest of us. She is LOUD and sometimes she does it all the time! She shrieks when she's happy. She shrieks when she's tired. She shrieks when she's bored. Lots of shrieking. Lots of headaches. Lots of "please control your baby" looks at the grocery store. I hope this is a phase that passes quickly.

Allie does seem to understand the word "no" pretty well. She even obeys some of the time. She does enjoy looking right at me and testing her boundaries to see if "no touch" holds true every time. Yes, it does.

Allie has been playing some little games with me too. She loves to play ball. She will roll it back and forth with both Tyler and me. She has also started throwing balls (and other things). Pat-a-cake is another fun game we play. She will pat her little lap and clap her hands together. She has also started rolling her hands some of the times, when she feels like it. I always get really excited when she does. It is so cute.

I got a bow to stay clipped in her hair for a couple of minutes before it fell out! We are also making progress on the hair growth this month! She will have little piggy tails in no time.

I successfully replaced her bunny lovey with a pink puppy lovey. The bunny was started to get a hole in his head and I didn't know how he would hold up through his weekly bath in the washing machine with extra hot water. The pink puppy has become a new favorite and he gets lots of love.

My personal favorite milestone this month is no more food sensitivities! Allie has always gotten bad tummy aches and gas if I ate dairy or chocolate. Every couple of months I will "test" to see if she's outgrown it yet, hoping that her little digestive system would mature enough to allow for these items. This month I didn't notice a reaction and so I added more. She has been doing great! She can even eat bowls of yogurt now with no side effects. I have really enjoyed getting to eat chocolate and ice cream again! I have really missed these things. It's really nice of Allie to allow me to eat them again.

Allie loves to look at books. Every day she will go and get her books out all on her own and start looking through them. She won't sit in my lap for very long to read one, but she is happy to sit by herself and go through a book for a long time. The ones that make noises are her favorites. She will push the sound buttons over and over. And of course, she loves to be next to Tyler when she's reading too.

Just this weekend, I found out that Allie does not like her bare feet touching the grass. When I sat her down to play in the grass, she held her feet up in the air the whole time! Those are some really good muscles. We're going to have to spend more time playing in the grass so that when her one year pictures come around, she will pose nicely in the grass without her feet sticking up! Maybe she will change her mind about leaving her shoes on now.

Happy 11 month birthday baby girl! I love you so, so, so much!!