Summer magic & one year plus some

The months are flying! I've been reminiscing a lot on how far we've come this past year. From the work we've put into our fixer-upper home (which is an entirely different set of posts in itself) and watching our baby grow it has really been something.

Rory is so fun right now. She's got the best sense of humor and loves making people laugh. And she laughs easily, which she comes by naturally.

She crawls EVERYwhere, sometimes in the downward dog position because she still prefers using her feet over using her knees. She can stand for long periods of time and took her first step on the 4th of July, but doesn't regularly walk without a finger or couch to hold on to. She does crawl up the stairs like a champ, and is getting pretty good at going down as well. Her favorite thing to do is crawl over to the bottom of the stairs and laugh and squeal preemptively because she knows I'll come get her any second.

She finally decided that she likes the water! So our favorite thing to do right now is go to the gym the moment she wakes up from her morning nap, then spend an hour or so at the rec center pool after I'm done. She stands waist high in the kiddie pool water and happily splashes and watches the other kids. It's so so magical.

She eats more than I do, and that's not a joke. Some days I run out of ideas of things to feed her. Anybody else have this issue? We've mostly weaned. I still nurse her once every couple of days if she will nurse, though I know that can't go on forever as I'm sure I eventually won't have anything left to give. Thank heavens for Boo the vacuum cleaner who eats all her crumbs off the floor as self-feeding is a beautiful, messy thing. Rory has also been known to feed Boo on purpose from her chair the little rascal.

Puppy and baby become more and more mutually obsessed as the days go by. Rory easily gives Boo ten kisses in the space of 5 minutes and giggles at her so hard that she gives herself hiccups at least once a day. Boo is done with the bulk of her shedding for summer, but even still the constant vacuuming is worth it for how much these two love each other.

Our neighbor has the most magical apricot tree in her backyard. It's so full of apricots that she and I had to go out and brace the limbs to keep them from breaking, as several of the others already had. She has no family here and is so sweet to let us play on the lawn and steal an apricot here and there. (she sent me home with 3 full bags last week) Speaking of lawns, we are finally going to have a yard! We've been doing everything ourselves, so it's been quite the process. But we are almost there! My friend said I will just roll around in it I'll be so happy, and I quite agree. Anyways, I knew the moment I saw those limbs full of apricots that I needed to get a picture or two of Rory there. So I did, and Rory picked an apricot right off the tree and ate it mid-photo. Sometimes there's magic in our backyards. Really.

I did include a crying picture to bring us all back to reality. Homegirl is breaking 4 of her top teeth at the same time right now. So much drool, so many chewed fingers, and a good bit of fussing depending on the day.

11 months: our little/big chunk

I had a friend say yesterday that she seems even bigger than she was two weeks ago. And it's true! I'm getting all nostalgic just thinking about it. Don't even talk to me about her being a year old next month. My baby!

Rory at 11 months:

-Gets asked all the time if she's "...6, 7? Maybe 8? months old" I blame it on the chub, bald head, and lack of teeth. But heck I don't care, stay my baby!

-Is all about her daddy. Unless she's upset about something (in which case, as Jay says, I'm the epitome of comfort) she lights up every time he walks into a room and lunges out of my arms to get to him.

-Loves to dance. The moment the new JT song come on or her dad whistles "Once upon a dream" she begins to rock back and forth, swing her arms and shake her head. She was the star of the dance floor at the wedding we attended last weekend where she danced like crazy up on top of her dad's shoulders or in my arms. The photographer said to me more than once, "I can't stop taking pictures of her!" And I didn't blame her one bit.

-Caught the movement bug a week or so ago and is now trying to walk and crawl all at once. We even found her sitting up in the corner of her crib yesterday. This all makes for an exhausted mama, because she wants to move but needs my help all the time. Luckily, standing against the couch or a chair on her own keeps her happy for 10 minute intervals and I can get things done.

-LOVES FOOD. Jay is constantly impressed by how much food she can put down, especially for breakfast. Most days she eats a whole piece of fruit (or massive handful of frozen blueberries), a pancake or muffin and sometimes a scrambled egg to top it off. These last two weeks especially I've had to strain my creative juices to come up with new things for her to eat a million times per day.

-Sleeps pretty well, but not currently. Whenever she's teething or about to pass a developmental milestone, Rory's sleep schedule gets thrown way off. And right now she's doing both, so it's killing me! She wakes up bright and early at 6:30 to nurse (even though she had previously pushed that back until 8 a month ago) then gets up around 7:30 wide awake. I typically like to get up early, but I've been fighting a cold for almost three weeks so this whole sleep-protest thing has got me beat.

-Has the cheesiest, full face grin that we can't get enough of, and has the cutest sense of humor! When she's by herself in the living room or in her carseat she will randomly start giggling at whatever stuffed animal she's playing with. Sometimes she's just cracking herself up. It's the best. We can't get enough.

Mostly, we still go to bed at night talking about how cute our little chunk is and spend a minute watching her sleep on the baby monitor. We're clearly obsessed.