10 and 11 month update

 

This 11 month picture is a perfect representation of Brooke and her adorable personality. She's spunky and keeps us laughing every day with her quirky moves. It seems like she changes every day and it keeps us on our toes. In our last update, she had taken one or two steps. Since then she has become quite the proficient walker. She does laps around our living room, kitchen and bedrooms, climbs the stairs every chance she can get, and has tried running unsuccessfully. We found some soft soled leather shoes and those have been a life saver for her little feet and toes now that she's moving around so much. She rarely crawls anymore. She LOVES being outside and goes straight for the leaves on our grass. We sometimes find leaves on the floor in our living room. Brooke has top teeth that seem like they've been trying to come in for months. We can see them bulging under her gums. Some days she isn't very happy about it but in general she seems to be handling the teething like a champ. We think they are almost ready to cut through those gums. Thank goodness!

10 month stats (and pretty much the same for 11 mo):

Weight: 20 lbs. 4 oz

Height: 28 inches

 Brooke loves reading and playing with her books. Every morning she and Jeff read her books for about 30 minutes. Then she gets about 30 more minutes of book time when I put her to bed at night. We hope this love of reading continues throughout her life.

 We are making a quiet book for church, airplanes, and other times where noisy toys aren't ideal. These are the first 2 pieces. Simple finger puppets...that took me 4 hours to hand sew. I have plans for more finger puppets but at this rate it's going to take a few months. It was fun though and Brooke enjoyed playing with these two at church last week.

 Brooke has learned how to point very emphatically. We didn't teach her this, and the cute way she does it very much reflects her personality. We love love love it!

 All smiles all the time. We just can't get enough of that smile.

 About a month ago we read an article online that talked about research that shows that babies who are messy eaters may be smarter. The argument is that they learn about elements of their environment based on the texture. So being able to examine their food (how soft, squishy, or hard it is) helps them to know what's ok to eat, touch, etc... So one day we striped Brooke down to her diaper and let her go to town with her sweet potatoes.

 The outcome: A total mess.

 She must be a genius then.

 Who knew such a mess could be so cute?

 Brooke had her first taste of meat at Thanksgiving. She gobbled up her turkey without taking a breath. She also had apple juice for the first time. She's a fan.

 My brother and his family came to Oxford all the way from Provo. Brooke loved spending so much time with her cousins. She and Jada got matching dresses from Grandma Peggy and had fun twirling in the living room. Brooke mostly watched Jada twirl around. I think she was very confused at first about why there were so many people in our house. But she quickly got used to it.

 Such a playful girl. She loves crawling all over us when we are on the floor with her. Sometimes she tries to give us zerberts on our neck (like we do to her). Usually she gives us big wet kisses on our cheeks.

 Playing out on the balcony, saying hi to the neighbors dogs.

 In October, we had a wheelchair tennis clinic here at Ole Miss. Brooke had lots of fun crawling around the courts and playing with tennis balls.

 A few weeks before Halloween, we went to the local pumpkin patch for some pictures and pumpkins. We had a great time crawling around in the grass and hay.

 We didn't realize that Brooke almost impaled herself on the pumpkin stem until we looked at the picture afterwards. I promise we are more observant than this.

 Brooke picked out her favorite pumpkins from the baby pumpkin patch.

As always, there's too many pictures to post. 

Brooke, we can't believe how quickly you have grown into a great little lady. You walk around the house like you've been doing it forever, emphatically talking as you go. You are such a good eater, and other than apples, have loved everything we've given you. You are so smart and we love seeing you learn from everything you do. You pull things out of drawers and cupboards but we don't mind because we see how much you learn from the things in your environment. As Grandma Peggy says, everything is your toy. I love playing hide and go seek with you in the mornings. It's the favorite part of my day. When one of us is downstairs, and we hear the pitter patter of your feet upstairs, it brings an enormous smile to our faces. You are growing up so fast and we are loving every minute of it...even the teething parts. 

We love you!!