11 Months Old!

Allie turned 11 months old last week. She is going to be 1 before we know it. She continues to get busier and busier, and she is still such a happy baby. First we want to share some pictures of her that our good friend, Vivian, took when Allie was actually 10 months old. Vivian is also one of Nikki's coworkers at the pediatric clinic, but she is an aspiring photographer. She is building up her portfolio, and she really takes some great photos. Check out her blog to see family pictures of us, too: www.vivianmathiasphotography.com. If any of you are in Rexburg, you should look her up.

What a cutie!

Allie in her Easter dress - precious

Now to catch up with what Allie is up to. She still loves to be outside. Maybe I should say that she LOVES to be outside. She will always bring us her shoes and coat, hoping that we will take her out. If either one of us leaves or goes outside without her, she gets very upset. When she gets to go outside, she is extremely happy and fascinated with the world around her. She loves to pick up dead leaves, dandelions, rocks, and sticks. She will just wander around finding new things. She has also started waving to cars as they leave the parking lot. She wants to be outside rain or shine. There was one day when she kept trying to get Daddy to go outside with her, but he wouldn't because it was cold and rainy. Finally, after much prodding on Allie's part, Daddy decided to bundle her up really well and go outside. He figured that she would not enjoy the rain. But much to his dismay, she still enjoyed being outside and even cried when he brought her back inside. We will take her out a few times each day, weather permitting. Below are some pictures of Allie and Daddy outside.

About to pick up a dead leaf. You can see her pointing at it - pointing at things and making high-pitched squeaks is one of her newly-found joys

She also still enjoys looking out the window, though she would much prefer to be outside. Unfortunately, the weather in Rexburg keeps teasing us. We will have a few days where the weather gets up to 70 degrees, and then have it drop and snow some more. Below is a picture of Mommy and Allie looking out the window.

When Allie is on the couch with us, she will try to climb up the couch to the windowsill. She is getting better at climbing. Luckily, she hasn't applied her climbing skills while on the ground too much. She hasn't tried climbing up onto the couch or onto a chair, yet. I'm guessing that it just hasn't occurred to her that she could. Once she catches on, we will be in trouble. Below are some pictures of her climbing higher and higher on the couch. (We were just barely out of view of the camera - ready to catch her if need be, especially in the last picture.)

We haven't been taking as many pictures of Allie, recently. I am guessing that that is normal. So there won't be any pictures to accompany the rest of the text.

Allie is beginning to be a little more cuddly. It is only on her terms, but is has been quite nice to have her want to sit on our laps and cuddle a little bit. She also cuddles with her big stuffed duck. She'll kind of jump on it and cuddle into it. It's really sweet. I guess one of the times that Allie is most cuddly is when we are reading books to her. She has fallen in love with books. She will bring them to us so that we'll read them to her. It is near impossible to resist. Her favorite book right now is, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" She will have us read it over, and over, and over... We definitely have it memorized. Sometimes we will hide it from her so that we can get a break. Horrible, I know.

Here's a list of things that make Allie happy and smile:

• playing peek-a-boo
• playing patty-cake
• dancing (her dancing and her watching us dance)
• playing chase (where we'll chase her down the hall and then she'll chase us back. Recently she enjoys being chased by us and her duck - we'll hold her duck and quack at her as she runs away squealing)
• drumming (playing Daddy's drums)
• yogurt - she gets really excited when she sees us grab it out of the refrigerator
• being outside
• seeing Mommy and Daddy kiss

Here's a list of her words, or at least the ones that we can decipher:

• Dada
• Mama (sometimes, but especially when she is frustrated)
• Hi (she has not said it for awhile, but she was really good at it before)
• Diaper
• Dut (duck)

She is such a smart little baby. We are continually impressed by her. We love her so much, and she makes us smile and laugh all the time.