girlfriend is 11 months!

 It's kind of unbelievable to me that I have been hanging out with this little buggy for 11 months. How is she almost a year old? I am both happy and sad about this. Happy because she just continues to get more fun and entertaining, but sad because now that she's walking I am realizing she is no longer an infant. Before I know it I'll blink and she'll be 13 years old and cursing me and every rule I make, just like I did my mom. Everyone tells you to cherish the time you have when your kids are little. I think I am, but how do you really know you are? It would ruin every moment I spent with Minnie if I was always thinking to myself "Am I really enjoying this?" When she's tired and crazy and squirming around while I'm changing her diaper and she's getting poop all over the place I would likely answer "No, I am certainly not enjoying this." But for the most part I would say I have loved the last 11 months of my life more than I've loved any time previous. I think all good things build on themselves and I feel like my life just continues to become more meaningful, lovely and joyful. And before I wax too much more poetic, let me get on to what this little post here is supposed to be all about...my 11-month-old Minnie bug.

 Minnie is quite independent these days. She's walking about 90% of the time she's making her way around and crawling the other 10%. She's not quite accustomed to walking in shoes, but we're working on it. Robert says she looks like a sumo wrestler when she walks. I agree. Her feet are spread out wide and her steps are very precise but stomp-like. It's killer!

She is a very vocal little bug and will say "mamama" and "dadada" and "mememe" all day long, but has no idea what she's saying. Sometimes she'll say "mama" on command, but only when she's in the mood. She's screeching and blabbing most of the day and I love it. Here are a few other highlights:

• She has discovered our lower cupboards (which are mostly empty) and literally crawls in and out of them 3 or 4 times daily.
• Within the empty cupboards she has found an old, small curtain rod of our landlord's. She likes to walk around with it and move it from side to side in front of her, which makes it look like she's blind and using a walking stick. It's hilarious.
• She likes pushing her cheap Ikea high chair around the kitchen, almost always hurting herself or getting in the way.
• She likes to carry things to different parts of the house, especially her shoes.
• When she's really tired she'll just stop what she's doing and lay her head on the floor no matter where she is, even the kitchen.
• She likes to stomp, clap, and wiggle her tongue from side to side saying "llllbllllblllbllllblll"...or something like that.
• She's beginning to climb up on chairs, especially rocking chairs, which does not bode well for us and our return home to SLC, where we have 2 of those puppies in our home. I promise I will not let her ruin them, Mom.
• She doesn't like to cuddle unless reading books. This makes me sad (the cuddling part) but I'm glad she loves books so much.
• She has been a champion sleeper since birth, and still continues to be. I am lucky. She's getting 2 or 3 new teeth and still doesn't seem phased.

Climbing in and out of our ghetto cupboards.

The girl loves squishing things in her hands, so I let her have at it. She needed a bath anyway, and I always wondered what she'd look like with a sweet potato unibrow.

And this video is just a day in the life of Minnie. She refuses to perform in front of a camera, so all you really get is some of her sumo walking and me asking her to do a bunch of things and her looking at me like I'm an idiot. Every time I played this video back and Minnie watched it she'd do everything I said in the video straight away. I guess she's just camera shy.

Love this girl!