Peyton's 11 months old!

Weight- You're not exactly packin' on the pounds... We stuck you on the scale and you're 17 lbs. I swear you eat! I wish I had your metabolism! And PS, that means your stuck in your rearfacing car seat until you can gain THREE more pounds... do you have that in you for this month so we can turn you around?
Hair- I am pretty sure I could rubberband it in some tiny pony on the top of your head, but A- you don't sit still, so that would be difficult and B- I don't have any hair pony holders... I have headbands, but you just pull those off (good luck Darci with all those cute bands for Makena, let me know how those work out :)
Clothes- You're still in the 9-12 month clothes, the dresses hold you back when crawling around and you do a funky crawl when that happens, but other than that, your clothes are still cute and fitting. Your nine month jammies are getting too short (see you are growing... at least vertically)
Teeth- TWO! It was very exciting to discover the one... and then the second one popped through shortly after. I actually discovered it while at a friend's wedding. I was trying to shoosh you through the ceremony and I found it! I was thrilled. Now you just have those, but they are WAY cute! We did think you were getting a top one, but that turned out just to be the owie mommy gave you, more on that below...
New Skills- Well your crawling skills have certainly sped up! You don't do the army crawl much anymore. Now you do exclusively hands and knees. Like I said above, when you're in an outfit that gets in the way, you modify your crawl and it looks kind of funny.
You walk behind stuff quite a bit now. Your first 'poor man's walker' was a baby wipe box. It was perfect! It slides across the floor as you lean on it and walk behind it. You also have a toy walker that you push around. You're not quite sure how to turn though, so usually you run either of the 'walker's' into a barrier and then abandon it until we move it.
Your balance is increasing all the time, but I don't think you're quite ready for walking just yet, soon though.
Your other new skill is ascending the stairs. You are getting REALLY good at that! The baby gate was a perfect purchase for the bottom of the stairs. When we open it, up you go! No worries, we follow closely behind. You're especially entertaining when you're really tired! Now funny story... You were playing up near the top of the stairs and went over like you were going to go down them, I decided to see how this would play out, I moved in front of you and sat a few stairs down. You looked at the stairs, laid down on your belly, and moved with your hands to the edge. Then you crept forward and tried to use your hands to edge closer, when you got close enough you used your head for support. Finally you needed your legs, but you couldn't quite work it out. After a few tries, you just became frustrated. I then tried to teach you to go backward, but whenever I put you backward, you just went up! So... in time perhaps we'll get better :)
Foods- For being so puny in size you sure do eat a lot! You will try just about anything we put down for you! Pizza, cooked vegetables (funny, there are veggies you refused in baby food form that you gobble up now in 'real food'), pasta, berries, and the list goes on. It has been an adjustment for daddy and I to remember to cook you your own portion of our dinner.
Favorite moments- Your reaction to most animals is pretty amusing! We took you to the fair and while we were in the animal barns you were just so happy. You squeal with delight and flap around with your arms and such. You are getting more adventurous with touching Boo and in general you just Love animals!
Something else you love... books! I have been tutoring this summer and I meet the gal at the library so while I am there I get you some books. You are getting better at turning pages and it is just so fun watching you delight in the pictures :)
Least Favorite moment- Well... daddy and I are one for one with Peyton boo boos.. I am sure we're more sad about them than you will ever be... I am responsible for you getting the owie in your mouth. You were standing at your toy box and we were playing a game of "where's Peyton" (cover baby with blanket, ask "where's baby" and then she pulls the blankie off with a big smile!) and you lost your balance while pulling off the blanket. Knocking your mouth on the way down... oy... there was crying and blood and just general sadness for all involved. I let you suck on an ice cube in your 'fresh food feeder' and that seemed to help! Then it was really sad the next day when aunt Julie was visiting and she said 'oh! she's cutting another tooth up top! How exciting!' um no... that's just where mommy let you fall!
   And then with daddy... well you were standing on the changing table (I know, I know, but daddy was there!) but alas, there are some hooks right there that you like to stand up and play on... So you were fine, then you went to sit back down and you sat too far back and fell down off the table. It was a sad time for you (I wasn't home) but you were grumpy the rest of the day. No visible owies on that one, but it was no fun!
Anything else? Well... you've been to your first wedding (Congrats Melissa and Allen Hendy), you spent an entire day with grandma Trish while mommy and daddy celebrated their anniversary, and you got to see Aunt Julie twice in the last month, she came here once and we stopped in to see her while we were in Yakima last weekend.