11 months today!

My baby girl is 11 months old today. This is my favorite age so far. She has six teeth, her baby hair is growing long and she loves to scoot, walk along the furniture, and give kisses. Yes, that's right. I taught her how to kiss! I'm pretty proud of that. We've been working on it for awhile now. I have been saying "kiss" before covering her in them since she was born, and lately Sam and I have been asking each other for kisses and then obliging in front of her to try and spark something. Well, it worked. Yesterday I asked her "can Mama have a kiss?" and she leaned in and pressed her lips to mine. I literally shouted for joy when she pulled away. The first few were closed mouth, and now (after practicing this new skill many times) we get open mouth, slobbery kisses about half the time--but we don't mind. It is just too darn cute to care about a little (or a lot of) slobber.

Let's see... as far as accomplishments go she has become quite adept at pulling herself up on things, and ever so carefully lowering herself down--a feat that has opened up a whole new world of drawers, shelves, and cabinets. (Thus, I've found myself rethinking what is in or on said drawers, shelves, and cabinets and rearranging things accordingly). She also now says "hi Dada" or "hi Ma" constantly. She's occasionally said this for awhile now, but in the past few days it has become very clear and constant. She loves to talk about her dada all day long and call him on the phone, remote, coaster...or anything else that she can get her hands on that resembles a telephone. It's so sweet to know that she's thinking of him throughout the day while he's away. And even though I know he's incredibly busy at work I sometimes can't help it and call him just so he can hear her go off about her "dada" (i.e. her own special brand of baby babbling interspersed with consistent "dada's").

Below are some photos we took to acknowledge this, the 11 month anniversary of the day that she graced us with her presence.

...

She is just itching to walk. 

Can you tell she loves her dada? It's not obvious, is it? 

She loves to scoot, full speed ahead down the hallway and glance back at me mischievously before taking off again. 

She also likes to hide and peek around corners. She is a peekaboo enthusiast.