11 Month Birthday!

Sweet Boy, I can not believe you are 11 months old today. We are just one month away from celebrating your very first birthday. Yikes! You have been so busy this month, Little Bit. You took your first steps at Juju and Pops' house on Father's Day. Apparently the excitement of being able to play with a weeble-wobble in each hand was just what you needed to motivate those little feet. You were not too anxious to repeat it again over the next few days (despite all of the encouragement Mommy and Daddy were giving you to give it a go again). Within a day or two though, you began taking those steps again. Everyday you walked more and more. Now you actually try to walk rather than crawl places. When you are in a hurry though, you still take to crawling because it seems that that is still the fastest way for you to move. We are so proud of how quickly you have improved, and so impressed with how far your independent self is taking you.  You have started talking on your toy phone more often. In fact, you typically take Mommy's phone when she leaves it nearby and swipe the screen with your little fingers until your picture pops up. Multiple times you have held the phone to your head and started saying "Hi ya!", and sometimes you even saying Daddy's name. When you see Daddy's picture on Mommy's phone and hear him talking, you light up! You talk over Mommy and tell him hi as much as possible while he is on the phone. It makes Daddy so happy. You love being outside. You walk in the grass, pick up leaves, play in the bushes. You are so curious and always perk up when Mommy takes you outside for a little bit. When you can't go outside, you go to the dining room doors and look out the window. When you see Daddy drive up, you smile really big and clap your hands. If Mommy is holding you, you jump up and down in my arms and wave at Daddy. You always go to the front door and try to crawl out so you can get to Daddy first. I think it just may be your favorite part of the day (& possibly Daddy's too). Mommy loves to see how sweet you and Daddy are with each other.  You have learned to clap. One night you just started clapping and didn't think anything of it. Mommy and Daddy were so excited that we might have scared you for a minute. When we started clapping, you just smiled and went right back to clapping. Now every time you clap, you expect us to clap too. It is so sweet and makes us laugh so much together.  You love music. While "Old McDonald" is still your favorite, you seem to like all music. Mommy let you watch Dumbo for the first time a few weeks ago and you actually sat to watch a good bit of it. I'm not positive that it was the movie you liked though, because you really only watched the musical parts to it. We highly suspect that you get your love of music from Mommy.  You love for Mommy and Daddy to read to you. You will often sit next to us while we read you one of your stories. Sometimes when you are playing by yourself, you will go to your bookshelf and pull out a few of your books. It is not uncommon for us to find you quietly turning the pages and looking at the pictures. I hope you always feel this way about books, Little Bit. We gave you one of your birthday presents early last week and you are absolutely in love. Your big boy chair with your name on it has become your go-to seat by your toys, and also your go-to "step stool" when you want your blocks off of the top of your toy shelf. You know you are not supposed to do this though, so you typically start to do it and then grin and sit down when Mommy and Daddy tell you not to. It didn't take you long to figure out how to sit in it and climb out of it without any help. You just smile and move in and out of it whenever you want now. You are incredibly smart, Reagan. It surprises even Mommy and Daddy at times with how creative you are when interacting with us. For instance, the other night Mommy shared of some of her french-fries with you by putting them into one of your little bowls. When you had finished, you walked all the way to Daddy, holding your bowl, and hit his side with it to ask for more. You just smiled really big when he asked if you wanted some. You wake us up some mornings by yelling out "Hi" from your baby bed so that we know to come get you. You are very good at pointing at things you want us to see. It is usually followed by gibberish, but we know you are trying to tell us something about whatever it is you are looking at. When we ask you questions, you always try to respond. You have also started to listen to Mommy and Daddy more when we tell you not to do something. Of course you do not like to hear us tell you no, but you are learning you have to listen.  You have figured out how to open doors. Mommy and Daddy typically have to lock the door when we don't want you to follow us into the room. We can not believe you have figured out so quickly how to play with the doorknobs until the door opens for you.  You started waving within the last month. Juju and Pops were leaving our house and you started waving to them. It was the first time you had ever waved before. Now you wave good-bye and hello to just about everyone. Sometimes you will say bye-bye, but you typically like to say hi. In fact, you actually tried to keep me from leaving your room so you could nap today, by waving and saying hi. You have 8 teeth! They are all up front and they are so stinking cute!!!! You put them to use constantly and are so happy to be able to eat more and more big boy food every day.  Reagan, you are growing up so much and I can not begin to tell you exactly how proud we are of you. You are constantly moving; constantly learning. We are doing all we can to keep up with you and help you as you continue to learn and grow. It is amazing to watch you and to be able to interact with you. We know that this last month will go by so fast, especially with birthday plans. We want you to enjoy everyone celebrating with our sweet boy and seeing how much you have grown in such a short amount of time. Mommy and Daddy love you, Angel Baby.