Lily at 11 months

Lily is getting better at making her will known, though she has always been pretty good at getting her way;-) She is now pointing and shaking her head. She points to things, up at you and puts her hands on your legs when she wants to be picked up and in the direction she wants you to carry her. She also points at things and says "sDat?" which I assume means "What's that?". She can also reliably point to my nose and mouth when I ask her, but she won't do it when anyone else is around; maybe she is too distracted. When she doesn't want to do something she shakes her head "no". It's the kind of shake that would make her hair fly out if she had any. It is so cute I can't help but laugh. This has become a problem because now she thinks it's funny and she does it to make me laugh too. Usually I can tell which one it is. When she is just playing sometimes I'll shake my hair back at her and she thinks it is hilarious. Her little sense of humor is coming along well.
She is not quite as portable in that she wants to be down on the ground doing things. I used to be able to take her to Ryan's gymnastics class and I would just hold her while we watched or carry her around the classroom when I watch the 2-5 year olds for Bible study. Now she protests violently. She wants to be in on the action. It's not as easy as just letting her walk around as she wants to run into the gym or eat the carpet. There is a class at the same time as Ryan's for 1-2 year olds, so we can join that class next session. It starts in April. I have no idea what I'm going to do until then.
She is quite a vertical child. She climbs on everything. All those table toys that are meant to help kids start standing? Yeah, she would rather be on top, thank you. We need to keep them away from all furniture because she will use it as a stool to get on the table or piano bench. You should see the look of satisfaction she has on her face when she stands up on the coffee table. It's like she's saying "I'm the king queen of the mountain, HA!" Of course climbing stairs is one of her very favorite activities. She has gotten pretty good at going down too. She always turns and backs down on her tummy now. She still needs someone to be behind her just in case, but she almost always makes it just fine.
She says "Da" when she sees Jay, but it is also still her generally happy noise. She also says, "Ma ma ma" when she wants me, but it can also just be rambling. She does that..."talks" a lot. She just brought me the Baby Beethoven DVD and said, "dadadada." I guess she likes it. Maybe she wants to watch it while I blog more;-) Really though I have spent enough time blogging. I should go pay attention to the munchkins for a while.

Here Lily is playing peek-a-boo with daddy. It's one of her favorite games.