Lydia is 1 month shy of a year!

I'm pretty sure I don't even have to tell you who is who, because... they look nothing alike :) But here are both of our girls, at the same age, doing the same thing. Unfortunately, it's a different camera cuz our first camera wasn't great, and this was the best picture I could find. Hence, both of our girls being shown... Eating. :) with food all over their faces :) But, I promised a comparison pic MONTHS ago, and here one finally is :)

Oh, and if you really pay attention... you'll notice that my first child has strictly green stuff all over her face, whereas my 2nd child has pizza. Figures :D

Anyway, Lydia turns 11 months today. Seriously, I cannot BELIEVE how fast this time has gone by. It seems like with G, every milestone was exactly that - something to mark the passing of an entire MILE! We were so eager and waiting for each little achievement, and now it seems like Lydia just DOES everything, and we barely are keeping up with not missing it. Actually, we've probably missed a lot. Thankfully, she seems to be surviving just fine without our constant attention :)

 At 11 months, Lydia:

• is a super-speedy crawler
• cruises the furniture, but doesn't walk yet
• does this funny crab-walk thing, where she'll be up on her feet like she's standing, but bent at the waist to have her hands on the floor, and will move either her hands or her feet (or both) 
• **she mostly does this crab-walk thing to touch as little of the grass underneath her as possible, or to walk AND try and pick up toys at the same time :) 
• has a big crib to sleep in instead of the playpen, now that her big sister has a big girl bed :) Maybe we'll space our next child a little further apart... :D

•  still only has her bottom 2 teeth, but the rest of her gums have been swollen for awhile now - we're expecting a bunch of teeth to magically appear at any minute! 
• has LONG straight dark hair (but not as dark as ours) and LONG dark eyelashes (thanks Paul for giving them to both of our girls!) and greenish-greyish-hazelish eyes. 
• loves loves LOVES books. If we try to put her to bed without reading 2 books first, she'll scream in her bed until we come back. 
• turns pages all by herself, even regular pages, and she's really good about not ripping big-kid books. She's super fast at turning board-book pages, no wasted motion here! 
• will take things that are given to her by first studying them, and then whipping them out of your hand. She's very decisive! 
• will eat ANYTHING. Seriously, anything we put in front of her. We haven't bothered with pureed foods for awhile, since we can just put a hunk of chicken (seriously) in front of her and she'll eat the whole thing. She now eats chicken nuggets at Wendy's, just like Gabby! This kid will eat until she pukes, literally. 
• has started saying "bah, bah, BAH! ... bah, bah, BAH!" and then giggling. 
• laughs a LOT - last night, she spent a good 10 minutes laughing every time Paul and I kissed in front of her. And then anytime we kissed her. Except, when Gabby kissed her, Lydia pulled her hair and pushed her away and shrieked. hmmm... 
• may have started to figure out the whole "I'm the baby, and if I scream, it might get my big sister into trouble". Uh oh. 
• is still very Mommy-clingy. 
• seems to be cutting down on naps, we're trying to figure out what her new "schedule" during the day is. 
• goes to bed at 7 like Gabby, and doesn't wake up until about 7, like Gabby. 
• loves chasing and being chased (crawling) with Gabby around the kitchen island. They'll chase each other around and around and giggle and growl and it's really really cute :) Although, Lydia is more easily distracted and is usually the one to stop the game :) 
• always makes a beeline for the stairs if we don't put the gate up right away. 
• always makes a beeline for the bathroom (she loves playing with the toilet paper and eating it) if we don't shut the bathroom door right away. 
• loves to climb things! Just like her Mommy used to do! :)
• can ALWAYS get out from under the strap on the change table, but has never fallen. In fact, (we still watch her, but) we can set her down just about anywhere and she'll stay put without falling or venturing too close to an edge. 
• LOVES bathtime. Loves splashing. Loves water. 
• dances after her bath, while I'm putting lotion on her. She'll pull herself standing and rock around naked, it's pretty funny :)

 

 This picture uploaded sideways (they're all horizontal, so I deleted the other "vertical" pictures) but it's just too funny... this is pretty typical at bathtime, Lydia standing up and rocking out naked :)

 I made Paul get behind the camera yesterday :) We're so thankful for our wonderful girls - they're both so much fun!