The McKinney Family: Baby Steps

Today was a wonderful day with Leila. It seems every day there is something new but today there were many new achievements I witnessed. I think Sarah calls it a learning explosion.

We went to Gymboree play gym and 3 times Leila took one step and then fell. I am just so thrilled she took that one step by herself! She is beginning to let go of objects and can stand for long periods of time without realizing what she is doing. She can step between objects but this was her first attempt at just walking without reaching for anything. Those first "real" steps are coming soon!

The next amazing thing was at dinner time. I left her bowl and spoon on her highchair, thinking it was out of her reach, and went to get some more finger foods. When I turned around she had pulled them to her and was feeding herself with the spoon! Amazing! I give her spoons all of the time with the food on them, but I can't believe she realized that was how she was supposed to eat out of a bowl and didn't just dump the whole thing on herself.

Lastly, I am realizing every day just how much she understands of different things we say to her. Before bedtime we were playing with some plastic rings and I asked her to put them in my hand, and she did. Then I asked her to move them to my other hand, and she did. She's Super-Leila!

As I was writing in her baby book the other day, it came to mind that she (and Shrek!) know the Baby Bjorn means they are going on a walk. Every morning I pick her up and we hug and last month she started hugging me back. She can give "five" and wave "bye-bye." And wouldn't you know even though she says "mamama" and "bababa" that her first REAL word (used discriminately) is "dada." And I worked so hard!

Ten months old in our backyard.

Best buddies. Leila LOVES that dog. I caught her the other day playing with his curly tail. He is so good with her.

Someone left a note on the blog asking what happened to Shrek, my first baby. Here he is enjoying the sunshine. If ever I can't find him, I just look outside and there he is, sleeping in the grass. This photo made the front page of chron.com!

We love to hang out in our beautiful backyard. Leila must be supervised every second due to grass/flower/dirt eating. I figured out if I put a pacifier in her mouth it helps a lot, only it ruins all of my photos.