11 months

And we're getting so close to a year. It is freaking me out! Yesterday, on the 4th of July, Cadence turned 11 months old. We celebrated by going to Tractor Supply in our somewhat new minivan that we bought recently. We love our 2008 Honda Odyssey, especially since I got it tinted on Friday. :) Now we're trying to figure out a good personalized plate.

Since my last post Cadence is getting quite good at "cruising." She stands up all the time now, holding on to things, mostly on her tippy toes which doesn't always looks comfy! She can transfer her hold from the coffee table to the couch or other objects like that but if you try to take her free hand and get her to walk, she would rather crawl. She's quite a fast crawler, although quite noisey--you can hear her coming from a mile away!

We finished our swim class with Brooke a couple of weeks ago but really seemed to like it by the end. We've bought our own cheap $13 pool from Kmart and Cadence loves to splash. She was definitely not scared of the water and can even crawl around the pool to get her toys since we don't fill it all the way up. I think the swim classes were a good idea. Daddy came to the second to last class and took some pics and a video of C being dunked.

The hardest thing with our pool is where to put it in the yard! We've tried 3 different places b/c we don't have much of a flat area on the shady side of the house which is where we'd rather have it. It has been really hot (the week before last and this week) so we've gotten good use out of the pool. I just don't want it in the sun so the water is a little cool. :) We tried to have a little pool party with Brooke, Alex and Victoria but it was only 80 degrees the day they came over and we thought that was a little cool. Instead we had an indoor play date!

Cadence has a few more words in her vocabulary--ma ma started on June 23 and da da on June 27. They aren't necessarily said in relation to us but it's a start. Ba ba is still our favorite sound.

Somehow in the last couple of weeks she has learned how to use a sippy cup and a straw. She had a little trouble with the fast flow of a sippy cup at first and then when we gave her the hard topped one, she just bit it. But we kept trying and she all of a sudden figured it out. This is a great step in my mind and I hope it means the transition away from bottles will be easy. She still only drinks water out of the sippy cups--haven't tried anything else yet since her DR said to stay away from juice.

She has also learned "so big" and when she should wave. She's better at waving bye bye then hello but will do both. She knows that if you ask her how big she is, that she should raise her little hands super high. You can't get her to let go of both hands if she is standing and holding onto something but she'll get that one hand up. It's really cute. She will also, if she's in the mood, give big wide open mouth kisses. That cracks me up. If I ask her to give me kisses, I also get a wave bye bye sometimes b/c she thinks I'm leaving. Too funny.

Cadence is a HUGE daddy's girl. When he is around, I usually don't exist. Tonight is going to be my first night away from her--we have our handbell stuff for the AGO convention downtown and b/c we have to be there so early, I'm staying at Jen & Jason's for the night. I'm sure she'll be fine (if James will wake up if she cries during the night) but I'll probably be a mess. She'll spend some of tomorrow with James and some with Oma since her surgery is Wed and she won't be able to hold Cadence for awhile. She'll be well taken care of and hopefully she'll be happy to see me tomorrow evening. It won't even be 24 hours but I hope it goes fast. I can't believe it's been 11 months and this is my first night away from her! James' first was when I went to DB when she was 2 months old.

On Saturday we went down to Aunt Dee and Alan's for the picnic. Even GramPam came for the first time. Cadence was super well behaved and even napped for almost 2 hours in a weird place. James took us on a tractor ride--Cadence's first! She seemed to really like it. We had lots to eat and met lots of people who only saw her in my tummy the year before.

Cadence is a kick. She is still so happy and well behaved, most of the time. She doesn't like to be confined some of the time so gets ticked if you leave her in the living room in jail and leave, esp if she is tired or hungry. She is super inquisative and will investigate everything she can get her hands on. Baby proofing is a must since she is quick! She got to the box of tissues the other day and was pulling them out one by one. Little devil I call her. She still naps great, with her hippo or elephant and has a great schedule that I'm able to work around. I think we have lucked out on a really great kid.

Last week, I was having some really bad back pain, I think from the training I was doing for a future 5k. I could barely walk b/c of pain in my lower back and butt on the right. After 3 adjustments, I could already tell a difference which is great. It turns out I have scoliosis which, even though I'm not a doctor, I could clearly see on the xray. I also took in my xrays from my accident and learned a lot about what happened to me. I'm a pretty lucky girl. It was very interesting to learn so much since I'd never been told anything about what happened or how important the C1 and C2 vertebrae are. Good to know!