She's a Walkin' Fool!

Okay, she isn't a fool, but Lily is definitely walking now. She has pretty much mastered standing up in the middle of the room and not having to pull herself up on something. So right at 13 months, I will call her a walker. She still crawls some, especially if she is tired. But she walks all over the room, carrying her new Elmo (or Ebo, as she calls him) and her Veggie Tales DVD case. For some reason, she loves that DVD case. Lily doesn't really like to be carried any more - she prefers to walk and reaches for my fingers to hold my hand, which is so adorable. Don't get me wrong, she will wander all over, but she does like to hold my hand, which I am sure will only be a good thing. Perhaps I won't have to teach her to hold my hand for crossing the street, in crowds, etc because she will already do it. Or, more likely, she will be over that quickly and want nothing to do with me! It is a bit frustrating at times a)waiting for her to walk wherever we are going and b) trying to keep her where she is supposed to be. If she doesn't want to be carried, she squirms and wiggles and makes it nearly impossible to hold her (at least in a normal manner...yesterday I finally just carried her under my arm like a football...for about a second...Matt yelled at me!)
Lily is just smiley and adorable and so much fun. We are trying to give her more of a run of the house, as opposed to being stuck in the gated off play room. As long as I remember to pick up the dogs' bowls things seem to go pretty well. She loves to look out the sliding glass door.
We also went to our first story time at the library on Friday. I have been meaning to go for about a month, but it is on Friday mornings and three weeks out of the month I have MOPS on Friday mornings. She really seemed to enjoy it, except when one little boy came over to her. She started crying (for about a second). That was the first time I have ever seen anything but a positive reaction to a new person. I wonder if she is finally starting to get a little stranger anxiety.
And for your viewing pleasure, here are a couple recent pictures:

At the Arboretum, she loved looking in this big reflective ball in the Children's Garden.


At the zoo with Mommy. She really was intrigued by the enormous mechanical dinosaur for Brookfield's dino exhibit.


Watching Elmo's Being Green DVD. Lily love, love, LOVES! Elmo and calls him "ebo" and can pick him out anywhere, even if he isn't red.


I don't know if she could be any cuter!


She hasn't let go of this doll since we bought it yesterday.




Going to see Daddy!