This week our baby Elizabeth Erin turned 11 months old. A quick recap:

She was born November 6, 2012 (election day) around 6:30 in the morning. I wrote about it here. It was remarkably easy. One of my first thoughts was how different she looks from her sister.

In December she was one month old. Her demeanor was calm and sweet. We felt lucky to have her.

When she was two months old John gave her a name and blessing in church.

At three months she started to notice other people and smile.

Wesley has always been very sweet and attentive towards his baby sister.

Bunny slippers!

In March was her first Easter. Maybe next year she can try some chocolate.

The start of supported sitting.

At five months she still used the pink binkie and slowly–s-l-o-w-l-y–was growing some hair. I have always loved the fair, reddish-brown color of her hair. In the sunlight it shines like copper.

Baby cousins. Elizabeth was small for her age. Around this time I started giving her more formula and in the next few months she fluffed out very nicely.

Grandma.

In May was Mother’s Day, and Elizabeth turned 6 months old.

In June Elizabeth turned 7 months old. By now she was transitioning from supported sitting to sitting up by herself. She was getting better at eating solid foods and holding her own bottle. And she started to perfect the art of the army crawl. Suddenly she’s mobile! Her mobility started to bring out her personality, and we noticed that she prefers to be around other people. She is a social baby.

In July we played a lot outside, and Elizabeth went swimming for the first time. She is interested in climbing the stairs. She’s eight months.

In August Elizabeth turned nine months old. She is still an army-crawling queen and starts getting better at regular crawling. She likes to climb up stairs and is starting to learn to go down them backwards. She is becoming more vocal and “talks” by making noise often.

In September Elizabeth was 10 months old and starting to take interest in standing and walking unassisted. She’s really good at pulling to stand and walking along furniture. As she neared 11 months she started taking a few wobbly steps by herself. She is very talkative, which worries John and me–having TWO girls who both are very chatty! She is also starting to get into everything, and putting everything into her mouth.

In October Elizabeth turned 11 months old. She is beautiful and joys in doing her own things. She teems with personality. Still sweet, I think, but spunky. She wants to walk by herself and move and do all the things her siblings do. She fits into 12-month clothing. She has two teeth on the bottom and almost four teeth on top. She can be silly and likes to play peek-a-boo by hiding around the corner and popping out to make us laugh. She is a happy baby and we’re glad she’s ours.

In June we had some family photos taken. Here are a few candids in between shots.

Here are some my mom and sister took:

And the real photographer’s pictures (John missed it):

Only August 3rd and here’s what we’ve done.

Elizabeth is almost 9 months old. In the past month she’s started, and gotten reeeeeally fast, at army crawling. I don’t recall either Wes or Carissa army crawling, just crawling. I think Carissa started around 10 months, and Wes was slightly older. Elizabeth gets on all fours sometime and rocks back and forth, and I’ve seen her take a few short legitimate crawling movements forward before falling back to her tummy. She can push herself up to sitting. She likes to play peek-a-boo and can even pull the blanket off her face herself to play. She’s super curious. She wants to touch everything, eat everything, and she definitely puts everything into her mouth that she finds. Daily I’m pulling something out of her mouth. She also seems very social, preferring to be around people and crying if she’s left alone. Her demeanor seems calm and sure. Wesley loves her, and both he and Carissa delight in grabbing her by the feet and pulling her backwards on her tummy, away from things (they think) she shouldn’t be getting into. She also recently acquired two bottom teeth.

Some newer advances include pulling herself to standing, such as on this toy.

Today I found her, for the first time, sitting up in her crib when I went in to get her.

And, today we discovered she can climb steps. ALL of them. And the fun continues.

Oh yeah, I had a birthday yesterday.

This morning I visited and guest-taught at a Zumba class, and on the way home I saw a yard sale. I stopped and now we’re the proud owners of two new Easter baskets and a green tent that looks like a turtle. All for $5.50. Elizabeth didn’t have her own basket, and I know Carissa just likes having the baskets out to play with all year round.

Like so:

(With Pingu, of course. That’s Wes in the background playing in the rocks like he does.)

Ritual bathtime is every Saturday night. All three in the tub. Elizabeth only recently joined the other two in the big tub, which she considers tremendous fun and likes splashing in like a crazy person.

Not going to lie, bathtime is not my favorite time. It is a hard job to bathe three non-independent people, some of whom (*cough*Carissa*cough*) put up a big fuss if any water comes in contact with their eyes/face/ears/body. Lately it’s been starting to get a little better as Carissa gains a little pride in being independent and trying to get the ends of her hair wet herself after shampooing. I just have to be really careful to keep the water off her face. Her hair is a big job to clean. Wes is pretty brave and can dump water on his head himself to get most of the shampoo out.

Nonetheless it’s a physical and time-consuming thing, bathtime. Good thing they smell so good and have such shiny hair afterward.

Wes found my camera as I got things ready.

Can you see her bottom teeth?

When Carissa comes out of the tub we have pamper time. I set her on the counter of my vanity, smooth oil and mousse in her hair, brush it all out, and then blow-dry it. She likes this time. Her hair always turns very straight, which for some reason makes John hopeful it will stay straight forever, but within a half-hour the curls come out of nowhere. Those curls are here to stay.

Elizabeth turned 7 months old last week. She is great at rolling around, but not so much at sitting up.

Yet.

She’ll get it, someday.

Our small city recently opened a splash park downtown. I used to bemoan our downtown area, because it wasn’t much. I always thought that the corner of Main Street and Center Street ought to have something of importance, but it didn’t. But things are looking up. There is a new library on one corner, and this splash park is in the park across the street.

Today I ventured out with my three kids to check it out. We spent 20 minutes slathering on sunscreen and finding swimsuits, sunglasses, and hats.

I set Elizabeth in the shade while I waded in the water with the kids. She was a good baby and didn’t fuss the whole hour and a half we were there. After a few minutes of arriving I saw some friends who happened to be there with their kids, and Elizabeth hung out in her car seat near them while I held Carissa’s hand and kept an eye on Wes.

The splash park has a winding river area with water zero to about three inches deep. There are big rocks kids can climb on, water shooting up like geysers, a small waterfall, and a separate splash pad where the water shoots up from the cement. It was really nice and was apparently designed by someone who’s won awards in various states and countries for his work.

Wes was fearless–running into the water, jumping off rocks, and never looking back to see if Mom was anywhere near. This is normal.

Carissa was timid and wanted to hold my hand and try to keep up with her brother, but she made it very clear she did not want to get wet. This is also normal.

After about 45 minutes she started to warm up and was starting to climb and jump off the rocks. After about an hour she got really brave and lay down in the water with Wes.

Then she and I headed to the splash pad, where she really enjoyed giggling as the water geysers turned on and off. She even started putting her hands and feet in the water and laughing. It was fun to see my kids having so much fun.

After the splash park we went to the grocery store and spent $1.07 on two giant ice cream cones for Wes and Carissa. A perfect day.

I really enjoyed being out in the sun. Even with SPF 30 on I got a slight tan. Being outside lifts the spirits, so I am happy summer is practically here. Tomorrow is Wesley’s final day of preschool. In the fall, he starts transitional kindergarten and Carissa will go to preschool. But this summer I plan to do summery things with my kids, to soak up the time and savor experiencing fun things with my little people.

March 21 was World Down Syndrome Day (3/21…get it?). Cold Stone offered a free ice cream for every person with Down syndrome, so how could we not take advantage of that?

In March we had the opportunity to take Wes and Carissa swimming at the BYU pool with the BYU Down syndrome support group. Wes LOVES swimming. LOVES LOVES LOVES it. So we made sure we went. Both kids were excited to get in the pool.

Until they got into the pool, which was kinda chilly. Wes has still really happy, though.

But Carissa clung to me in the water like a baby monkey. I kept asking her if she wanted to get out and she said, firmly, no. So we hung out in the pool for an hour together.

On a rare date night John and I had dinner at Spark in Provo. I got the macaroni and cheese with chicken, which was actually delicious. But overall we thought the place was overpriced and not our favorite. Nonetheless, a date is a date!

In March Elizabeth turned four months old. She got a little better at rolling over, which she did once in a while. She got really good when she was five months. I’d usually get up with her once a night in March, and in April she started sleeping through the night without eating. She’s a happy baby, very interested in the world around her.