Getting sturdier all the time

In the last week and a half, Lynsey has been getting sturdier on her feet every day. Just yesterday it seemed like she was choosing to walk everywhere instead of crawling! She still doesn't know how to stand up in the middle of a room, but she now walks away from furniture quite regularly, whereas at the beginning she would only walk when you put her in the middle of a room. I don't know when she'll be considered to be "walking well" because she still crawls most of the time, but her eleven month birthday is in a week and based on her progress so far, I will guess that by then she will be. I guess we'll have to wait and see!

We switched her out of her infant carseat last week. She is still rear-facing, but we're making a trip to La Crete after Thanksgiving and I think I will defy the law and forward-face her for the trip. She'll be so close to a year that I can justify it - I really don't want to make such a long drive at this point in her life with her facing backwards! What a nightmare! I'm looking forward to going home and spending some time with family, allowing them to get to know Lynsey a bit better. I made a decision when Lynsey was born that she would not grow up thinking of her family in La Crete as strangers. So, although the drive will be long with an eleven month old, I believe it will be worth it:).

Some more walking

So Lynsey has become a bit braver in the last few weeks. On Saturday, I was playing softball for Corporate Challenge and Lynsey and Brian were watching. There was a chainlink fence that she was hanging on to, and a few times she just walked away from it - out of the blue! There is a really short, somewhat choppy video at the bottom of the post - she had walked 5 or 6 steps away from the fence and Brian ran to get the camera while she was standing there, and managed to catch a few more before she fell. Now, some might think this means she's walking now, but that is not the case. She has become braver with standing over the last few days especially, so she is making some progress, but she is by no means walking. She clearly can when she wants to, but for whatever reason has decided to take her time.

As I mentioned before, I played in Corporate Challenge for BDR last week and what a wake up call! I am so very out of shape it's shameful. I have decided to become active again. I'm going to play volleyball in a league this fall and I'm going to start swimming again at least once a week. I used to be so harsh on people that would really let themselves go once they had kids, but I can totally see how it could happen. It just won't happen to me - not if I can help it!

10 months old!

Lynsey turned ten months this week - so crazy that she's that old already. She has started posing for the camera a lot of the time (see below - a lot of fake smiles!). She can be so silly! We had a fun long weekend. Brian went camping with his dad and other male family so it was just Lynsey and me for the weekend. On Friday we went to Three Hills for a girls night with my sisters and nieces and on Saturday we went to Banff to hang out with Brian's mom, aunts and cousins. I was a bit worried that it would be a stressful weekend, being away so much, but it ended up being a lot of fun! Lynsey did pretty well, with the exception of Saturday bedtime when she freaked and wouldn't drink her bottle. The good news is, she finally cut those two top teeth that have been hanging around for weeks now! What a relief! Since those teeth came out, she has been eating, drinking and sleeping a lot better. Her nights have been really good all week. She doesn't do so well at naptimes, though - she keeps waking up and crying before she's ready to get up, so she cries for a bit and goes back to sleep. Not really sure why she's doing that, but I'm hoping that it will just be a phase.

I went into BDR on Friday and told them that I'm not coming back to work. I had been thinking over the last week that I might be interested in working one day a week, basically just to get out and do something different. I wasn't completely sold on this idea, but I thought I'd pitch it to them and see if it was even an option and then take it from there. As it turns out, that isn't what they would want so that makes the decision for me. It seems kind of final that I'm definitely not going back now, but I still think it's the right decision for me. I know I'm ready to get involved in more things this fall so that should help me not feel isolated. I'm looking forward to this week because I can still participate in Corporate Challenge for BDR. It should be fun to participate in some competitive sports again, even if I'm not at the top of my game anymore:). Once a competitor always a competitor!

Lynsey's walking hasn't progressed much over the last few weeks, just as I sort of suspected. She still takes steps sometimes, but she isn't very balanced and as soon as she realizes we've let her go she instantly goes down to her crawling position. Oh, well - we'll keep encouraging her and let her get there on her own time!