It's been a busy few weeks--there's a lot to report! The biggest news is that Reese has started walking. She has been taking steps here & there for awhile, but she started consistently taking several steps at the beginning of June, & within a week, she was fully walking. Crazy.

She turned 11 months on June 17th. We will be celebrating her birthday in no time! It's hard to believe. We are amazed by how much she comprehends the things we say to her, and she has started trying to repeat the sounds that we say. She has also started to throw tantrums when she doesn't get what she wants, or when she gets frustrated. Despite that, we are having a BLAST with her right now. I think this is the best stage so far. She is so interactive, she is mild mannered most of the time, she is a great sleeper, & she loves being silly and making us laugh. I have no complaints. I wish she could stay this age longer, but all of my friends keep telling me that it gets even better. As usual, she was much too busy for pictures on her month day (I'm not sure if I will ever get another picture of her looking at the camera), so I did what I could.







That Sunday, we took her to her first Sox game. She's a bit young to really have any interest in the game, but we feel it's important to start brainwashing her now, before Matt's parents try to turn her into a Cubs fan. Haha. We figured we would only be able to stay for a couple innings, but she was such a trooper, we were able to stay for almost the whole game. She wasn't even too bothered by the home run fireworks.







We celebrated Matt's first Father's Day. I surprised him with these pictures of Reese, which he loved.


We took him to lunch at Weber Grill, and then came back home & took Reese swimming at the pool in our subdivision. We have lived here for the last 4.5 years, & we had never been to the pool. Oh well, it was worth the wait, & I'm sure we'll make up for lost time now. Reese LOVED the pool, as you can see from these pictures & video. She couldn't quite figure out what to do with all of the water though. She kept trying to pick it up by the fistful and put it in her mouth (just like she does with everything).










It was hard to contain her in the kiddie pool, because she wanted to be independent and walk by herself, but she couldn't quite get the hang of walking through the water. She also kept bending over to try to touch the grate at the bottom, which would result in a face full of water.







We spent some time playing with bubbles yesterday.









By the time I took this video, she was getting a little bored with it, but you can see her walking (and discovering the kitty in the door & deciding to climb the stairs to get to her, which promptly ended the video):



We gave her her first "popsicle" yesterday as well. It was really a homemade yogurt bar made with plain yogurt & pureed banana & strawberry. Matt tasted it & said that it was gross, since it didn't have any sugar, but she didn't seem to mind.