eleven months

This has been a huge milestone month for us!  In the past month, Gwen has gotten really good at pulling herself up, all she needs now is a wall or a person's leg.  She's crawling/cruising and following me all over the house.  We still haven't baby proofed nearly as much as we should, so I keep a close eye on her.  There's no more running down to grab the laundry while she's happily playing with her toys in one spot on the living room rug.
She took her first steps(!)
She can say 3 words - more details coming in a future post.
She plays peekaboo with us, covering her eyes with clothes or hiding behind furniture as I say, with concern in my voice: "where's Gwen, where'd Gwen go?!" and then peeks out with a huge grin ("there she is!!").  She could play this game for hours.
She gives kisses!  At first, she would only kiss her Winnie the Pooh bear.  I started bringing his nose to her mouth saying "kisses" and after a while she would just pucker her lips and keep still while I tapped his nose to her mouth and made a kissing sound.  Now, every once in a while, she'll give kisses to Justin and me.  It's the sweetest thing ever!  Here's a cute little story:
Justin had meetings that went past Gwen's bedtime 2 nights in a row, so he went 3 days without seeing her.  On the third day, I was getting dinner ready and Gwen was playing on the floor in the living room.  We weren't expecting him for another 20-30 minutes when he quietly walked in the door.  I looked over and saw Gwen look up to him, start shrieking, and flapping her arms before she crawled over to him.  As soon as he picked her up, she planted one right on his face.  It was seriously the sweetest thing I've ever seen.

nine months

How is this possible? My daughter is 9 months old! I could've made a whole other baby by now!! :)

At her 9 month appointment, Gwen had to have her blood drawn for the first time - I was all stressed out because I've heard how bad it can be.  Justin was able to come to the appointment which I was happy about because I definitely needed some support.  So the pediatrician had Gwen sit on my lap while she looked for a vein and [of course] said that she has "hard to find" veins - she went back and forth looking on each arm a couple of times before she finally found a good one.  The Dr had me hold her arms down while she drew the blood and, to be honest, I think being restrained was worse for her than the actual needle.  The whole thing was over in a few seconds and my little trooper calmed down in no time.

Some 9 month stats:
Height - 29 inches, 94th % (seriously?)
Weight - 18lbs 3oz, 50th %

Monthly Updates:
I've already mentioned that she's pulling up and cruising (walking while holding on) around her activity table.
Although she's not crawling, she's starting to be able to get where she wants to go by bringing her knees under her hips and pushing herself forward with her feet - now she just needs to lift that belly off the ground :)
She DANCES! Whenever she hears music, she rocks her body back and forth. It's seriously the cutest thing ever.  I have a video that kind of shows it but the song was too short for her to really get into it. I'll try and get a better one.
She is now obsessed with finger foods (cheese is by far her favorite).  To the point where she's giving me a tough time with the purees that I normally give her - she purses her lips together and blows raspberries.  So I'm thinking about starting to mostly give her what I eat.  The pediatrician told me the only foods that are off limits are shellfish, nuts, and honey.  Bring on the messy meals - good thing Jackson does a good job with the cleanup ;)

Pull Ups

(not the diapers)
I swear this girl is going to walk before she crawls.  Gweny doesn't have much of an interest in crawling these days. The most she'll do is go from a seated position to tummy time and then roll if she really wants a toy.  I mentioned last month that she is starting to pull herself up to stand, but yesterday she actually did it all on her own!  She's also "cruising" (which means that she'll hold on to an object and walk herself around it).  I'll try to get a video of that too, but for now here she is doing her pull ups :)