11 months ago, I had just finished my last day of teaching… for probably ever. I remember being sad, but a bit relieved because it had been a particularly difficult year. I was huge and round with a baby belly. And totally expecting the baby to be early (wishful thinking!).
I know I’ll probably say this the rest of my life but WHERE does the time go? I now have an adorable bouncing (yes, that IS the word) baby boy who is full of personality and energy. Here are the highlights:
Language Skills
- Da-Da is his most frequent word – he loves his daddy and will ask for him constantly throughout the day. He calls me Da-Da too.
- His first word (unless you count Da-Da, which I sorta do but sorta don’t) was CAR! And he loves to make “vroom vroom” noises.
- Interestingly, he has dropped a few of the other sounds he used to make, like he hardly ever says “S’That” anymore.
- Signing is stuck at “milk” – everything is “milk” (more, food, eat, milk, mom)… but we keep trying!
- He loves to mimic sounds – when I drive with him in the car, we often have an echo conversation that goes like this:
- ME: ding!
- pause
- BABY: Diingh!
- ME: Da!
- pause
- BABY: Daaa!
- ME: Duh!
- pause
- BABY: Dddduhh!
Mobility
- We have a full-fledged crawler on our hands now (it’s particularly cute when he’s naked – hee hee!). He still does the army crawl once in a while. And he moves faster than a speeding bullet.
- Pointing is a huge action trend for him – he starts pointing in the air the minute he wakes up from his nap (at what? I have no idea).
- He is good at picking up cheerios and even has gotten to where he can get those slippery banana pieces.
- He shows little interest in feeding himself with a spoon – just wants to bang and throw the spoon – unfortunately.
- He favors his left hand – I seriously believe he will be a lefty.
- Putting objects inside each other is his new thing – I find toys in his dresser drawers, the portable phone in his cloth diaper bins (and yes it rang during his nap time and I had no idea where the phone was AND it woke him up!). So we have started learning to pick up toys and put them in his toy box!
- Standing on his own – well, it’s almost here – he did 3 seconds one time. He frequently will “let go” for a brief instant before plunking on his bum.
- He loves to sidestep his way around a room while holding onto things.
- He has started waving as well!
Personality
- Assertiveness is still his strongest trait – he goes for whatever he wants with no fear.
- He loves to play with the radio / CD player and the phone. And makes a beeline for my computer whenever the study door is open.
- Alertness – people / strangers constantly comment on how alert and what great eye contact he makes. I’m not sure if that is not normal for his age or what, but people always comment about it.
- Naptimes have been a huge struggle. Since Christmas, he has played and then cried through nearly every morning nap, or just not taken a nap at all, due to traveling / visiting. Afternoon naps are often the same. It has been a little draining – he just does not want to sleep.
- He has gotten a little more cuddly (not a big cuddler, this one) – now he will give his teddy bear or other stuffed animals “hugs” by laying his head on them and going “Ahhhh!” Sometimes he will do that to us when we hold him up on our shoulder.
Other
- He still has food issues – overly thick or chunky foods he will refuse. He love jarred baby food. Sigh.
- He continues to nurse during the night – I cannot get him to sleep through.
- His top 2 teeth are coming down now! That makes four!
- I accidentally taught him to blow out of his nose when I tried to show him how to “smell the flowers” in the Pat the Bunny book – now he loves to wrinkle his nose and huff and puff out of it! So funny. Here is a photo of him doing that!
