river james - eleven months

what is eleven months?

walking! the day after christmas he took off with about six steps on his first try. the next day he was taking 20 steps at a time and pretty sure of himself. then he was hit with a bug and spent the next three days under the weather and walking took a back seat. just starting to get back into the swing of things. the best times are when he takes off on his own with no prompting. 

toofers: we have two more teeth this month bringing it up to a grand total of eight. 

books: he is interested in reading and not just grabbing/ripping the pages out. a favorite lately has been eric carle's 'brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?' we have the board book version and he loooves the interactive slide and find feature.

more self-feeding: we gave him his own spoon and bowl this month and watched him feed himself - adorable. he was so earnest and his concentration was high that first time. but the spoon-wrangling skills took a backseat the next day when he realized it was more fun to dig in with his hands and explore textures manually. he's at the stage (at least i hope it's just a stage?!) where it's loads more fun to drop each piece of food on the floor and watch petra lap it up. he even does this with food he likes?! i'm so baffled (definitely frustrating).

playtime: he loves 'catch'. passing the ball back and forth with you is a thrill for him - he's been known to play for 20 minutes at a time, which gives josh such pleasure. he's also really into removing all the blocks from a container and putting them back in...guess i could teach him to help me pick up his toys now. 

it's hard to believe that next month is one year. it seems like yesterday and a lifetime ago simultaneously.