11 Months

Such a big month for someone who's getting to be such a big boy! Throughout the month, I track on my iPhone all of Dylan's new events and accomplishments. I am absolutely amazed at how long the list is this month. Lots of things to report. So, let's do it!

Just a couple of days after his 10 month birthday, Dylan became an official "cruiser." After seeing some foot movement while holding onto furniture, he quickly advanced to circling around the coffee table again and again. Now, that boy is standing and cruising all over the place. He also transfers from one piece of furniture to another with ease. Mom and Dad have been great helps with helping him walk. He smiles from ear to ear while we hold his hands and he walks all over the house. A few times, he's taken some steps while only holding on with one hand. One of his favorite activities while we are assisting his walking is kicking the ball around. He's also balanced while standing on his own for a couple of seconds. I'm not sure he'll be walking in the next couple of days but it's definitely imminent!

We celebrated my first Mother's Day and the appearance of Dylan's 4th tooth the same day. He's making good use of those teeth and has learned how to bite off pieces of food. Not a picky eater in the least, he tries anything we give him. Though, he has definitely developed more preferences and will be "done" with certain foods and want to eat something else. Still, his favorite thing to eat is whatever we're eating.

Dylan is more and more vocal everyday. In this last month, we've had a lot of fun playing "Indian Chief" (or should I say "Native American Chief" to be more pc?). He'll "ahhhh" and pat his mouth, or ahhh while we pat his mouth and then he will grin while we ahhh and he pats our mouths. This has been a great tool to keep him happy and entertained in the car. He's also added some new consonants to his babbling - T's and R's. We've also noticed him mimicking our noises a lot more. Whether sound effects (vroom of a toy car) or words, he's trying to make those sounds too. No official first word yet, but he's definitely becoming more and more proficient in his vocal attempts.

Pointing is a lot of fun. Dylan loves to point at things to show them to us. It's become a fun game to name whatever he points at. "Light" is the most common object he shows us and he smiles when we say "light" as if the bulb has come on over his head and he understands what we're saying to him. He's also learning to be "gentle" with the cats. That often takes the form of his pointing finger very carefully approaching their fur. Very cute!

Dylan's been waving aimlessly for some time but he really gets the concept now and has a fun time waving "hi" and "bye" to us and (sometimes) others. He's not one to perform on command and it's rare that he shows off his mad waving skills to others. When I leave in the morning, not only do we wave "bye" but we blow kisses to each other. He thinks this is really funny. Right now, it's just bringing his hand to his mouth and back out....still working on getting that kiss into his palm.

The stairs are a daily fun activity. Since going upstairs is a breeze, he's now working on perfecting his skills going downstairs. Dylan's great about reaching out and taking our hand when he needs help but he's really been doing it by himself more and more in the last week. This weekend, he even got down off the couch solo! So independent!

When he was just a little sprout, he would kick around to music when we held him up and he really enjoyed dancing around the house in our arms. In this last week, we've caught him initiating his own dancing. One of his toys plays the alphabet song and he started bouncing up and down when it came on. Also, during one of the rare occurrences that he actually watched the TV for a couple of minutes (normally doesn't keep his attention at all), he started bouncing around to one of the commercial jingles. I guess we'll start to see some more musical preferences with this new development.

Dylan - 11 Months Old!

(Note - we have officially moved milestone pictures out of the crib. Our first photo shoot attempt in the crib was met with crying because it was not nap time!)

The next time I write a post about a new month, my baby will be a year old! It's been so amazing watching him grow and develop. So much has happened so quickly and we're very exciting to see what other firsts he'll accomplish before his first birthday!