E-l-e-v-e-n M-o-n-t-h-s

I can't even say it really. This baby boy is that old today. I am truly having palpitations just thinking about it. Where did the last month go? I cannot believe that the next monthly post I do will be for his first birthday! I have one more month of baby boy before he turns into a toddler. He already looks more like a big boy to me, and in the last couple of weeks the reality of his approaching toddler-hood has begun to hit me. Have mercy!

In all seriousness this last month has seemed to pass faster than many of the others. Perhaps that is because we had a lot going on. Not only has our calendar been full, but LO has been busier too. The combination has meant more time doing and less time reflecting. I realized just today that I have written fewer "real" posts in the last month. It's just been tough to steal away time to write. I think it's also true that LO has had fewer banner moments in the last month. He has certainly changed, but many of the changes were more subtle.

Perhaps the area of greatest change for LO this past month has been social. Simply put, he has been a number of new places and met a lot of new people. In addition, he has begun to adapt a little more quickly to these new people and places. Yesterday, on nanny K's fifth day (over the course of three weeks), LO didn't cry when I left.

Of course he then proceeded to nap for only ten minutes all day and cry the rest of his allotted nap time, but that's another post. He also has done fairly well with brief stays in outside nurseries so I could workout or attend a service. On a play date this month, he was more outgoing and seemed to notice a baby close to his age (then he stole her toy!).

He has begun to interact more with his surroundings. On our morning walks, he points to the leaves until I take him to them and let him touch them. He has also begun to notice animals and gets very excited when he sees a neighborhood stray cat or gets to "pet" a dog. (Petting a dog consists of ripping out a handful of its hair and trying to eat it. Yuck and sorry to the neighbor's pooch!) Lately he likes to throw his head back while we walk and look up at the trees or the sky. He smiles when he does this and likes it if I spin around slowly.

When he leans back and smiles, I am reminded of another milestone this month...his next two teeth. The top right followed within a week by the top left. They are still not in completely, but they have popped through the gum. This set seemed to come in little more easily than the first, and we are all grateful for that. As he now has almost four teeth, we had to get busy brushing them. We have a little nubby finger brush and use it morning and night. LO likes it, but prefers to be in charge and mostly grabs my finger and bites down. Needless to say we are still working on our technique!

His other big development this month is signing and gestures. He seems to understand more and more of what we are saying and usually responds appropriately. I think he knows his name when we say it (though we so often still call him by one of several nicknames). He is beginning to respond when I ask him to "come to mama." He gives me a Woody Woodpecker-type laugh if he likes/agrees when I ask about nursing or eating. He responds similarly when I grab the sling we use for our morning walk. He also uses the appropriate sign for nursing, though he also uses it while eating food.

We've made some neat progress during play time. LO seems to play ball with me. This isn't terribly consistent, but he will roll the ball back and forth with me for half a dozen times. Sometimes the ball makes it closer to me than others, but the intention seems present. This one was a bit of a surprise to me, and has been really fun. I have also found that if I lead a toy around with a ribbon, then hide the toy, but show the tail of the ribbon, LO will pull the ribbon to get the toy. Seems like a pretty smart cookie to me.

The last few days have been filled with our last and least exciting first. LO and I have had a cold. He has had a couple of colds before, but it has been at least four months since the last one. He has never run fever with them. This time he developed a fever of 101 and was very puny looking. Fortunately it was a mild illness with mostly runny nose for a couple of days, and the fever lasted less than a day. The only good thing about me having the illness first is that LO should have gotten some help fighting it off by nursing. We are still both trying to recover, but are on the mend. This is one first I hope we'll not repeat too often.

That is all the big stuff that's fit to print since last month. LO is still just taking a few steps while holding on to the coffee table. He still does not stand or walk on his own. He has taken to crawling about half way up the stairs, and he's pretty fast crawling about anywhere else he likes. I doubt he'll be walking by his birthday and that's just fine with me. He has had a lot of new foods in the last month, and he shows interest in using a spoon. This makes for messy meal times, but I bet he'll get the hang of that spoon soon. I hope that by next month he'll have more signs and we'll have even more fun playing and communicating with each other. I just want this next month takes its sweet time passing. I want to savor every last moment of baby-ness before we tackle becoming a toddler. In honor of LO's last baby month, I hope to write a little every day. I already know we have some traveling planned, so posts may not pop up right on time. Still, I want to take every chance I can to reflect, remember, and record.