Our little man turned 11 months on the 23rd.  I can’t believe we’re so close to one year already!

Here’s the rundown of what he’s doing lately:

-He stood up!  All by himself, with nothing to pull himself up.  We were playing out on the grass, and he just pushed himself up to standing and then stood there for a full 30 seconds, looking around.  We were all stunned!  He’s taken one or two unassisted steps as well – from the coffee table to the couch, without holding on.  He regularly lets go of things so he can have both hands to explore a toy, and he hasn’t fallen yet.  I think walking is right around the corner.

-He waved for the first time!  He waved first to Mom’s neighbor, but after he figured it out, he was a wavin’ fool – waving at anybody and everybody (including a couple pretty girls who walked by us at a restaurant – totally knocked their socks off  ).  He waves at me while I’m changing his diaper and waves goodnight to everyone as I take him off to bed.  It’s the cutest thing ever.

He knows how to clap, but will only do it occasionally.  I guess it’s not as much fun as waving right now.

He rode in a wagon for the first time and loved it!

-He’s singing!  If you sing to him, he’ll sing back.  I haven’t gotten this one on camera yet, but it’s so much fun.  It’s different than his normal babbling and talking.

-Talking.  His babbling has really increased lately – he loves to talk.  He talks ALL DAY LONG.  And it’s not just mamamama dadada babababa noises anymore.  He’s got “W” sounds, “BR” sounds and a whole host of other things he can say.  He still loves mimicking – he will immediately mimic whatever sound you make.  I have been doing some limited sign language with him, nothing consistent, but today he signed “eat”!  Occasionally he will sign “all done”, but he just made up his own sign for “more” (banging really hard on his highchair tray and yelling, lol).

-Speaking of eating, this boy can put some food away!  When he’s in the mood, that is.  This morning, he ate 1 1/2 scrambled eggs of his own, then ate more off my plate, then ate a whole orange and two giant handfuls of blueberries.  He can put away a couple beets in one sitting, along with a healthy amount of sweet potatoes, peas, butternut squash, meatloaf, salmon, or whatever it is we’re eating.  And of course, he’s still gorging himself on cheese pretty regularly.  We’re waiting on introducing grains until he’s gotten his molars (WAPF reccomendation), so he’s mostly eating meats, veggies, fruits and dairy, although he did have a coconut flour blueberry muffin this week (not so keen on it, though).  One of his new favorite snacks is frozen dots of yogurt.  It must feel good on his gums!  He loves coconut water and kombucha, and sips of my chamomile tea.  I’ve given him goat’s milk in a cup on occasion, but he doesn’t really care either way about it.  He is still nursing 5 or 6 times a day and taking in about 18 ounces of the homemade formula, give or take.

-He goes nuts when he sees his daddy!  It’s getting harder for Chris to leave in the morning – Isaac will crawl over and pull up on his pants, and doesn’t want to be put down.  On the few occasions Chris has gotten home early enough to see him before bedtime, he does a super-fast crawl over to him, screeching all the way.  And if he’s in the highchair, food gets spit out and he starts yelling for his daddy.  It is precious!   It just makes me wish he had more daddy time  .

-His new favorite activity is putting things in other things.  I was emptying my grocery bags the other day and went to fold them over to put them in the recycling bin.  When I picked them up, several of Isaac’s refrigerator magnet toys slid out.  We have to be super careful before we empty any trashcans or laundry baskets, as they are some of his favorite places to hide his toys.  I even found several of his toys in the ashbin next to the pellet stove (gross), haha.

Along with putting his toys in trashcans (and into drawers, baskets and other things), he also loves emptying things now.  He’ll help me “do the laundry” by pulling all the clean clothes out of the basket, he loves emptying his toy bins, and his new thing is to throw everything over the side of his crib.  He has a few things  in his crib – a soft stuffed giraffe, a giraffe blanket “lovey” (although he’s never attached to it, I keep trying), a small fleece blanket and a pillow my mom made from soft minky fabric.  If he doesn’t go to sleep right away when I put him down, he spends the first few minutes of naptime throwing everything except the pillow over the side of the crib onto the floor.  Not that he hasn’t tried to throw the pillow as well, but it’s a little heavier and unwieldy.  He will then lay with his whole upper body on the pillow and fall asleep, usually with his legs hiked up underneath him and his bottom in the air.  I wish I could get a picture of it – it’s so cute to watch on the monitor (yes, we got a video monitor – best. purchase. ever.) – but I am scared to death of waking him up so I don’t dare go in there with a camera once he’s asleep.

-His top two teeth have been taking FOREVER to come in.  A couple days ago, one of them finally broke through after 3 weeks of sitting right at the surface, but the other one is being stubborn.  Sleep has been worse lately from all the teething.  He’s waking up 3 or 4 times a night, which is killing me.  When his one tooth broke through the gums, he slept 11 hours straight!  Poor guy just doesn’t get any relief from Tyl.enol or Ad.vil  .

He is almost exactly 23 lbs!  He has got the cutest bottom ever.  It’s pretty massive, haha, and makes him almost a size larger on bottom than on top.  He’s barely even fitting 12 months in shirts now, but I bought a couple pairs of shorts/shortalls in 12 months and they were so tight he could barely crawl in them.  He obviously needs to be wearing 18 months overall, and maybe even 24 months on bottom.  It doesn’t feel like we spent any time at all in 12 month sizes!

Isaac knows how to play peekaboo  .  He LOVES peekabo, and often will initiate the game himself, peeking around the corner of the ottoman, or from one room into the next with a sly smile on his face.  Once you spot him, he pops his head back and forth with the cutest grin on his face. He also loves when I chase him around the room saying “I’m gonna get you!”.  Sometimes he’ll be immobilized from the excitement, and  can’t crawl anymore and drops down onto his stomach waving his arms and legs and squealing.  It is rather hilarious.  He loves being tickled, and even pretend tickling will send him into gales of laughter.

He loves putting his head down on things, and grins widely while he does it.  He’s been doing it for a few months now, but it keeps getting cuter and cuter.  He’ll crawl over to the dog bed and lay his head down there, unwittingly ousting the doggies from their comfy spots (they both still keep a pretty wide berth around the baby).  If I lay down on the floor with him, he’ll lay his head down on my butt, haha (softest spot, I guess).  When he’s tired, he’ll put his head down on anything – the table, the floor, one of his toys – but only for a second.

He loves the computer, so so much.  SO MUCH.  If you crack the laptop open across the room, he will put his head down and crawl toward you as fast as he possible can (power crawl!).  He must touch the keyboard – it’s the only part of the computer he cares about, and he loves tapping his fingers across the keys.  We have decided, however, NOT to allow him to touch the computers anymore, so if we can’t close it right away, he hears “no touch!” and we usually try and redirect him to something else.  Yeah, this doesn’t work so much.  The boy is very stubborn.  While that laptop is open, he must get to it.  When you tell him no and try and take him away, he will fling his little body around and scream – a for-real tantrum.  It’s hilarious, but scary at the same time.  He’s not even one and throwing tantrums already?  Oh boy.  We’re in for it  .  It’s really the only thing he gets upset over, though.  He hears “no touch!” a fair amount, and it doesn’t seem to bother him unless we’re talking about the computer.

He recognizes words now.  He knows Mama and Dada and can connect those words to us.  He knows doggy and kitty or “Ozzy” and will look at the dog and cat when we talk about them.  He knows “wave” and will wave if you tell him to, even if you aren’t showing him how.  It seems like every day he’s more and more aware of what we’re saying to him.  He even knows where his diaper goes!  When I change him, if he gets the clean diaper in his hands, he’ll smash it down between his legs like “I know where this goes”.

Did I mention that he is stubborn?  And not easily distracted?  If he’s intent on something, it is really hard to convince him to do something else.  I love that we’re seeing all of these clues to his personality – it’s so much fun to watch him transform from a little baby to a bright little boy.

And that’s probably enough about 11 months.  I could probably write about this little guy for days  .

Every month I think it can’t possibly get any more fun to be Isaac’s mama, but then it does. He is an absolute joy to me! I love playing with him, cuddling with him, nursing him, singing to him, and am thrilled to see how he is growing so strong and smart. I am one lucky woman.