William: Eleven Months!

I can't believe this is my last monthly update before William is a year old--although that's probably a good thing because I'm having a terribly tough time getting these posted with any sort of timeliness. And since this moving stuff is taking off faster than we could have imagined (more on that soon--hopefully!), I'm going to run though through this quickly.

--No official height and weight stats, but kid is growing like a weed--mostly thanks to the fact that he will eat pretty much anything we put in front of him (and some things--like cheese--he would eat non-stop if we let him). He's between sizes in clothes; I'm constantly going back and forth between 6-9 month outfits and 9-12 month outfits and often will have a shirt of one size paired with pants of a different size.

--Baths have made a drastic improvement from last month. It may have been a temporary sensory phase that he went through because we discovered that using less water helped, although he also may have just finally accepted them as part of his bedtime routine.

--Speaking of bedtime, things are still going wonderfully in that department. Eleven hours (730-630) is the norm, and he rarely protests getting put down. He's already dropped his morning nap (eek!), but usually takes at least a ninety-minute nap in his crib in the afternoon.

--Communication seems to have jumped leaps and bounds. Not only is he making consonant-vowel sounds much more frequently, but he is also showing much more variety in the sounds he makes. He still hasn't really said a word with intentional meaning (that we know of), but he is definitely learning what words mean (when his ball is in the room he will crawl to it if we ask him to get his ball).

--It won't be long before he is taking off on two legs. Anything and everything is a push toy that he uses to walk around the house with, and he's getting braver about letting go of things while standing. He's also starting to sit on his knees more often (as opposed to his butt), and we think it's in preparation for standing up on his own.

--And, of course, he's constantly doing fun and silly things that make this month even more exciting than last month. He'll now give high fives, he loves to clap, he thinks it's fun to put blocks and toys into a container (albeit not necessarily the container they belong in--we've started finding random toys in our kitchen drawers), and he has figured out how to put rings and blocks onto pegs which keeps him entertained for at least ten minutes (which may not seem like much, but it is fantastic). And I think it's safe to say we are going to have a little spitfire on our hands--it is unwise to remove a toy from his possession before he is done playing with it. Of course, once he gets over his tantrum he goes back to being a crazy goofy kid, so it's hard to feel sorry for him for too long!