11 Months Old???

How can it be? Time truly does fly by. It is crazy to think that next year at this time baby Nathan will be 11 months old, and Josiah will be approaching two years. When Josiah was born I thought I couldn’t possibly be more proud of him, but as time goes by and I see what a good baby, and now pretoddler, he has become I am now proud of who he is, not just the fact that he exists. I am proud of every new skill acquired each month and this has been a month of discovery and mischief!

The big news for the month is that Josiah has learned to walk quite well with a little support. Jacob’s dad declared yesterday that he would be walking within two weeks. I don’t think we are moving along that quickly, but it won’t be long! He is also letting go for very brief periods to stand by himself and will move from the sofa to a tall toy a few feet away, for example, without sitting down.

On the communication side of things, Josiah is now signing “more”, but it is a little sporadic and can be difficult to distinguish from clapping. Sometimes I second guess that he is actually doing it, then sure enough he’ll do it repeatedly at appropriate times and I am convinced.

He also is developing his own words for things. I was going to try to type some of them out, but I have no idea how to spell in his language. I didn’t even realize that we were communicating verbally until a couple weeks ago we had just come back from a walk and the dogs were barking at us outside. I was taking him out of the stroller and he said “dye da” in a high pitched voice which I now recognize as his way for greeting the cats although I didn’t know I knew that at the time. I said, “no that’s a dog” then wondered who I was kidding thinking he was saying cat anyway. Then I turned around to find the cat behind me. I hadn’t realized he had trained me to recognize what he means! I’m not sure where “dye da” comes from, but maybe he is trying to say one of the cat’s names, “Lilah”. But he calls them both that.

Last week Josiah cut two new teeth to make a total of seven. They came complete with a mild fever, runny nose, and plenty of drool, but all of that is gone now.

This next month will bring some birthday party planning, more walking practice, and weaning – although I don’t promise that that will be complete by next month, just well underway (hopefully). It is a BIG month to come!

A typical morning greeting.

My cutie pie playing outside during the last cold snap. I hadn't planned on putting him down in that white fleece. You should have seen how filthy he was by the time he crawled to the split rail fence you see in the background and back through all the dead grass! I found that he doesn't feed himself as much trash when he wears gloves, but instead he just puts his mouth to the ground to get things.

He loves animal crackers! For some reason he feels the need to take it in and out of his mouth until it is mush, rub it on his head, then put it back in his mouth.

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands! Animal crackers make him happy.

In the high chair WAY too long.

Savannah and Josiah at the hospital visiting baby Nathan. Now that she has two younger boy cousins she constantly wants to "hole him".