Pictureless Update

Hi Bastian,

We are nearing the end of our vacation here in AZ and I feel like I need to provide a little update since you are changing so much everyday. I won't even mention the fact that you are almost 1- it breaks my heart to think that you are getting so old!

So...before we left on our trip I wanted to let you know that I had left out a few more consonant sounds that you say: /g/ and /n/. Also, at that time you started doing a fake sort of laugh whenever we laugh at you. Your favorite songs were- and are still "Old McDonald," "Itsy-Bitsy Spider," "The Wheels on the Bus," and the "La La" song from our library story time. You love music, dancing and clapping to the beat.

Since we've been here in AZ you started waving and saying "bye-bye" whenever people say goodbye to you! You also are saying /f/ and /v/ sounds and have tried to imitate a few times when I say "fan" (a new favorite thing to stare at and talk about). You started playing peek-a-boo by covering your eyes with your hands, taking them off and saying in a high-pitched voice, "da!" You have loved staring, pointing, and talking about lights for awhile, but recently you have been looking at my mouth and attempting to imitate the /l/ phoneme to say the word properly (very Luthien of you)!

Tonight your Nana helped you to take a few steps! She stood you up and scooted back and you took about 3 steps independently! I guess I need to work with you on that more often, although I'm still not terribly anxious for you to walk since you are already in to too much. You have had a snotty nose this entire trip and throw a terrible fit whenever anyone tries to wipe it, which is driving me nuts. You have also been teething like crazy and I am anxious for the next tooth to make its' appearance so you aren't so clingy. Tonight as we played outside, ate, and took a night hike, it was the first time you did pretty well letting someone other than me hold you, which was nice.

I know I will think of more but that's all for now little boy....

Love,

Mama

Sleepless Nights

...We've had a lot of those lately. Tonight was actually the first night in a couple of weeks that I was able to put you to sleep in your crib on the first try with no fuss as soon as your head hits the mattress, no waking up 10 minutes later and then taking another hour to get back to sleep- I guess that is why I am actually able to take a moment to write to you! Other than teething now and then during this time, I can't figure out why the change in your sleeping habits, other than you are getting older and wiser, and figuring out that as soon as you cry, mom will pick you up and nurse you back to sleep. We may have to start doing some sleep "training" with you soon, but I hope not to have to!

Here are some pictures from the last couple months (since New Years):

Admiring fishies:

Showing off some new threads:

Showing off those naked buns:

You seem very close to walking these days, and sometimes you'll take your hand off of whatever it is you are using to steady yourself and stand by yourself (once you realize you're doing that, though, you get very worried and quickly grab on to something or cry). You just need a little more confidence and I really think you could walk!

You are a very smiley, happy little boy but I can never get you to show off your 7, almost 8 teeth for the camera! You are always too stunned by the flash of the camera I guess.

You love this new toy our friend, Miss Carrie gave to us!

Again, here you are looking stunned while your sister shows off her new haircut!

All glammed up for church:

And finally, playing with your sister...you now understand her name and get very excited when you see her after being apart for any span of time. We refer to her as "Lu Lu" for you for now, and when we say her name and see her in the morning or after naps you wave your arms and babble away.

More new developments:

1) You respond to your own name consistently

2) You've replaced your army scoot with a real crawl!

3) You have started imitating the words/phrases "light," "all done," and "so big"

4) The only words I can confidently add to the list of words you are already comprehending are "eat," "water," and "up" (other than "Lu Lu" and the words mentioned in the previous post, which you are still consistently understanding). I think you may understand "drink," "potty" and a few more, but I want to be more sure before saying for sure!

5) Fine motor skills are improving with picking up finger foods and other small objects

6) You can drink from a straw!

7) More variations in your vowel sounds (variegated babbling), but you are still only using initial consonant sounds d, b, and m (the latter only when sad). There were a few days where I almost went crazy because you were repeating "da" over and over, all day long, but then you started changing things up a little bit again- I did look back at Luthien's blog and confirmed she had a lot more consonants at this age, but I always thought she was very verbal from a young age- no comparisons, I promise :)

I love you sweet boy, please sleep well tonight!

-Mama