Liam's October - He's 11 Months Old!

What a little character my little Leopold is turning into. He is so affectionate, fun loving and still pretty laid back. He's becoming more and more vocal, and loves to be silly with his brother. He is very focused on his play and practicing all his new found skills. He is such a source of love and joy! I must say - at least 10 times a day to Marc, "look at him, isn't he the cutest, I just can't stand it!" Absolutely everything he does is simply adorable! He just melts my heart with those chubby little hands and feet that are oh so busy busy now... mauling us with his overzealous affection. So free with hugs and kisses to his mommy, daddy and brother! What a fun October we had! Here's the 11th month update on our Lovable Leester! 

-He started out by adding pointing to his bag of tricks (October 2nd)! And he starts it first thing when we wakes up in the morning. He guides you to the window in his room where we have some German toy knights and horses hanging by springs from the ceiling. Then he tries to do the horse noise that daddy does, sort of like a "pufffbbbbrrrrr" to let you know that he wants to bounce them. It's a very important routine and start to our day!

-He has started to copy all of the actions he watches us do throughout the day, beginning with talking on the phone. If he sees/hears me on the phone, or just hears the phone begin to ring, he will hold an imaginary phone to his head, not always in the right place (sometimes to the top or back of his head :)), and say "hewwwooo"! And he really likes to say a real hello to Daddy at work or Grandma and Omi on the phone... of course then he wants to press the buttons and has a mini fit when I have to take the phone back to finish my conversation :) It's still so mild right now I'm spoiled.... just a little back arch and cry of protest then he's over it and on to the next adventure!

-He also likes to put hats to his head, uses wipes to clean things, tooth brushes on his teeth and hair brushes on his head... really anything he can copy us doing.

-He's been waving for a while, but now he thinks of it and initiates it on his own when we arrive or are leaving. Especially if someone says hello or goodbye to us when we're out... like the cashier at the commissary.

-For about 4 months running now he has been dedicated to a particular lovie :) Most kids have a stuffed animal or a blanket, Liam prefers my pocket German dictionary! And he's recently added a small boat captain bath tub toy. He just lights up when he sees it. And will hold on to it while he goes about his day. He even fell asleep last night clutching it in his precious chub fist :)

-He loves to turn pages in books we "try" to read together. Which is fun, until Benjamin and I are trying to read a book for real. Ben is really good about being patient.

-He added "Chlo" to his list of words... for Chloe Jean our pup... he will say "nen nen na" for Benjamin and "uh lu loo" for I love you! ...and says a few other things that I haven't figured out yet, but I know he thinks they are words because he says them the same way every time we do certain things, like walk down the stairs, into the kitchen or into his room. So I think it's something he's trying to point out to me.

-Really tries to copy everything I say. And he still loves to yell out when we start up or down the stairs or when we enter a new room... to test out how his voice will carry in the new space. He's especially good at announcing when he sees or hears "Chlo", as he calls her. I know he hears me say her name nearly as much as Benjamin's every day. He gets excited to know she'll be waiting for us when we come downstairs or come home. And he makes sure to let me know when she wants to go out and come back in, so thoughtful :)

-He also likes to say "no" over and over again when he doesn't like something. It sounds more like "nah nah nah nah nah".

-He's trying more and more finger foods, and even eats lasagna (thanks to Ben).

-He is often "missing" when I return to the play area after briefly stepping around the corner to the kitchen... and when I call for him, he laughs from behind the curtains in the dining room, he absolutely loves this game! If I peek around the corner, I can see him waiting for me, giggling :)

-He especially LOVES to hide from us lately in Benjamin's cubby or our curtains. Sometimes I find him right away and I can see that he's waiting for me with a look of excitement and anticipation. Other times, I won't realize that he wants to play hide and seek until I hear his giggle coming from the cubby.

-He just plays plays plays all over the house... ALL over. He is so very very busy, and he's really fast crawling now. He gets his mind set on something he wants to get to, and by golly he's going to get to it.

-He's struggling with his emotions :) He wants to be down on the ground to move around... but when I place him there he's upset I'm not holding him anymore... he's difficult to hold because he wants to bend his whole body to reach for things. So he's totally ready to branch out and explore more, but he wants to do it while at still having at least one small point of physical contact with mommy. He still totally sees me as just an extension of himself.

-He's really starting to dance/bounce to music, especially if it is performed by us. He thinks he's a pretty good dancer, I think he gets that from his mom :) He also loves to sing along with mommy.

- He's totally entered the "drawer and cabinet junkie" phase. He's also a little of a cord fanatic, but we're trying to break that one, obviously. I just love how serious and focused he is about his "work"!

- He just laughs and laughs at everything Benjamin does. He thinks absolutely anything and everything his big brother does is complete genius! And, as a result, he's the biggest encourager of his brother's silly antics. Benjamin, in turn, is having a blast coming up with new things to get a bigger and bigger reaction from his biggest fan!

-He loves to get into growling contests w/ Benjamin... Actually, he just likes to growl period. He does it every time he sees a picture of a tiger, or even a cat. He'll point to the picture and start growling. He can do a bear noise too, but it sounds like the same growl to me. In fact, he likes to growl for every animal, just yesterday he did it for a duck! Although he will do a cute huffy "wolffff wolffff" for a dog noise (especially for Chloe).

- Mid month, on the 15th actually, he started pushing up on hands and feet in the middle of floor. Almost like a yoga downward dog. Then he just stays there with his cute little butt up in the air for a while. It's pretty funny to catch him doing it and to wonder what he's thinking.

-He shakes head and whole body yes to agree with me when I ask him a question that he really likes, like do you want some (of what I'm eating) or do you want (what I'm holding).  I am so excited he learned that before the side to side head shake for "no".

-He clearly signs "more", when he really wants some more of something we're eating... and signs and says "all done" when he doesn't want any more of his food and wants out of the highchair.

-On the 17th, he pulled up on steps to a standing position, or rather pushed up into a stand. But then he yelled for help when he wanted back down and wasn't sure what to do.

-He's started feeding Chloe under the table, he's really serious about it. Needless to say, Chloe pays a whole lot more attention to him then she used to.

-He crawls all over mommy and GIVES really big HUGS now, totally initiated by him! His hugs for Benjamin seem a little more like a wrestling tackle move, but I can see the loving emotion behind them :)

- He liked the little taste he had of mommy's birthday cake, so we're interested to see what happens on his birthday.

-He loves feeling/rubbing/scratching different textures and making different noises with toys on the different surfaces around our house.

-He loves to lick windows :) and put his mouth on our cold marble tile floor, yuck!

-He now has 6 teeth total! They didn't come in until later in his 9th month, but they've been coming in steady ever since. He has 4 on top and both middle bottom. He has a cute space between his top front two and his bottom two are a little crooked right now. But I know they'll change as the others fill in.

That was pretty jumbled, but I just wanted to get it all down. And I did, so here are the pictures!

Still love those adorable ears! I know I always will, but I don't know if they'll always be as pronounced so I want to document them while I can.

He thinks he should have everything I'm having of course.

Working on the sippy cup. He's better with a real cup, crazy as it sounds. But I want him to be able to get it when ever he wants without assistance. He thinks it's pretty fun to blow bubbles with the water once he finally gets some in his mouth.

Working on the "you have to tilt it up" concept. 

He's getting it!

Don't worry Chloe, I'll share.

My breakfast (and lunch and dinner for that matter ) buddy... how blessed am I!?!

Mommy's distracted and Chloe looks famished... I'd better help.

Here you go Chlo!

A few of these...

A little of this...

And a little of that...

What?

I was just being a big helper mom!

Of course, Chloe can get Cheerios so often that she's actually starting to turn her nose up at them. So, by the end of breakfast we have quite the collection on the floor. A helper indeed :) He will venture in there later during play time to check for any I might have missed so he can enjoy a little snack.

As soon as he wakes up, he points to guide us to his favorite wake up activity...

This way daddy.

We're almost there daddy!

Right there, right there!

(these wooden characters on a spring are pretty much genius)

And now he's mimicking Daddy's horse noses and his special knight voice saying "hello Liam"!

He's so excited every time!

Loves to randomly dive/faceplant into his toys while we're playing. He sticks to the soft ones, proving his intelligence :) He just giggles and giggles.

A very important job, opening the drawer - loading the blocks - closing the drawer - repeat.

And it's even more fun when you have an assistant.

We put him in a standing position when he lets us know he wants to see something above his sitting reach and he gets pretty excited. It just makes him giggle at first while he gets his balance, and then he gets back to work.

If it's not his big brother trying to get in on all his pictures, it's our dog Chloe Jean. She still thinks I sit down of the floor to pet her... and that I just play with Liam on the side since I'm already there. She kept backing up into me to try to get a little back scratch.

His dear big brother is spotting him from behind. He's such a big help and so sweet and protective.

We introduced the tunnel this month! It only took him a few minutes to venture inside. 

Headed towards the reward of mommy at the other end!

A quick pause to play at the "window".

Back to mommy!

So excited? He starts doing this crazy laugh that means he's about to tackle me!

The biggest game of the month is passing objects back and forth... I call it "here you go and thank you"!

I love to hear him say "he go" and "dut da"!

We spend a lot of time repeating this!

And he's pretty adamant about keeping the game going.

Really adamant actually :)

There you go mommy, that's it, now you've got it.

"Dut da!" (translation: thank you!)

And here you see Chloe, again, trying to get some scratches... I am down on the floor after all, it certainly can't be all about the baby, right?

I really do use a bib, and clean his face after breakfast. I also put socks on him... but he pulls those off first chance he gets! He's always preferred his toes uncovered :) And despite the soft carpets we've put down, he still prefers the hard cold marble tiles.

He loves loves loves to roll, bounce and chase balls around the house. He wasn't having much luck with my exercise ball, but he still thought it was pretty fun!

And the famous intentional diving face plant to show his excitement over just how much fun we're having!

We also introduced him to tents this month. This really appealed to his love of hiding!

First rule in his clubhouse... no socks allowed!

This photo looks remarkably similar to one of his daddy at the same age, drool and all :) Here is "destructor", a.k.a. "baby giant" or "baby monster", after a lego village crushing spree!

Love love love this little guy! See you soon for a November/1 year old post!