Happy 11th Month, Daniel!

One more month to go and Daniel will be one! I'll say it again...time sure flies! Daniel is very busy these days, crawling everywhere, standing up on whatever he can get his hands on to pull up, sitting up on his own, and just really full of energy. It's so cute to watch him crawl and sit. I love the baby butt wiggle while he crawls...too funny. I've loved every minute of watching him grow up, but gosh do I love it now- I was waiting for the cute crawling. The slap of his hands on the floor, the noises he makes while crawling, the wiggles, the way he speeds up when something catches his eye. Guess walking's next...but we're in no hurry!

Lately, Daniel has been noticing the fine, small details in his toys. He will poke his finger at and study the screws, the little holes, and such in his toys or even on furniture. It's neat to see that he notices more now. And I love his expressions when he does find something- his eyes are just filled with wonder.

The newest activity for the week is that we've been playing ball- I'll roll the ball to Daniel and he will catch it. Then he waves his hands excitedly and the ball goes flying- so then I get it and we play again. And if he misses the ball (mostly if I roll it badly!) he will crawl after it and then sit back up and wave it around. We can play this way for quite a while- he has a pretty good attention span with the ball, as long as other more interesting things don't come along.

Daniel's eating lots more people food. His fave of the week- baked beans! We can't get those in fast enough! He also likes any kind of bread (totally gets that from his mommy!)- english muffins, toast, breadsticks, and whatever bread we might have with our dinner. We ate peaches one day- and that wasn't too bad. Considering he did NOT like baby food peaches, I thought it was interesting that he liked real peaches. Daniel still likes his baby food veggies! He will occasionally even eat half a jar of veggies- which, for Daniel, is really good, all things considered. Most of the time, if we can get several bites out of Daniel, I'm happy. Each week gets better and better, I think. We do go back for more bloodwork next week and then for another weight check the week after. We shall see how things are going then!

Daniel is mostly napping two times a day now (he was doing three up till a few weeks ago), and sometimes takes even just one nap- though this makes for a crabby baby by nighttime! But really, he does nap quite well most days. Nights are getting better...though I dare not say for fear I'll jinx it! :)

Daniel is just a joy each day! School started this week and though I do miss it, I'm completely thrilled to be home with my little guy every day. He does something new more and more now and I'm so excited to be here for it ALL! And I just remembered one more new thing he did yesterday- he finally stood up against a wall- he's been really trying. He palms the wall, thinks about it real hard and then yesterday, by the family room window, looked up, and just did it and then he had the window ledge that he could reach to hold on after that. He sits back down without hesitation, too. That was never a problem for him. He'd just flop/fall down and now he just sort of sticks his butt out and plops to sit back down.

Also, I mentioned before that Daniel likes to take all the books off of our end table. He will do this endlessly I think. The other day, he actually took a book in each hand and started to drop them both off the table and realized that he wasn't holding on to anything- I think he surprised himself with his bravery! He did end up grabbing the table back and just doing one book at a time. Still, I'm amazed at how brave he is!

Happy 11th Month, Daniel! Time to plan a first birthday party!