RUS 11 months

Happy 11 months to a happy boy. You really are a very happy little guy. You've been happy at school, which you started a couple of weeks ago. You spent the first few days exploring the room. Then you got to know your new friends. Now you seem on a mission to assert your dominance. Your teachers tell us how you are always going after the food when someone is fed at school, and today Mommy heard that you like to go up to the little babies in your class and take the pacifiers out of their mouths. I'd like to think you're just trying to be helpful - after all, you hated it any time we tried to give you one.

You're really starting to absorb everything you see and hear. Sometimes you seem to try to imitate us when we talk or make sounds (today you were imitating daddy's hiccups). You are getting back to signing now that the novelty of pointing at everything has worn off some, though you still point a lot when you first wake up from a nap. You can sign mommy and daddy, more, all done, food, water, and your own version of banana. You blow kisses, wave bye-bye, and even play peek-a-boo with us. You have taken quite an interest in books lately. In the car, in the pack-and-play, or even just crawling up to the bookshelf, you will flip through your board books and stare at the page, sometimes babbling a bit before turning the page again.

You still like to push the chairs around and you do really good with your walkers - and your sister's strollers for her dolls. But just as often, you're happy to crawl around to get where you want to go. Often, you'll push a toy along with one hand as you crawl, or hit a ball and chase it across the room. Your favorite thing lately has been pulling up on the kitchen set and pulling out all of the toy food and toy pots and pans and scattering them everywhere. And speaking of scattering, you cannot stand to see two blocks stacked atop one another. As soon as someone starts stacking blocks, you cannot resist rushing over and not just knocking them over, but really flailing away at them until no two blocks are within 3 feet of one another. I even tested this with just lining a few shape blocks alongside each other and you still had to come over and destroy any semblance of order. You are entropy incarnate.

With three teeth and more on the way, and all of the changes you're going through, you take it all so well - thanks for being such a trooper.