Gate to the Grate - 11 month update supplement

Peanut is currently wearing a hole in the floor. He is crawling laps back and forth and back and forth from the gate at the stairs to the grate on the kitchen floor. He touches each with his head and turns around and goes back. Occasionally he goes past the grate, under the kitchen table, head butts the floor (yes, I know) and then returns to the gate. He is wearing himself out and we are letting him!

Today has been a big day for him. At 11 months and 3 days he decided to learn some new things. He is calling for Little Man. He calls him Ra Ra and it is very clear that he is referring to his big brother. He also waves hi and bye and signs more. This morning he was sitting in his booster eating breakfast and I waved to him from across the table. I do this fairly often and don't usually expect a result, but wouldn't you know he grins and waves right back. He was so proud of himself and he has done it a bunch throughout the day. Then at dinner he ate all of his peas, carrots and pasta so I threw some of Little Man's pizza on his tray to keep him busy. When he was done he used the first finger of one hand and the fist of the other hand and put them together for "more". We clapped and yelled and he repeated it every time he wanted more food. Then when he was all done he signed for that and moved on. I can't believe how much he can change in just a few days and how grown up he is becoming!!

Cheeky

Meet Cheeky. Cheeky is a particular friend of the family. He was not named by anyone in this house and all attempts to change his name have been ignored. Anyway, I digress.

Cheeky is a perfect playmate for Peanut because he takes a beating and keeps on coming. If you watch him you can see him use his battering ram (head) technique and also make up with Cheeky after the abusive treatment with a few head hugs.

Happy 11 Months Peanut!

Papa Bear and I have discussed the way we keep time in a baby's life. For the first three months we track it by weeks, and then from about three months to a year we track it month by month. You have to track in smaller increments because they change so much month to month. When Little Man was a baby we could rattle off how old he was to the minute. I think that the fear of being new parents and the fear of messing up or the unknown made Little Man's first year exaggeratedly long in our minds. But this past 11 months of Peanut's life have blinked by. I mean, really, we blinked and our baby is 11 months.

He is crawling like a pro and spends a lot more time vertical, cruising along the furniture and moving from object to object while holding on. He loves to hold our hands and practice taking steps and sometimes I can slip my fingers from his chubby hands and he stands on his own for a few seconds. He is a getting great at steps (going up, not so much on the going down) and spends lots of time holding onto and shaking the gate at the bottom of the stairs.

Peanut loves all things cars and balls or things that act like a car or ball that he can otherwise push or throw across my kitchen floor. He can empty my kitchen cupboards in the blink of an eye and will often be found using my spatulas to play tupperware hockey across the floor. We have never been so happy for the tot locks that we installed when Little Man was a baby because Peanut gets into everything. We are a little sad to report that he has already gone fishing in the toilet a few times when we forgot to shut the door tightly.

He makes us laugh all day. Whenever we catch him heading towards an off-limits area (laundry room, bathroom or stairs) he lowers his head and speeds up in a vain attempt to make it before we catch him. If we even think about lowering the dishwasher door he bee-lines for it and tries to climb up into it. He loves to wrestle with his big brother and has really started being affectionate (mostly through head hugs) and today he showed his first separation anxiety and cried for most of the hour and a half that he spent at my neighbors house. His only words are Mama and Papa (said BaBa) and he signs "all done" when he is done eating and loves to clap his hands. He even started moving his hands along to Little Man's rendition of Itsy Bitsy Spider.

Peanut is an independent, playful, ticklish loving little 11 month old baby with the soul of an angel.

Head Hugs and Other things

I recently wrote a post about how Peanut needs antennae because he has multiple bruises from using his head to locate objects like the wall, coffee table or any other destination he is trying to crawl to. My wonderful and caring Mommom sent him a special package. In this package was a homemade visor that he could wear on his head to protect his forehead and alert him to the fact that he had reached his destination at the same time. Isn't she a genius! Oh and super caring! Now if she could only find a way to make him keep it on :) But it sure is cute.

We also discovered some other ways Peanut uses his head these days. A battering ram! Yes, that is right! When he and Little Man are wrestling or playing chase we have observed the lowering of his head and a full speed crawl right into Little Man. The result is usually tumble of both boys together. Sometime Little Man deftly steps to the side and Peanut goes barreling into nothing. You can see the confusion on his face when he totally misses. I think he may be the kid who needs lot of reminding to look where he is going!!

And the last use of his adorable head is a full fledged Head Hug. He isn't an overly affectionate kid. He is usually too busy to stop and really hug or kiss us. But when he slows down enough to give us some lovin', he does it with his head. Usually he just lays his head into my lap or my shoulder or if he is crawling by, he rests his head briefly on my knee and snuggles it there for a second before moving on. He head hugs Little Man on occasion but really lays them on Papa Bear. They have such a special bond and Peanut snugs his head into Papa Bear's chest frequently. Sometimes I will even catch Papa Bear head hugging him back. It really is quite adorable.

Little Man Stories - short but full of love

This morning I was woken up by a giant. Whispered in my ear, I heard these words "Fee Fi Fo Fumin, I smell the blood of an English Woman". (this is from his Kate and the Beanstalk book - he didn't make it up) Then I hear a few more words whispered, "Don't be scared Mama, it isn't a real giant, it is just me". I opened my eyes and smiled at Little Man and then told him to go back to bed. I have to say, if I have to woken up at 6 in the morning by a giant, I am glad he has perfect green eyes and sweet button nose.

Later this morning he was running around saying "Hickory Dickory Dock the mouse ran up the clock". So I joined in and started with "Hickory Dickory Dock, the mouse ran up the clock, the clock...." and I paused to see if he knew the next part and he says " The clock turned yellow and the mouse ran down, Hickory Dickory Dock". I laughed so hard I thought I was going to cry. If you don't know why this is funny, read this post, but it goes back to his Tot Clock and how he isn't allowed out of his bed until his clock turns yellow. I love learning about how his mind works and how he can put two ideas together in a way that makes total sense but that I never even thought of until I hear it come from him.

On the way to school this morning I asked Little Man to look over and tell me what Peanut was doing in his car seat. He told me that Peanut was "just lookin". And then I heard the words that melted my heart. "I love you Peanut (he didn't actually say Peanut, he used Peanut's nickname), but that's ok". I asked him why that was just ok and he said, "Because I say I love you to him but he doesn't say it back to me, but that is ok, right mama?"

Oh how I love my boys.

My Kid is HARD CORE

I have prepared two other posts which may or may not make it onto this blog. I was writing up all of the details of Snowmaggedon 2010 and of a pacifier crisis that occurred this week when I heard the familiar chime of incoming email. My neighbor sent over some pictures from this afternoons sledding adventure. All of my intentions of long winded posts died as I saw these awesome pictures of Little Man. He is so HARD CORE! He was the youngest kid on the hill and he went down head first in a penguin slide, he braved the flying snow and even though you won't see many smiles (my boy takes his sledding seriously) he had the time of his life. See for yourself...







.

Pacifier Scare - Avent Pacifiers

Peanut was up in his crib getting ready for a nap and when I went up to check on him because I heard him standing up and shaking the side of the crib (that is a new favorite pastime of his). When I got in his room I noticed that something looked wrong with his pacifier. I found his pacifier had come apart in 3 pieces. The nipple and nipple shield were still in his mouth (thank goodness) but the button that holds the handle on and the handle were both in pieces in his crib. Both of these pieces are serious choking hazards. When Papa Bear checked the other pacifiers we had another one came apart in the same way in his hands. I have called Philips Avent to report the incident and also reported it to US Consumer Product Safety Commission because I am thorough that way. So there we were, trapped by the snow, broken binks (pacifiers) a plenty and I was terrified of giving him another one and taking that risk. So I settled on checking on him often and yelling at the Avent Philips people.