Ant diary: Eleven months

Growth check: 20lb 10 oz. Up a whole pound from last month!

Talking: Ant likes to say something like 'hogahdah hogahdah' - although it's hard to copy! He sometimes says dada in a context where he seems like he means Mark but other times just says it randomly, so not sure if we can count that just yet. Yesterday at the Rinaldi's Ant seemed to say Mama referring to me, then apparently after I left this morning he was crying and said it a couple of times. So I think even if we can't count Dada and Mama as real words just yet, they'll be for real soon. He's doing a lot of rolling his R's. Other than that not much new from last month.

Movement: Walking! Ant took his first steps, walking between Mark and me, on 7/7. We were out on the deck, and just decided to give it a shot and see what would happen, if we tried to encourage him to go from one of us to the other. Sure enough, he did, taking as many as five steps. Sometimes it was a headlong rush into our arms, others it was very controlled (giggling the whole time as if this was the best thing in the world - which it probably was). He stayed at about that rate of steps for the next two weeks. The second weekend after his first steps we were up in NH, and he did quite a bit of running from his new gear toy into our arms to get away from the gear noise. Up to eight steps between us. Then this past weekend down at Kate's house he just took off - lots of running room in their basement. I counted 20-30 steps at a time. Sunday at the Rinaldi's he barely crawled at all, just walking everywh ere. They had some guests over, who were very impressed with him - he stepped on one of the boys' feet, and just kept right on going, didn't lose his balance at all! In general his balance is very good, he often will seem as if he's going to fall over, but manages to hold onto something or just steady himself so that he doesn't have too bad an oops.

Mental: This has been a month of burgeoning communication! Ant started using signs himself - "more" and "milk". More started off just being asking for more food, which is the context we taught it to him in, but more recently he's been using it to ask for more of an activity (like going outside with Mom, reading a book with me), and just in general to ask for food. It was so exciting the first time he used it - I could ask him if he was "all done" with his meal, and he would respond with "more" if he wasn't. Being able to have two way communication without crying is fantastic. I was also impressed with his overall comprehension - I asked him to show me the sign for milk, and he did! He also points to go to things he wants. And turns lights on and off himself, as well as pushing the button to open/close the garage door.

Toys and games: Ant has gotten very good at putting lids back on to containers, as well as putting things inside other things (the stackable cups inside each other, coins into other containers, various things into boxes). He also likes putting his pacifiers into the ball popper. We're starting to teach him about the shape sorter, but he doesn't quite get it just yet. Mike and Jill gave him a gear toy for his birthday (early), he has had a lot of fun with that, both just pressing the button to turn it on and running away from the gear noise (although he's over that now), and taking the gears off and putting them back on again. He also enjoys pots and pans, and other things he can manipulate.

Random: Went swimming in a real pool for the first time. Seemed to enjoy the water, but perhaps could take it or leave it.

Teeth: *Still* nothing new. Three months since his last tooth came through. I can't imagine it will be much longer 'till the molars make an appearance.

Feeding: We switched the mid-morning feed over to formula as well, so now I'm only nursing 2x/day. It is SO nice not to have to pump anymore. Not missing lugging that thing around at all! New things we've added include mac-n-cheese (Annie's whole wheat organic - for a little healthier option), tilapia, salmon, the broccoli stuffed chicken breast I like to have for my lunch, bigger pieces of pear, and cheerios with milk (well, formula).

Sleeping: Not much change from last month, except Ant's wake-up time has gotten a bit later, usually he's waking up between 5:30-6, but happy in the crib for at least another half hour, so that's reasonable. He's generally going to sleep between 7-7:15 (although we've had two nights [both away] when he wouldn't go down until 9!). Taking two naps that vary from 40 min to 1hr 20 min on average, at around 9:30 and around 2pm.