Eleven Months on the Eleventh

Oh Sam Sam.  Eleven months, gone in a flash!  Here's the update:

• This boy is so cheerful and so BUSY.  I think I said it last month, but he just gets even more so.  Busy, busy, busy.  Opening cupboard doors and pulling things off shelves and crawling from one end of the house to the next and opening drawers and throwing things on the floor, and dumping over toy boxes and chasing balls and looking out the window and eating shoes and reading books and standing up and pulling things off the fridge and then he'll do it all over again.
• He's getting quite confident in his standing abilities.  He can stand up by himself in the middle of the floor without holding onto anything for stability.  And he'll just stand there for a few seconds.  He can squat down to pick up a toy and then stand back up without a hitch.  (Strong quads!)
• He cruises (literally) around the edges of couches, tables, walls.
• He finally realized it's fun to climb stairs.  I knew he could do it physically last month or so, but he just wouldn't.  Well, now he will.  Only problem is he can't go back down.  Yet.
• Not as crazy about being spoon fed lately.  He'll still eat some purees or cereal or yogurt or what-have-you, but not as much in quantity or as often.  He'd much prefer to eat finger foods all by himself (he especially loves tomatoes, mac 'n' cheese, graham crackers, grapes and frozen peas, but he's pretty good about eating almost everything that comes his way).  (Also loves eating anything off the floor, edible or not.  Sheesh!  I have to stick my finger in his mouth so many times a day!)
• He does this scootching thing in the high chair that is ridiculous.  He's strapped in (it's a fisher price booster seat that is buckled to a regular dining chair) but he can buck back and forth so much that the chair scoots forward.  Then he can grab things on the table and knock them to the floor (RIP medium sized moose plate).  I'm afraid he'll tip over backwards so I'm not sure what we'll have to finagle to make it more stable and un-moveable.
• He's getting so big!  I haven't weighed him since his 9 month check, but I'm guessing he's near if not over 20 lbs.  (Cal is only 26 lbs, so I don't think it'll take long before he's heavier than her!)
• He's almost done breastfeeding.  I just don't think I've been able to keep up with his needs lately so we've been adding more and more bottles of formula to his day this past month to make sure he's getting what he needs liquid and food-wise.  Drinking 3-4 bottles a day with one breastfeeding session in the middle of the night.  (Probably not the most ideal weaning schedule, but it is what it is.)
• Not sleeping through the night.  But what else is new?  His good nights are one wake up.  Bad ones (during his teething spell) were 4+.  This momma is tired.
• He's starting to show interest in books.  He loves to pull them off the shelf (of course), but he'll sit there in the pile of board books and turn pages and look at pictures by himself for a good few minutes, and I've even been able to hold him on my lap long enough to "read" one or two at a time on occasion.  (Usually he just wants to be on the move.)
• He LOVES balls.  I may have mentioned this one before, but it's still true.  We have a box of balls and he'll get all of them out and throw them and crawl after them and tackle them and slobber all over them and grin the entire time.
• Speaking of teething - he's got 6 now.  Those four top ones came in all at the same time (it was killer!) and his smile is changing so much.  He looks so much older.
• He loves to see pictures or videos of himself.  That will always, always elicit the biggest smiles from him.  He does it with pictures of other babies or real-life babies, too.  Quite a social little fellow.
• Jabbering more and more.  My favorite is "wowowowow".  And when he gurgle-purrs.  Ha.  The best.  He also says ba-ba, ma-ma, da-da, etc.  Oh!  And "eh-woh" (sort-of?) when he holds a remote up to his shoulder (trying to get to his ear) to talk on the phone.  Hello!
• Occasional waves when he sees you.  Can sign "milk" (but this happens a lot when he wants anything food-related), "more" and "all done" (but he's pretty inconsistent on them).
• He sometimes like to take steps while holding onto our fingers and can even do it only holding onto one hand.
• Took one step to Gregg without holding on to anything.  Whenever we try, he always drops to hands and knees for speed and stability.
• Takes off his bib every chance he gets (so messy!).
• Makes the "brrrrrm" car sound by buzzing his lips while playing with trucks or when he sees/hears the lawnmower.
• Will clap/pat-a-cake on request.  Ditto for high fives.  And he grins so big when he does it.  I love that grin!
• Can hold his own bottle while drinking.
• Has mastered his sippy cup but really wants to use Sister's straw ones whenever he can get his hands on them.

And of course there are pictures.  Who do you think I am?

There are those motor-boating lips.

More motor boat lips plus box o' balls.

He's so so so close!

Cal's gotta be in on the picture taking action.
Hard to believe that she's the easier one to
photograph these days, but it's true.

Reading nicely.  Usually it's ripping nonstop if the pages are
rip-able.

Oh my heck!  Too much cuteness.
(And yes, Minnie needed a pic, too.)

I deleted so many blurry ones, but had to leave
a couple because it's so accurate.

Favorite thing to do with blocks.

"eh-woh?"

Watch Samuel grow: 10 months | 9 months | 8 months | 7 months | 
6 months | 5 months | 4 months | 3 months | 2 months | birth