Jack is Eleven Months

10.11.12. Before we know can blink twice, it will be 11.11.12. and Jack will be a year old. With each passing day, our little one is becoming more of a boy and less of a baby.

This month we have experienced quite a few changes. Jack has been cruising pretty steadily since 10 months. He holds onto furniture and walls and walks around. You can tell that he is pretty proud of himself. If he is unsure or feels even a little unsteady, he gently plops himself down on his bottom and then stands up again.

He has started to let go of the furniture and walls and will stand briefly without holding on. This morning when I went to get him from his crib, he stood for several seconds before sitting down. He is getting stronger with each passing day and standing/cruising for longer periods of time. He is a good crawler, but I think he prefers to stand and walk.

Last month he was eager to try to nose dive out of your arms and onto the floor. He still loves to hang upside down, but we have taught him how to turn around and scoot off of the couch, feet first. It is so much better to know that he is capable of getting off of the couch by himself than to worry about whether or not he is going to decide to dive head-first onto the floor!  

Now that Jack is fully on the move, he has decided that it is great fun to follow Sophie around. Sophie is not a fan of this game. Every time she moves from whatever spot Jack is attempting to invade, he laughs hysterically. 

Speaking of laughing, Jack is developing several different types of laughs. He has an full-out belly laugh, a little boy giggle and some other cute noises whenever he thinks something is funny. He cracks us up with his laughter.

Jack loves to wave at everyone. This actually started at the end of 9 months, but now any time we are in public he is waving at everyone. At for the most part people wave back. They also stop and talk to him. It is really sweet, but this makes grocery shopping {or anything else we do} take at least 10-20 minutes longer.

I can't begin to tell you how often perfect strangers stop to tell us that we have our very own Gerber baby or that he looks like the Gerber baby. It is kind of weird. I guess that his big, round head and huge blue eyes just remind people of Gerber? This was the closest picture I had that I thought might kind of look like the Gerber baby... I don't know.

Speaking of his big head, Jack had his first MRI this past month {boo} but we are thankful that his head size is most likely a family trait and we have nothing to worry about. Hopefully there will be no more MRIs for Jack {ever}.  

Jack knows what the word "No" means and generally obeys when we tell him "No" or "Not for Jack" or "uh-uh." He will repeat "no" or "uh-uh" back to us and shake his head and stop doing whatever we have told him to stop {most of the time anyway}. Occasionally he is defiant and we have to redirect him to another activity. This is hardest in the kitchen when I am trying to cook and he wants to open every cabinet door. The best solution I have for this is to give him pans, tupperware and a wooden spoon. This seems to distract him enough for me to make dinner.

Jack has about 3 words that he uses consistently: Dada {dada}, Dah {dog} and Do-uh {door}. Beyond that he has great inflection and will babble away. It is funny to listen to him on his monitor, talking away to the stuffed animals in his crib. His nursery teachers at church say that he will chat with them as well. In his own baby language, he has a lot to say!

Playing has become more purposeful this month. Jack loves to swat at balls and crawl after them. He loves books with flaps. He really loves to jump in his jumparoo and anything that involves pushing buttons to make music. Our boy is a big fan of music. We recently went to a bluegrass festival and Jack kept bouncing along to the music.

This month...

Jack went on his first waterfall hike...

brushed his teeth for the first time... 

and got to take his first ride on a train.

We are looking to so many more firsts with our boy.

End of month stats

Eating: He pretty much eats what we eat {just smaller bites}.

Talking: Dada {dada}, Dah {dog} and Do-uh {door}

On the Move: Cruising with purpose. Let's go of furniture to stand by himself for brief periods. Likes to follow Sophie around.

Teeth: Jack has 3.5 teeth – bottom two have been in for awhile now. One of the top two is pretty much in and the other has broken through the skin. He is drooling all of the time, so I'm sure more are on the way.

*I will be writing monthly updates of Jack with pictures of Jack and the Tonka truck on the 11th of each month. One Month Old. Two Months Old. Three Months Old. Four Months Old. Five Months Old. Six Months Old. Seven Months Old. Eight Months Old. Nine Months Old. Ten Months Old.