11 Months

Dax is 11 months old. The craziest thing about that is not how fast the past month has gone (though, as usual, I find myself wondering how another month could possibly have passed), but that we are one short month away from having a one year old. Soon, we will be talking about his age with a new unit. A year. Yikes! I am going to savor the next few weeks while he is still only months old.

Big boy rocking by himself

His eleventh month brought some more big changes and each one pushes away his baby features a little bit more. The most notable is in his language. He chatters more than ever and will repeat many of the things we say with almost-shocking accuracy. Words that he will consistently say and/or mimic include Mama, Dada, Bye-Bye, Hi, Uh-Oh, EIEIO (while singing Old MacDonald), and some animal sounds. He started with growling like his tiger and now thinks all animals growl. We are slowly breaking him of that and he will imitate a cow, sheep, and donkey fairly regularly. It is so fun to see his growth!

In addition to his verbal communication, he started to point this month and it is really nice to understand what he wants. Now we just need to work on not pointing at everything. :)

He also acts more like a big boy during other parts of his day. He no longer army crawls, but gets his tummy up and cruises everywhere on all fours. He pulls up on everything taller than himself, walks along tables and chairs, and will occasionally let go and take a few steps. He has (thankfully) gotten more cautious and will not take off unless he feels really stable. He is not cautious on the stairs, though, and, after his first attempt, easily takes the entire staircase whenever he wants to. We are sure he'll be walking soon.

Crawling to peek at Grandpa Olson

Checking out the backyard

A few weeks ago we started giving him more tastes of our dinners and other finger foods for snacks. He very quickly preferred to feed himself versus being fed so we transitioned to almost all table food now. He loves it and is such a good eater!

Finally, this month brought on a few exciting experiences:
His first time in his Pack and Play ball pit...

It is so fun to play with all these balls!

And even more fun to throw them out!

His first Christmas...

His second haircut...

And putting away some of his "baby" toys, which he realized he LOVES once we were getting them ready to store

Happy 11 months little bug! We are more amazed, in love, and proud of you every day.