Ash - 11 months!

Can you believe I'm almost a year old!?  I'm such a big boy :)  I'm wearing mostly 12 mo clothes with just a few 9 mo things still mixed in.  I'm so excited to start passing my clothes (back) to Aunt Lindsey for the baby boy growing in her belly; I got most of them from her after Elijah had outgrown them.  When momma measured me today I weighed 16.6 lbs (1st %) and am 29.25" tall (47th %).

Momma finally got smart and put me on the floor with a book to keep me safe & still for pictures

It has been a busy month around here!  When Nanoo came to visit, I was very sick with roseola (also known as 3-day fever), but got better in time for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner with the whole family.  Unfortunately momma forgot to take any pictures of me and Nanoo, so you'll have to wait till next month after we get some at Christmas.

As you can see, I've blossomed in the tooth department.  I went from one to six in just over a month.  Whew, glad that's done for now.  Since I've got more teeth now, momma's letting me eat more and more finger foods.  Here's a picture of me having my first "big boy meal" with no puree, just eggs and pears and waffles.

I've also been working on getting up and around.  I love to cruise the furniture or pull up to standing so I can reach things that used to be too high for me to grab.  I finally figured out which cabinets are unlocked in the kitchen and love emptying them out and playing with the pots and pans while momma cooks food for us.  Sometimes I even climb into the empty cabinet. 

This was before I opened and emptied the other side too!

I've also had a couple brave moments in the past couple weeks that momma just barely caught on camera - pardon the blurry quality.  I climbed up a couple stairs one day last week, and this weekend I let go and turned around at the couch : look, ma, no hands!!  

I've also been working on my verbal skills.  I've had an obsession with clocks most of the month, and I make momma laugh when we're anywhere and I point at a clock and "tick tock".  I found one on a book at the library and momma told me that's a small clock you wear on your wrist called a watch.  I'm gonna have to get one of those when I get older!  In addition to my "tick tock", I've also been working on lots of other words.  Sometimes I get the sounds right and sometimes I don't, but it's fun to try.  I've been reading a lot of books to build my vocabulary too; it's been one of my favorite past-times in conjunction with naming everything I can.  Momma even put a couple big books in my toy basket for me to play with anytime I want since they're too big for me to get to my mouth.

Look, momma; I LOVE bananas!

Last week Rylee-girl stopped coming to stay with us (she has a nice aunt who wants to take care of her now), so momma and I had lots of time to see friends and run errands.  Wednesday was the Christmas party at daddy's work, so momma and I went to hang out and eat with them.  Some of the ladies had funny hats they let me try on.  I really liked looking at myself in the mirror with those silly antlers on my head.  It was a fun time and I got passed around to lots of the folks daddy works with.

Then on Friday, momma's friend Mindy came to visit.  She used to live here and moved away a month before I was born, so I was excited to meet her.  Unfortunately we waited till it was past nap-time to take pictures, so I was too tired to give a really good smile by then.  Also, I went Saturday night with momma to walk around the neighborhood and look at Christmas lights.  I have ALWAYS loved lights, but since we're traveling this year momma only put up one little decoration that lights up.  She said next year maybe we'll have a tree with lights on it and possibly even lights on the outside of the house too; that sounds fun!!

So that's been my month.  Busy and full of development.  And the upcoming month is going to be even busier!!  We're leaving Friday to fly on an airplane to GA to spend a week with Lola & Granddad and Great Grandma & Great Grandpa.  Then we're going to drive to NC to spend a week with Nanoo & PopPop and Uncle John at the timeshare.  I might also get to see some other family and friends while we're there.  Then after a that crazy two weeks we'll hop back on an airplane to come home.  And by then I'll be less than 2 weeks from turning ONE YEAR OLD!  I can't wait to share pictures next month of all the fun I have between now and then.

Until next time... I'm watching you!!