11 Months!

Jack is nearly a year old!  As his birthday is less than a week away(!!!) I guess it's time to get his 11 month update posted!

What is Jack up to this month? 

He's all over the place!  This boy is always on the move during his waking hours!  He's up.  He's down.  He's scooting.  He's back up.  He's trying to bang on the TV with a block.  Uh oh, no more block.  He's down again.  Now he's trying to climb into the window.  He's back down.  He's pulling himself up on the couch/chair/bookcase/coffee table/window sill/TV stand!  He's in the bathroom/bedroom/office/kitchen!  Go! Go! Go!  All the time! 

His favorite thing to do right now is to push things around the family room.  He has a walking toy, a riding/walking toy, and his music table, all of which he loves to push from one side of the room to the other.  He smiles and giggles while doing it.  He's cruising along anything he can steady himself on and I've seen him let go of things and stand freely on his own for a few moments.  Recently, he has started taking steps while holding on to my or Mark's hands.  It is quite an exciting time! 

Jack had a cold last week and experienced a drop in appetite, but this week it's back with a vengeance!  He has had several marathon eating sessions recently where he'll eat for 30-45 minutes at a time!  He's definitely moving away from purees and on to real food and he likes just about anything.  Although, oddly enough he's not feeding himself yet. 

I'm not really sure why that is, but he just doesn't want to.  We encourage him (and have for a while) to feed himself.  We put food on his tray, or try to hand it directly to him, or put it in his hand and put his hand to his mouth, or model feeding ourselves from his tray, but he's just not having any of it.  He loves to smash food and smear it around and throw it, but nothings making it to his mouth yet.  I'm anxious to see what he does with his birthday cake.  It may be the first time he feeds himself, or it may be just another adventure in making a big mess!  We shall see soon! 

He is drinking from a sippy cup now!  So far we've only done water, but we are planning to try milk very soon.  He has also figured out how to spill the water from a spill-proof sippy cup.  One of his favorite activities is to lay on the ground and shake his cup as hard as he can so that it drips all over him.  Sippy shower?  He loves it!  He's so weird...  :)

He still loves playing with the dog and tries to interact with her as much as possible.  Belle usually enjoys the attention and plays along. 

He's starting to become a little more interested in books.  He likes to play with them, and will sit still long enough for me to at least get through part of a story.  He has a touch-and-feel type book that he got for Christmas and he likes to touch the pages as we read. 

He still loves clapping and his new favorite is Peek-a-boo!  He usually does it during meal time and he hides his eyes and giggles when we say "Peek-a-boo!".  He also loves to give high-fives as of late.  We're still working on the waving.  He usually does it at random times rather than when prompted. 

We are in full party planning mode around here as this little boy's first birthday is coming up very soon!