Livin' the Dream: 11 Months!

Henry is 11 months old today! We can sum up his 11th month of life in one word: ACTIVE. This kid doesn't stop and is pretty much all boy. We can also say he's officially walking as of today. He's been working on standing and taking a few steps for about a week, but today he's been taking off on his own all morning, seeming to finally choose it over crawling, and is going back and forth between us in 8-10 steps at a time.

This has been a pretty amazing week in his development overall. He started clapping on Monday, and stacking cups like a boss (including crossing midline!) this weekend. That taken together with the walking and never-ending curiosity means exhausted parents, too! We can tell his brain is on overdrive especially around 4 am when he wakes up and just wants to be awake. Probably hard to turn that thing off when so much is happening.

We had a wonderful trip to Michigan last weekend, including a wedding and time at the cabin. Henry did really well on both plane rides, even the first one we almost missed, which resulted in Henry sitting on my lap in a middle bulkhead seat with Daddy a few rows back. The flight attendants even remarked at how well-behaved he was. He was also an exemplary wedding guest, sleeping through the ceremony until woken up by applause for the newly announced married couple, when he started waving as if the applause was for him. He rode on the boat at the cabin (again, sleeping through most of the experience) and spent a lot of time in the pool. It was a very relaxing vacation, and we had some great quality time with Great Grandma, Gramma, Grandpa, and Aunt Molly.

Henry has 7 teeth now, all four on the bottom and three on top. It seems like he is always teething at this point, but some days are better than others. He is doing a lot of babbling, and mixing consonant sounds pretty regularly. He seems to have different words for the cats and dog, and sometimes he seems to say "up" when he wants up. He enjoyed playing the piano at Gramma's house, and dances to music. He is one of the smiliest babies in the world, and loves to be tickled and play games. He eats pretty much everything and would love if it the animals would let him into their worlds. Oh, and opening and closing doors can provide hours of entertainment. Now the countdown to one year begins!