In Heaven Over 11 - Month Review

I'm starting to sound like a broken record. When I look at the calendar on the 6th of each month I can barely believe my eyes. Another month gone, again? Where does the time go? Here we are on August 6th. Peyton is 11 months old today.

This will come as no surprise to anyone with children, but Peyton is becoming quite the little person each day. He makes me laugh daily with the crazy stunts he pulls. I am surprised at his focus and determination when trying new tasks around the house. Peyton also has the ability to play independently for fairly long stretches at a time. Which is as worrisome as it is amazing to me. Self play usually means trouble. He gets, or tries to get, into EVERYTHING to see how it tastes and works. Did I mention that he is also in constant motion, ALL DAY LONG. So while he's content without my company during these play times, I have to watch him like a hawk!

Or maybe he's the one watching me like a hawk? When I dare concentrate on something other than him and disappear out of sight for even a moment, he'll stop what he's doing, crawl to his toy cubes and tap this music box we have dangling there because I trained him (or maybe he trained me?) to come running at the sound of the music so we can dance together! I find this adorable and funny EVERY time he does it and we do this all day long. I don't have the heart to take it down. I doubt he'd miss it if it was gone, but I would.

Here he is looking for me to dance with him:

Hey, Mom! So you think you can dance?

He also crawls into the office several times a day to play the piano among the hundreds of other highly interesting and totally off limits "toys" to play with in there. It's tough to encourage the pushing of piano keys, but not pushing buttons on computers, printers, phones and whatever else happens to be in this room. Anyway, he can barely reach, but reach he does:

Music to my ears.

We're quite a team, Peyton and I. Together we can get a lot done around the house in twice, no three times the length of time it would take me to do the same chore alone. Usually I end up doing this same task two or even three times over, as well. Yes, teamwork really makes life well, more fun, I guess!

I fold the laundry while Tae Boy unfolds it:

Mommy's little helper. Now, can you put them back in the bag behind you?

I put the dishes away and Kinetic Boy takes them right back out:

Chef Boy aka Tae Boy

Or sometimes, unprompted, he'll just crawl into the kitchen, open the cupboard door and start unloading it all by himself, proudly!

Besides opening and closing doors, he loves to push buttons as mentioned above, he points at things he sees and/or wants which is starting to be helpful communication.

Speaking of communication, I'm trying to use baby sign language with him. If we stick with it, I'm confident he'll catch on eventually. Right now he's too busy to stop, look up and watch me sign. He still lacks the physical control to repeat some of these signs anyway, but we're working on it. I do notice him watching me more and more however, and in recent days he has clearly tried to mimic my words/voice. I guess this is the time to be careful about what you say and do around him. He has learned to say "dada" with purpose, and he says it all day long. He has word recognition for "kitty", "hi" and "bye-bye", "wave" and knows to give a high-5 when you put your hand up to him. Earlier in the week we realized that he also says "anana" for banana. It could just mean food in general, but he always seems to point in the direction of the bananas when he says it.

We've also endured our share of yuck this month: eating the old, dried out carcass of a mystery bug (and that's just one example of something that I actually saw him put into his mouth), our first bout of the 24 hour flu, pooping all over self and the floor just moments after becoming squeaky clean in the bath.

Since I've already lowered myself to toilet talk, here's more. Among the more interesting things going on around our house is the flushing fascination. I certainly didn't think that we would be having these kind of moments quite so early in his life, yet here we are. Peyton loves to try to move the shiny, silver toilet flusher up and down (as of yet, has not been successful). It is with great determination that he reaches up for it too.

Peyton with The Magic Blinds

During these hot days, we've kept the blinds closed. These blinds have become a toy rather than the window covering they actually are (and since new blinds have been ordered and are in route, I don't even care how rowdy he gets with them). I have the most adorable video footage of this game, but haven't taken the time or energy to figure out how to upload a video. Still, you get the idea of the kind of blinds these are and can pretend to be a curious and joyful 11 month old. Yes, blinds = endless entertainment.

It's hard to believe the kind of life changing, mind blowing, heart throbbing stuff this kiddo has brought to our life in just a few short months. I'm glad I blog because I don't feel confident in my memory of these past several months. Someday I'll enjoy rereading these posts to relive the good old days. In the present however, the count continues: 11 down, 1 more month to go until the big first birthday!