My Baby is turning into a Toddler!

My child is entering into toddlerhood.  He has been standing on his own for a month now.  Matt got to see his first step unassisted when I went hunting one night.  Now he can stand up in the middle of the floor and he takes 3-5 steps at a time.  Yesterday we were in his room.  I was sitting on the floor and he was several feet from me.  He stood up and looked at me with a look of pure excitement as if to say, "Watch out mom, here I come!"  He took 5 steps before falling into my arms.  He was so proud of himself and it goes without saying how proud I am. 

He's also finally getting the hang of the sippy cup.  We've tried many times in the past months, but he is just now starting to like it.  He'll even sit in his highchair and hold it himself.  The proud moment of today was when he figured out the shape sorter.  He was playing on the floor while we ate lunch and Matt looked down to see him putting the square block through the correct hole.  He sat there for several minutes dropping the blocks through the holes. 

Picasa

I just realized I didn't post pictures at all in October.  Not sure how that happened.  We did have other things to think about.  Sorry.  Here are a bunch from October and some from November.

http://picasaweb.google.com/matt.claire.wall/JamesOctober2010#

http://picasaweb.google.com/matt.claire.wall/JamesNovember2010#

Tooth Race Update

Earlier today I said James has 4 teeth with one on the way.  I lied.  Not intentionally or anything, I just didn't know.  I've been watching one trying to come in on the top to the right of his teeth.  Today he smiled really big at me and showed me another tooth I didn't even know was about to come in.  It's on the bottom to the right of his other teeth.  Yay, we win the tooth race again!

Another cute story that happened today:  James loves the camera.  He poses and smiles when we try to take his picture now.  Several times Gigi or I have tried to take a candid shot of him, but when he hears the camera, he turns around and poses.  Today I tried taking pictures of him standing for everyone to see, but he was not cooperating.  He came to get the camera and I got several close up shots of his teeth instead.  I tried hiding it from him and he crawled all over me trying to find it.  He loves that camera. 

Whew!

Time is flying by.  James is doing great.  After the cath came out (almost a month ago) he is much happier.  He is healing great.  And you have to look very closely to see the rabbit bite.  We go back to Austin next week for a follow up visit with the surgeon. 

James is keeping us very busy.  He loves standing up and letting go.  He'll stand on his own for 30 seconds at least.  Matt says he took his first step unassisted one night that I went hunting and left them at home.  Here are a few fun stats:

favorite toys:  play piano, daddy's shoelaces, plastic spoons, the big lion

favorite things to do:  stand up, fall down, open and close doors, go outside

milestones: sits, crawls, pulls up, cruises, stands on his own, self feeds finger foods, holds bottle (finally), signs "milk" when he wants more of anything, says mama and dada, waves and says bye-bye, has 4 teeth and working on one more. 

food:  holds his own bottles, still doesn't like sippy cups, eating baby food and cereal very well now, loves cheerios and puffs, slowly trying out our foods

His first Thanksgiving is coming up soon.  I can't believe it is already here.  We will be going to Virginia for Christmas this year.  25 hours in a car with a one year old, yay.  We'll spread the driving over 3 days and hopefully do most of it at night.