11 Months--You've Got to be Kidding

Dinobaby loves the splashing
p.s. what an awesome--little mid-air water spheres

Dinobaby is 11 months... which really just means now I can tell people how old he is using normal people units. Weird. Almost a year. Dinobaby has grown so much this month.

I want it so bad

Language: Sometimes (infrequently) he says Mama. He is also pseudo signing More and all done, but mostly he says Whaa! and gestures with his hand towards what he wants. For the more linguistically inclined among you, Dinobaby can make the following phonemes: Ba, Da, Ma, Na, Guh, Ff, Ng, Thu, Vvvvvvv, a very gutteral Kah, Aaa, Ooo, uh, eh, and wah.

He very obviously comprehends more words than he can say/gesture, i.e. his name, Daddy, and look.

Yeah nesting rings!

Also, not sure where else to put this so I guess I'll put it here. Leopleuradon can also sing. It is really, really cute. Like he'll wake up in the middle of the night and sing to himself for a few minutes before falling asleep. They are only two-note phrases, but still awesome. For the music geeks, usually they're major third jumps back and forth, or every once in a while perfect fifth slides. He usually does this loudly at church during hymns ("oh, yeah, singing! I can do that! OooooooOooo!") or he'll do it quietly along with me when I sing to him at naptime. Oh man. Cuteness.

Gross Motor: Hand-eye coordination is here with a vengeance. Or at least a desire to be coordinated anyway. Dinobaby loves to put things in and out of bigger things. Egg and cup, nesting rings, socks out of the laundry basket, legos in their tray, and you know, a pot lid in a skillet.... He also loves to clap.

He's also getting much better on his feet. He can stand independently for almost a minute if he's concentrating. He also walks much faster holding our hands than he did before, and every once in a while he'll venture a step when he's only holding on with one hand. He pulls up and walks on his tip-toes to explore the edge of the desk.

Fine Motor: Dinobaby has been on a big book reading, page turning kick. He's getting really good at separating the pages and lifting flaps--using the inferior pincer grasp (side of index finger instead of the pad). He points with his index finger at different things in the book and grunts  random syllables so he is starting to isolation movement in each finger. At naptime he often plays with his hands, flapping his fingers shut over his palm. And, he can sort of roll a toy car across the floor, showing wrist control. So pretty fabulous fine motor skills

He looks so old here--plus look, visible hair!

Sleep: Oh my lucky stars! Dinobaby is almost sleeping through the night. He now goes to sleep around 6:30-7pm and only wakes up once, no dreamfeed or nothing, sometime between 4:30 to 6:30, and wakes up really at 7-7:30. It's awesome! I've also stopped fighting the naps, and now I just take Dinobaby's morning nap with him (sacrifices must be made *wink*) and lie down with him in the afternoon and write letters or work on writing projects from the bed.

Hello, I'm adorable.

Miscellany: Dinobaby really loves marshmallows-which essentially ruins him for real food for the rest of the day. He's not going to see another marshmallow for a long time. It is impressive how willful he became over them. He's going to be one awesomely driven toddler. P.S. anyone know how to start teaching social graces like please and thank you and not completely freaking out while waiting for dinner to get cut up? Right now the fake-cry whining is kinda cute, but I have no idea how to prevent it from becoming super obnoxious toddler crocodile tears I also don't want to be unrealistic though, he is a pre-verbal baby.