11 Months

Barrett continues to love playing with balls, blocks, and anything that is NOT a toy. But his FAVORITE toys are his books. He will "stand" at his book trough and pull them out one by one, and then he sits down and starts opening them. Most of the time he "reads" them upside down, pointing at the pictures and making noises at them. I love watching him with his books.

"Reading" The Very Hungry Caterpillar

He is also working on standing up. Last week I was talking on the phone, and Barrett was crawling all over me as he tried to grab the phone. I noticed that I didn't feel his hands on me anymore, looked next to me, and saw Barrett standing up on his own! He hasn't done it on his own since then, but the past few days we've been propping him to see how long he will stand on his own while counting "1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi .." The longest we've made it is "6 Mississippi," but he seems to be doing this a little more willingly than even last week. So I think we are getting close!

Barrett has also found his Boogie Shoes. He's started dancing all the time. Sometimes he bounces his legs, and bangs his hands on whatever is in front of him. But his go-to move is the side-to-side swing. He puts his hands down and leans to the left, the right, the left, the right (You get the idea.) Until recently, he was really only doing this in the crawling position. But he's gained some confidence and has started doing it while holding on to the coffee table also.

The big news of the past month (besides the hair cut!) is that Barrett learned to sign "more." We were eating out one day, and Barrett looked right at his dad and started signing "more" because he wanted more Cheerios. I couldn't believe it! All that repetition FINALLY paid off. And then I couldn't believe that Matt got to reap the benefits of all my hard work. For the next few days, Barrett would only sign to Daddy. Now he does it all the time, and I'm pretty certain we are going to run out of food any minute. (And I'm pretty sure he thinks it means food. Baby steps ... I'm just so thrilled that its a form of communication that Mommy instantly understands!)

Just Tell Me When ...

I'm Just Gonna Explore While You Guys Get Ready

Laughing

Things I Don't Want to Forget:

• how his face looks when he gets "too excited" (it includes a deep breath, a huge smile, and a squished up baby face)
• how he chunks whatever is in his hand to his side the second he is done with it
• his big eyes when he signs "more" ... I can't resist it
• the determination to WANT to talk, but he hasn't quite figured out the meanings of words yet
• listening to him babble in the backseat of the car. I wonder who he thinks he's talking to
• when he tries to sing with me when I'm singing him to sleep
• the speed he suddenly picks up when he's crawling to his Daddy when he gets home from work
• how he is obsessed with holding the toys he's playing with on one hand (and how he gets frustrated when he can't do it .. i.e. a ball and a bowl)
• the way it feels when he falls asleep on me
• the baby kisses I've been getting in the mornings

We love you little stinker! Can't believe you are almost 1 year old!