With less than 3 weeks until my baby turns 1 (Eek! Is it really true?!), I figured an update was well overdue; though I will try to get another up to let everyone know how his big day goes.
Ryan wrote the last update, but left out all the big developmental milestones, so here is the update. He started taking steps 2-3 at a time right when he hit 7 months and 1 month later, right at 8 months, started walking across the room. Needless to say, he's a pro now. We're now onto climbing- yippee!
He has quite the vocabulary so far, which includes: mama, dada, hi, hey, bye, ducky, doggie, eyes, yeah, yes, no, down, more, done, and all done. There might be more, but those are the ones that come to mind right off, because he uses them most frequently. He'll also put together short sentences, his favorite being Hi daddy, when he sees Ryan in the morning or when he comes home from work.
He recognizes many of his body parts now and will point to and play with them when you ask him where they are. He knows his mouth, eyes, nose, ears, belly button (he loves sticking his finger in it), fingers, toes, and tongue, which he'll also stick out if you ask him what a lizard or giraffe does (we had to come up with something for them since they don't make a noise). He'll also give you five if you tell him to.
He also likes to imitate sounds now. He loves to bark when he sees or hears a dog and he makes a train noise, complete with his version of the whistle, every time a train goes by our house or he's playing with a toy train. Speaking of whistling, he went through a phase where he liked to whistle (I didn't know it was possible for a baby to whistle), but he seems to be past that for now. He also REALLY loves to read books, which is something he and his daddy do every night before bed. He also likes to dance and sing along when he hears music. He has a little toy piano that he'll turn on with a back beat and then play, stop to dance, play some more, stop to dance, and so on.
He still has a great love of food and insists on being able to feed himself now. He's pretty much had everything now, including nut products, with no signs of any allergies- yea! He also likes to drink out of a big boy cup (no lid or straw) at meal times. We of course still use the sippy cup for just around the house. Also helping feed his big appetite are his 9 teeth. His first molar broke through not too long ago, with another one and a canine looking to be close behind. (I must say, it was a nice break from teething while it lasted- molar teething = fussy baby).
For play time he likes to play on his Tonka truck, which he can climb on and off of by himself and push himself around. He also likes to dribble (kick) his ball around the room. He'll literally do laps around the room doing a very controlled kick. We'll start with soccer, maybe it will develop into football :). His most recent accomplishment is blowing out a candle. We've been trying to get him ready for his birthday, and he seems to have it down pretty well. Hopefully he'll be able to perform with a bunch of people standing around.
As of his last check up (back at 9 months) he was almost 31 inches long and nearly 22lbs. That's just over 50% for weight, but over 95% for height. Gee, I wonder who he got his height from?! :P. Needless to say, he's already in 18 month clothes, looking to be in 24 month by summer. He's also pretty close to outgrowing the size 5 shoes he started wearing at Christmas. Two months! 3 pairs of shoes for only 2 months!! He needs to slow down! On the up side for him, we broke the law and turned his car seat around to face forward when he hit 10 months, which he has the size for, but not the age (1yr). We figure he's bigger than your average 15 month old and on par with them developmentally too, so we're pretty sure he's ok. I really doubt a cop would question his age if they saw him, considering his size.
The final thing I can think of is that it looks like we're going to have a little lefty. I've read that as early as 6-7 months or usually by 8-10 months you can notice a preference, and he definitely tends to favor his left. Oh yeah, and he loves to give hugs and kisses. (although at the moment he's going through the mommy phase, but usually he'll hug and kiss anyone).
So that's 5 months of Carter updates. I will REALLY try to get another up shortly after his birthday. In the mean time- God Bless!
