A Brand New Year

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Welcome to 2009!

J was in bed at the normal time last night, but C, my mom and I managed to stay up until midnight. Had some champagne, well actually it was sekt, the German version of sparkling wine, and called it a night.

J has been home 8 weeks now! It will be two calendar months on Monday. Amazing to me as I reflect back on his time home with us.

Recent developments and J-isms:
He loves to open and close doors, well anything really. Drawers, cabinet doors, room doors, parts of toys that open and close. He actually knows which is "open" and which is "close" also.

Independent steps are becoming more frequent. Nana got him to walk 8 whole steps without falling over yesterday by holding out a toy he wanted just out of reach. Well, it was walk walk pause, walk walk walk pause, etc. When he wants to get to something fast though, it is down to all fours and zoom away by crawling.

He is an expert stair crawler (supervised) and seems to enjoy the accomplishment of making it to the top. We're working on trying to get him to learn how to go down the stairs by sliding on his belly.

His favorite book is Colors with Albert and Amy which has a color wheel to turn and match to each page. Second favorite would have to be Goodnight Gorilla. His favorite toy is the piano Granma(--) and Grandad got him for Christmas, though the activity table to stand up at, his telephone, and one of his large cars are all close seconds.

"Hello? Hello?"

For fine motor skills, the pincher grasp is going great. He sort of points, more of a gesture with one hand really. Still working on clapping hands and putting blocks together though.

He has started to share. He offers C or I something he is holding, or eating, and we promptly offer it right back to him.

He has started to refuse most pureed foods and prefers to feed himself. He tends to spit back out anything too smooth for his tastes out either side of his mouth. He wants to chew!

Both of his top two teeth came in by Christmas, so he is up to a total of 4.

He is still about the same weight and height. I will do an "official" measurement on his 11 month birthday coming up soon.

He says mama and dada, but not always do they consistently refer to C and I. In addition to "ah", he also says "aye" (I), "ai" (as in wait), and "uh". Consonants include m, n, d, b, hard g and an occasional k.

I guess that is it for now. We took a couple of videos yesterday of him walking with his favorite push-toy and opening and closing a door. I'll try to post a bit of them later today.