11 months

Kevin turned eleven months old yesterday! He is learning and growing in all sorts of ways.

• He likes to wave hi to us (although not always to other people).
• He has been crawling for real for a while now, but sometimes he still reverts to his army-crawling ways when it's convenient (meaning he wants to move fast or be sneaky).
• He's also becoming more willing to walk with help, but isn't too interested in balancing by himself.
• Lately he has been really interested in the metal silverware and the dishes that Mommy and Daddy use and sometimes insists on having his own. We got into a habit of having dinner after he went to bed because it was easier to deal with it without him begging for attention, but now I'm trying to get back into the habit of having dinner ready in time that K can have some of whatever we're having in a bowl of his own. Chopped and cooked potatoes, carrots, and zucchini have been a big hit recently.
• He's also really taken off with the whole sippy cup thing. For quite a while there, I was afraid he would never figure it out, but now he will drink out of one for a long time, as in, a really long time, and he does it by himself. The first sippy cups I bought were the cheap plastic Kroger brand ones because I figured that would save me some money, but soon I realized that what I really needed were the nicer ones with the handles on each side, even if they were more expensive. Next time I'm just going to get what I want the first time.
• It's so interesting to watch his mind working. Yesterday morning he had a cheerio caught between his pinky and ring finger, and he held up his hand so he could get a good look at it, carefully contemplating what would be the best method of retrieving it, before grabbing it with his other hand. Not too long ago, he couldn't have done that!
• He's also figured out how to bonk things against his head, and he thinks it's hilarious.
• He loves opening and closing drawers and taking out whatever is inside. For example:

How could I be mad when I came in and saw him having such a good time pulling piles of shirts out of his drawers and shrieking with glee? All I could do was laugh.

Yesterday he was playing with his toys and I turned to see the sweetest expression on his face. He had his little mirror and he was staring into it, completely thrilled, with shining eyes. Hey, I'm in love with him too, so how can he help being in love with himself? : ) Unfortunately, I actually didn't catch the look on camera, but these are still pretty cute.

No, a flower hasn't grown on that patch of carpet yet. Then again, Kevin's attention span isn't long enough for him to stare at his own adorable image long enough for him to turn into a flower. I think he was just excited to see another little person. We need to invite more friends over for play dates.

Apparently my sisters think I need to post more pictures and videos, so here's enough to keep you occupied for quite a while.

Pictures:

What? He figured out how to climb up the gate? Well, no. He got a little help from Daddy. But his upper body strength is quite impressive, isn't it?

He used the footstool next to the exersaucer to climb up on top of it. I was quite impressed with his ingenuity.

And lots of videos. I always have mixed feelings about uploading videos, because I'm afraid they'll be boring and people will think I should be ashamed of myself for posting several minutes of nothing but Kevin eating bread (or shrieking). Hey, it doesn't feel like four minutes while I'm doing the video. But I know my family likes them, so . . . I'm going to do it. Shameless, I know. These are several of the movies from the past couple of months that I either haven't gotten around to posting or couldn't post because I couldn't find the movie button (which, it turns out, is only on the old blogger interface). Have fun watching if you're so inclined. (Those who get my blog emailed to them will have to go to the actual blog to watch.)

Top left video: Kevin kicking. That's all.
Top right: Eating an apple. It's pretty cute about 3 minutes in when he figures out how to bonk it against his head.
Middle left: Hanging out in his bedroom.
Middle right: This is to give you an idea of what I put up with all day (and why my videos are far from perfect). Pretty fun!
Bottom left: Pretty boring, but I still think it's cute. Skip through if you want. It's just Kevin eating bread. But someday he'll have better manners and I will probably want some kind of record of how cute he was when he ate. He's really good at feeding himself.
Bottom right: Sometimes he thinks he will die if he doesn't eat his food this way. He has to get his hands into the mush. But then he gets frustrated because he can't grab anything, so I have to put cheerios in so he can still grab something. You can imagine what happens when he takes out his hands and waves them around, which often happens. And I thought meals were messy before!