He's 11-Months-Old. A Month Ago, he was 10-Months-Old.

I'm behind on blogging. Sorry. But here I am ready to record Gideon's 10th and 11th month birthdays.

The past couple of months have come with a bunch of milestones for my little one. It's awesome to watch him grow. It seems like things are happening faster for him than they did for Caleb (at least motor skills-wise, the Gideon is still bald and almost toothless). People tell me that's because Gideon has Caleb to emulate. Whatever the case may be, I wish the kid would SLOW down just a little bit. He's becoming less of a baby by the day and that is bittersweet.

So during month 9 (between October 12th-November 12th) Gideon started crawling on all-fours as opposed to his favored army-crawl. He also started pulling up to standing. I walked into his room one day after his nap and there he was looking like this:

   Yes, of course I lowered the mattress after realizing he mastered this skill.

Note the proud smile.

Midnight snack? (I know he's not doing anything
special here but I thought it was cute.)

The same month marked the eruption of his first tooth and then almost immediately, his second tooth. Finally! I was beginning to think the kid might need dentures. You have to look closely but you can see them here.

Two bottom teeth.

Gideon at 10 months.

Now, month 10 through 11 (we're talking November 12th-December 12th, is this confusing anyone else but me?) was eventful too. It wasn't long (as in only several days after pulling up) before Gideon started cruising. Then those two bottom teeth were two real-deal teeth, not just little nubs. See?

He looks a BUNCH like Matt here.

Gideon celebrated his first Thanksgiving and Matt somehow convinced me to allow Gideon to have some pumpkin pie (perhaps my neurosis is waning). He was very into the pie. It was actually really cute to watch him anticipate each bite. He seemed to enjoy the turkey as well. A couple weeks later, he had his first PB & J and loved it. It was only about a quarter of a sandwich torn into small pieces but he was all about it. He's becoming more adept at eating in general and has started to eat a bit more solid food. He still much prefers what my body serves up and nurses quite a bit. That's fine by me. It's cheaper than solid food, less messy, and it's served with a side of snuggles. Not to mention the perfectly balanced nutritional content, immune system boosters, and the other countless benefits. Can't really beat that.

Gideon's temper has definitely started to show itself recently. His disdain for diaper changes continues and as he gets older and stronger, it becomes markedly more difficult to control his thrashing during said diaper changes. He's also a screamer. When he doesn't get what he wants (picture crawling baby going toward dangerous object and dangerous object being swept up before he gets to it) or when he's done being in the carseat or highchair, he lets us know. Loud and clear.

While we haven't spent nearly the amount of time signing with him as we did with Caleb, our lazy attempts have begun to pay off. He seems to have the "all done" sign down, or at least his version of it.

He babbles a lot and pays very close attention to everything his brother does. This could prove scary when Gideon is more able to imitate Caleb's behavior. He still likes playing with things that spin and roll and he enjoys being turned upside down and being tossed gently into the air. He also now lets go of things after pulling up and can stand on his own for several seconds at a time.

Here's Gideon's 11-month picture. He looks like a toddler already, doesn't he? Ah! Stop growing up so fast baby boy!

Gideon at 11 months.

And in case you're wondering how Caleb is with Gideon now that Gideon is older and more present around the house (i.e. interested in Caleb's toys and food). This picture pretty much sums up what a day in the life of Gideon is like:

Gideon's expression is priceless!

Outsourcing

Caleb becomes more and more clever as the days pass. Recently, he decided to outsource one of his tasks. He had just finished naughtily tossing bits of cheese all over the floor. My response of course was to tell him that this is unacceptable behavior and that his options were to either pick up the cheese or to have a time out. He dutifully got out of his chair and knelt down with me as I directed him to each cheese crumb and instructed that he pick it up and put it in the nearby bowl. After retrieving about three cheese bits and depositing them in the aforementioned bowl, he looks up and says, "Mommy do it," to which I tell him I will not be cleaning up his mess, that he must do it. During this exchange, Gideon has crawled his way over to us. Caleb looks up at me a second time, places a piece of cheese strategically in Gideon's path and says, "Baby eat it." While not the most compliant response to my directions, Caleb did derive two logical solutions to his predicament. I suppose I should be proud.