Eleven Months Old
Marcus will be eleven months old on Wednesday. This is impossible for me to comprehend, since eleven months is indisputably close to a year. A year? My baby will be a year old? Even in the midst of planning his first birthday party, it doesn't begin to make sense to me. A lot of people are making a big deal of the fact that he "technically" (really? really technically? "technically"?) becomes a "toddler" rather than a "baby" at one, but I'm not convinced--he's my baby, and he's been toddling around (not really walking, but I think the meaning of toddling does apply here) for a little while now. He can stand unsupported for a long time--5-10 minutes, even--but has yet to really take any actual steps without support. Still, he just holds on casually with one hand--sometimes even just a finger or two--when he does cruise around the living room, so walking is just a matter of time. Meanwhile, he's a champion-fast crawler, and boy, does he still love his electronics!
Marcus started twittering, too, this month--follow him if you like.
Above, three shots in a sequence: baby sees phone and gets happy; Robert lets him touch it and he's happier; baby gets to hold phone and crawl around and is happiest.
Anyway, I'm not sure how much my baby weighs, but he still is happily wearing Size 3 diapers, though he's on the border of clothes sizes--some 6-month things still fit him well, and some got too skimpy, while 12-month onesies fit fine and 12-month pants are incredibly long and have to be cuffed up many times. He can amuse himself and play with his toys for an hour or so if you're in the same room--you can be talking, reading, whatever, and he'll be nearby but very happily playing. He's so independent! Typically now he nurses until he's almost asleep, then rolls off the breast and cuddles with his stuffed dog, sometimes flopping over and back to find the perfect position, before completely subsiding into sleep a minute or two later.
He started swimming lessons with Robert at the university pool, and he seems to really like them. Robert doesn't like that there's singing in the water--songs about kicking and splashing and going slow and going fast, completely appropriate of course, and there's no way I'm going in just for the singing part, so poor Robert is stuck (I am not a pool person, so their lessons are boy bonding times anyway). Life just moves along--some rainy days, some sunny ones, lots of playtimes and naps and another night and another morning, and I guess that's how the last eleven months have passed. Anyway, enjoy the pictures and videos below--Robert had been observing that our webpages lately are more pictures with a few words than words with a few pictures, and I think that's generally correct (things like trips to Rome excepted, of course); everyone wants to see pictures of our little boy, and I don't mind offering them up.
Marcus loves climbing: he can climb in and out of the Moses basket he used to sleep in (we use it as a toybox now, but he can take everything out and then dive in) and (in the photo above right) in the toy cabinet at Full Moon Restaurant in Cambridge, where he was apparently thrilled to learn that such things as train tables and play kitchens existed. Why were we keeping this information from him? Who knows, really.
Below, on Saturday he enjoyed a day out in the stroller (at left) when we went to the library, got Vietnamese sandwiches in Chinatown, picnicked and watched Robert's softball team (they lost), and then had a nice walk home. On Sunday, after swimming lessons and brunch at Full Moon, he fell asleep in the carseat and let us enjoy a JP Lick's sundae and a quick stroll home (the carseat converts into a mini-stroller--not comfy enough for a whole day out, but a good way of getting back and forth from Zipcars, and, as you can see, comfy enough in a pinch).
And now, some video--first, climbing the stairs at the FitRec Center on the day of his first swimming lesson this month:
Crawling around the dining room one day this month:
Nibbling on some rice, salmon, and edamame pods on Robert's lap on Fourth of July:
Playing on the floor and climbing up Robert's lap on Father's Day in NY back in June:
Playing in the mud at the Park Street picnic back in June: