11 Months!

Wow - I can't believe there is only one month left until Eddie turns 1!  Although, at the same time, he is definitely growing like crazy.  Here are some highlights from the past month:

• Walking - I would definitely say that we have a walker in the house.  He still prefers to crawl if he wants to get somewhere quickly, but he also really likes to stand and hold on to things to walk around.  Every day he is getting more confident and tries to walk further on his own without holding onto anything.  He likes to hold on to our hands, but this month he has graduated to just holding on to one of our hands.  I like to have him walk as much as possible to tire him out!  He also likes using his walker and is getting much better about steering around corners.
• Sleeping - It's always a topic for parents.  I am happy to say that for the most part, things are going well in this department.  We had some long nights when he had his ear infection, but he's back to normal.  He still goes to bed around 6 and usually wakes up around 5 am.  We change his diaper and on good days can get him to sleep until 7 am - yay!  Some mornings he'll just wake up at 6 and then he's up for the day.  He still takes two naps (which this Mama loves!)
• The dog - Poor Sammy!  Eddie still LOVES Sammy.  A lot!  He also loves Sammy's toys.  He tries to give Sammy his toys, but Sammy usually doesn't want much to do with that.  They still play and Sammy does like to chew his rawhide bones around Eddie, but Eddie likes to take them, taste them, and give them back to Sammy.  Sammy's pretty tolerant and will come hang out with us, but he doesn't like Eddie reaching for him.  One thing that Eddie does love is when Sammy licks his head.  Eddie just laughs and laughs!
• Communication - Eddie hasn't shown any interest in learning sign language.  I try, but he could care less.  He still won't clap his hands either, but he will hold to blocks or balls and bang them together, so I know that he has the capability to do so.  He has a good understanding of what we are saying now.  He knows what I mean when I say "diaper change", "upstairs", "night-night", "That toy is Sammy's, give Sammy the toy", "walker", "time to eat", "bottle", "water", "books" and the list goes on.  He definitely can let us know when he wants something - he's good at reaching out and making an "eehhh-eehh" sound.  Of course it doesn't help when I have no idea what exactly it is.  
• Playing - He's really starting to take an interest in his toys.  Many things that he received for Christmas, he is just now starting to figure out.   He still likes reading books.  He likes to take objects out of bags/containers, hand them to you or bang them together and then place them back into the bag or container.  He's into sharing and often will hand over toys to Uncas and I after he has inspected them.
• Food - He's still a fairly good eater, but lately he's starting to drop things on the floor on purpose.  Sometimes I think it's because he wants a clear highchair tray and other times I think it's because Sammy is hanging out below waiting for something.  He also prefers to eat what we are eating (if we are eating the same time as him).  When we go out to restaurants he is still fairly well behaved.  There are so many distractions to keep him occupied which really helps.  

It's still hard to take his monthly picture.  Thank goodness there is only more month left (I am stopping these monthly updates after 12 months).  Here are the ones I tried to capture yesterday.