eleven

ollie d. is eleven months old today! (yes, i know that twelve comes after eleven, and i know what twelve months equals, but we still aren't discussing that.)

i love this age. he is crawling and standing and pulling everything out of the cupboards and jabbering to himself all day long. he snuggles his face into his blankie when he is tired and wrestles with me when he's not. (really. if i lay on the ground to play with him, he climbs all over me.) his nudie tendancies continue; as soon as his diaper is off he rolls over and crawls away from me as fast as he can, turning around periodically to laugh and then crawl faster. i went to a friends baby shower last night (her little guys weighs almost six pounds and i cannot believe ollie was smaller than that once!), and when i left, ollie was crawling around the apartment naked. brian said he spent a half an hour like that before he put him to bed. it is becoming apparent that he has his daddy's sleep genes; ten to eleven hours straight is not uncommon and i am loving it.  his babbles are starting to sound like words, mama & dada & bob bob bob being his most favourite. the other night after family prayer, he said "amen!" it was the cutest. he is curious and observant. he is really starting to blossom socially. i have left him for quite a few hours a couple of times, with brian & with friends. he does so well! he is really warming up to our friends and it's so cute to watch him with them. he's started to copy us, pointing his little fingers at objects in a book the same way we do. when he's looking at his books on his own, he turns the pages and chats away. it makes my heart so happy to see him becoming a little reader.

and now, a couple photos from the past month!

a few weeks ago, i was wiping him down after dinner (as you can see from the above photos, he gets pretty messy when he's eating). he was watching the water run from the faucet and climbed right into the bathroom sink. i pulled him out once but he slid right back in. who am i to ruin his fun? he loved feeling the water run over his hands and i loved watching him learn.

i was sharing my smoothie with him while he was taking a bath. look at his eyebrows! such a lady killer, with his smoothie mustache.

i just snapped this picture this morning. can someone please tell me why my baby looks like he's seven years old?

we love you, ollie! happy eleven months!