11 month old James

James' big birthday is right around the corner.  I wanted to make note of things he's done this month before the ultimate milestone occurs.  He took his first steps right before he turned 11 mos.  He is now taking 5 or 6 repeatedly with no problem.  The funny thing is that he'll get excited after a few and kind of jump or do a little dance which of course makes him lose his balance.  He is still very proud of himself and pretty frequently claps afterward.  Clapping is a skill that he's picked up in his 11th month.  He's a late clapper, and although I wasn't worried, I was excited when he finally started to do it because it's just so cute.  James likes it when one person claps for him, but if Charlton and I both clap for him then he usually cries- too much pressure, I guess.  That should make his first birthday party interesting.

James has recently formed an opinion about what food he likes, but he is still a pretty good eater.  He signs  "more" and "all done." Although, sometimes he'll do them both and then clap which is a little confusing.  He can also say "more" which sounds like "mo;" he usually only says it if he really likes what he's eating and wants to get my attention.  He is saying da da now and this week sounds like he's "talking" with inflection.  Today, he started saying, "ma MA," because he was mad that I took something away from him and then later when I closed a door.

He is about ready to drop his morning nap- only wants it now occasionally but after a few days needs it because he's so tired from not having it.  I'm not sad that he'll be down to one nap because it will certainly be nice to have the morning open for errands and play dates and trips to the zoo.  Of course, this month I planned all of our activities (Steven's swim lessons, etc.) around James needing a morn nap- little stinker.  Just when you think you've got them figured out...

 James is still happy as ever and good natured.  He loves playing especially with Steven, but also is very good entertaining himself.  He loves to explore as did Steven but in a different way.  He always seems to be after something in particular, where as Steven was just curious and would clean everything out of a cabinet or shelf before looking at it.  James usually likes to open the cabinet or browse the shelf and then remove one thing before closing the door.  Then, sometimes he'll even open it and put the thing back.  Funny.

He has been getting very mad about the baby proofing restrictions in the house.  We've now baby proofed all cabinets and keep several doors (master bed, laundry, pantry) closed at all times.  If one of them is opened, he makes a mad dash for it and then screams bloody murder when it is closed.   That's actually how he responds to anything he doesn't like now.  It scared us at first because we though he was hurt but now...maybe I need to tell James the story of the boy who cried wolf.  Charlton put the bible story book up on the shelf tonight after we had read it to the boys, and James was mad because he wanted to look at it.  So, he crawled over to the bookshelf, got on his tip toes, and grabbed the book off of the shelf that Charlton thought would be too high for him to reach.  At one point his was on his tip toes on one foot with the other in the air.  Where do our boys get this stubborn determination???

James also loves music and dancing.  He loves it when Daddy pulls out his guitar and lets him strum.

I had my grossest moment yet with James this week when I had to pry a crunchy dead June bug out of his mouth.  They crawl in under the substantial gap at the bottom our front door (our house is not the most energy efficient).  He was laughing and biting my finger the whole time as I was alternately squealing and gagging while putting all the parts out of his mouth.  I check the whole downstairs for June bugs every morning now before he wakes up.