Dexter is 11 Months Old!

That's right. ELEVEN months! I can't believe it, either. If anything, the last month has gone by more quickly than any of the others.

As you can see in the photos, Dexter is as high-energy as ever. It's getting harder and harder to take these pictures, but Dexter is a good sport about it every time.







Let's see. On to the rundown.

• Teeth: Tooth #8 made its way through just a few days after he hit the 10 month mark. It's nice that he has an even set now. Grandma thinks she sees #9 way up in his gums, so it might be a little while before we see another. Dexter has been a real champ about the teething, too.
• Hair: Still no need for a haircut - yay! It's just a tiny bit over his ears, but it's still a long way from being in his eyes. I think we'll make it past his first birthday before he needs a haircut. (Good thing. I can't even get him to sit still long enough to clip all 10 fingernails in one sitting, even with the TV on. I can't imagine how a haircut would work.)
  
• Knees: Doing much better! Since Dexter started walking at 10m11d, he has pretty much abandoned crawling, and we're seeing some improvement in his formerly-rough knees. They're still cute and chunky, though.
  
• Weight: I admit we haven't weighed him recently. I'm still guessing approximately 26 pounds. He's just got so many better things to do now than eat. And he walks everywhere, so he's just a little calorie-burning machine.
  
• Height: Still unknown. We should try to measure the kid. :) We haven't had to adjust the carseat straps, though, so I'm guessing he's not much taller than he was a month or even 2 months ago. He can reach a little higher every day, though. The days of just closing doors to keep him out of places will clearly be coming to an end sooner rather than later.
  
• Sleep: MUCH better in the last couple of weeks! Apparently we were intervening too soon and not giving him a chance to go back to sleep on his own. Most nights, he wakes up once or twice, fusses mildly for about 2 minutes, then goes back to sleep. It'd be nicer (for everyone) if he could sleep solidly through, but this is not bad, either.
• Food: He's basically off of purees now, although we're going to try to use up what we have by treating it as spread for crackers. There's almost nothing he hasn't eaten in the world of table food, and he's willing to try everything. I'm still concerned about the volume of food he's getting (especially as we will be sunsetting the formula within the next 1-2 months or so), because a good chunk of what we give him still ends up on the floor or in his chair or in his clothes or diaper.
  
• Verbal: Working on it. We're still quite diligently reading to him every night (see more below), but he still only babbles. He DOES wave "bye bye" if you say "bye bye." (Finally! We've only been working on that for about six months.) But we're not confident that he understands what it means. He'll also put his arms up for "done" if you say "done." But we don't think he really knows what that means, either. Baby steps.
  
• Gross Motor: A walking (always), climbing (some), grabbing fiend. No issues here.
  
• Fine Motor: Dexter is quite, well, dexterous, at this point. Stacking blocks and nesting cups and boxes is old hat. Pincer grasp is down pat and comes in handy for eating all that table food. I'm not sure we're way ahead of the curve here, but I don't think we're behind.
  
• Books: Holy cow. No literally, his favorite book is about a cow. Her name is Millie Moo, and she is a CRAZY cow! And her friends have gone away. If we help her find them, we'll have fun along the way! Mostly, Dexter likes turning the pages. It's a touchy/feely book, so sometimes he likes to touch and feel the various pages. For a while, his favorite page was the one where the fish have fingers. ("Have you ever wondered/How different things would be/If all the fish had fingers/And WE lived in the sea?" Well, have you?) But now he mostly seems to want to just turn through all of the pages as quickly as possible to get to the end and see the last page. (Spoiler alert: Millie Moo's friends are hiding in the cow shed!)
  
• New Tricks: I mentioned waving "bye bye." In our world, that is HUGE. He's become nearly expert at opening and closing the garage door, and he's starting to figure out the light switches.
• Personality: Still incredibly happy nearly all of the time. I am starting to see signs of frustration when he can't communicate his wants and needs. (Hello?! If you'd just decide to say a word or two or sign something, we'd be happy to accommodate you, kiddo.) I guess this is our introduction to young toddlerhood. But I'm going to pretend it isn't. He's 11 months old and is still a baby, I tell you. MY BABY! And he still charms everyone wherever we go.
  

Dexter Videos

It's been a couple of weeks, so I figured we'd showcase a few cute Dexter videos. His cuteness is pretty irresistible (if I do say so myself), and his sweet baby laughs are contagious. Here's a good one:



Recently, Dexter has taken to playing peek-a-boo with US. Silly baby fools us every time!


And he loves his see-n-say, even if he doesn't *quite* have its intended/proper operation figured out.

Dexter Can WALK!

Today, Dexter took SIX steps all by himself! He is 10 months, 11 days old.

For several days, he's been taking one or two steps, but I felt like we needed at least 4 steps for it to count. Today, he definitely hit that mark.

His Mom and Dad both got to see it, and Granddad turned around in time to catch the last little bit.

Of course there is no video or other evidence of the actual first steps, but a few minutes later we lured him with a donut just to get some video. (We're counting this one as 14 steps.)

Dexter's Inujries

They just keep coming! He'd better get the hang of this walking thing soon, or we're going to be in big trouble.

Between July 20 and August 6, he had a black eye, a bloody nose, TWO separate episodes of being bitten at day care (not his fault, but geez), and now, a bloody lip!


This time, he was just standing up, holding the remote control. He fell backwards onto his cute little butt, and somehow his lip got smooshed between the remote and his teeth. There seemed to be a lot of blood (although a lot was probably spit), and then he rubbed it all over his face, so it looked more like he'd been in a bar fight.

Again, he wouldn't let us near him with ice, but the bleeding stopped quickly, and he's long since moved on with his busy little life.

Here's hoping we can pretty much retire this "injuries" tag now. (ha!)

Dexter is TEN Months Old!

Double-digits! How did that happen?!

Dexter slept in to celebrate his month-i-birthday (~7pm - 8am!) and was all smiles when we did pictures in the morning.



Developmentally, he's making slow but sure progress. Despite our (ok, my) predictions, he is not yet walking, but he is stumbling between people who try to make him walk. :) And, of course, he's standing on his own and babbling more and more. After 5 months of our dedicated efforts, though, he still won't wave bye-bye.

Still, he's about the happiest baby you could ever imagine, despite his streak of injuries. And yes, I'm going to add an "injury" tag, since he now has *another* one - a bite from another child at daycare. They don't tell you who did the biting, but they do tell both sets of parents. I think I know who it was, though, and I can't imagine it was malicious (they are babies, after all). No broken skin, but he has some neat-o teeth marks on his wrist. I just hope I'm not on the other end of a note like that anytime soon (or, you know, ever).



Speaking of teeth, let's go over our list of current Dexter facts, shall we?

• Teeth: Dexter still has only 7, although there is a white spot where #8 will soon be poking its way through. Sometimes I think I can feel a bump, other times not so much.
• Hair: Too much! I can see a haircut in his future, but I'm trying to hold off until October. It's not in his eyes yet, so I think we're OK for a while.
• Knees: Raw, as you can see in the photos above. I keep trying to tell him that his knees would feel better if he'd walk, but he just doesn't listen (or just doesn't care?).
• Weight: 25.4 pounds, fully dressed with diaper. We feed him often, but he really just never stops moving.
  
• Height: Unknown. He's definitely getting taller, but - as one might expect - it's slowing down a bit. He can hook his arms all the way over his crib rail, though, which is something he couldn't do a few weeks ago.
• Sleep: Hit or miss. We had a pretty good month overall, because he wasn't really sick or teething in earnest, but he still often decided he needed a little hug in the middle of the night. Still, we'll take one wake-up over the 15 we were seeing back in February.
• Food: We're moving more and more to table food, but he still loves his purees. Favorite table foods include the usual suspects (bananas and cheerios) but also cantaloupe, donuts (ok, not too many of these), black beans, peas, carrots, corn, green beans, macaroni, and crackers.
• Verbal: He's still got his moments of chattiness, but we haven't yet identified a sound as being tied to a specific thing. We still read to him every night and talk to him all the time (and wrestle him to put hydrogen peroxide in his ears to get/keep them clear of excessive earwax) to make sure we continue making progress in this area.
• Gross Motor: Not much that hasn't already been said. Standing on his own (either positioned or stands himself from a squatting or bent-over position) and stumbling between people.
• Fine Motor: We are seeing continued improvement on the pincer grasp, but I'm not sure it's 100% yet. He's also stacking things and putting nesting cups/boxes within one another. I'm not sure where that fits in the motor development categories, but it's something!
• Books: No new real favorites. We added "That's not my Lion," "That's Not My Monster," and "That's Not My Car" to the repertoire. He still loves the touchy-feely books and will sometimes talk to them at night while we feel the fuzzy parts.
• New Tricks: Not many. Supervising the deck work is taking a lot of concentration.
• Personality: He's still our HAPPY Dexter! Not sure how we got so lucky in that department, but I am not asking too many questions.

Dexter's First Bloody Nose

Ever since last summer when we found out we were having a boy, I've been told over and over to expect lots of bumps and bruises and scrapes. Yet somehow I still didn't anticipate a black eye and a bloody nose within 2 weeks of one another at the ripe age of 9 months.

The scene of the incident:

Yep. His usual hangout - by the window in the living room, watching Dad and Granddad work on the deck. There was nothing there - no toys, nothing to slip on or trip on. I didn't see him, but my best guess is that he just lost his balance and whacked his nose on the window sill. I heard a thud, and the crying began as I was on my way to investigate. There was much screaming. When we went out onto the deck to tell Dad we were OK, the bleeding started.



The screaming and crying lasted continuously for at least 15 minutes, then continued off and on for another 20 or so. Granddad had him laughing before too long, though. In the meantime, Dad was on the phone with the pediatrician making sure we didn't have to worry about a concussion or anything really serious. (the verdict: no worries) Naturally, despite our best efforts, he would not allow us to put any ice on it.

He ended up taking a nap for about an hour (fatigue leads to clumsiness, which is the only thing I can think of to have caused such a thing) and woke up with a still-achy nose. We're giving him all of the hugs he can tolerate, but he's still not sure whether he'd rather be held or crawl around and play.

And there's definitely some bruising and swelling. Poor baby isn't going to look super-handsome in his 10-month pictures on Tuesday!

Here's hoping I don't need to add an "injury" tag to this blog.

Tootsie's End-of-Summer Visit

Tootsie managed to squeeze in one last visit before she had to go back to school. Dexter was VERY excited, even though it meant a few days away from his best buddy Jeremiah at daycare.

We didn't manage to get too many pictures of the visit, but believe me when I say they had LOTS of fun. There was walking (well, stumbling). There were trips outside (we have the dirty onesies to prove it). There was peach-eating (yum!). Dexter even got to enjoy the first-ever meal on the new deck (which is coming along VERY nicely)!

A hugely grand time was had by all, and Dexter wasn't *too* spoiled by the end of the visit.





(I believe there are a few videos from this visit, though. I hope to add those soon!)