11 months

11 months

Eliel turned 11 months old today.  He spent the day doing what he does best: playing. :)  Some of his favorite toys include his activity cube, blocks, books and of course a spoon and metal bowl.  Eliel now loves playing upstairs because he can crawl between his room and Mommy & Daddy's room.  Distance makes no difference anymore!  This little guy is on the move.  He can easily maneuver his walker to get where he needs to go.  He still has a little trouble trying to climb the stairs but that is usually because he's trying to do it too fast.  We still need to work on going down.  Adam and I laugh when he walks because he's so small but moves so fast.  As Adam said earlier, he walks like C3PO but sounds like R2D2! :P
Eliel has also discovered that he can protest when he doesn't like something.  His latest thing is to get down on the floor on all fours, put his head to the ground and cry.  At first I tried to help him but I quickly figured out that if I ignore this new behavior, it quickly stops. :)  Eliel also likes to shut his mouth very tight when we're trying to feed him something he doesn't want to eat.  Many times, it's something he's eaten before but he's too stubborn  to try something if he doesn't recognize what it looks like.  This causes Mommy and Daddy to sometimes trick him to open his mouth and giving him a taste of the food.  Nine times out of ten, he then opens his mouth again for more.  Silly boy.  He's doing very well with finger foods and often times, refuses to eat anything off of a spoon but will eat it if he can pick it up.  He also still does not like meat.  He will eat it if I blend it but will not pick up pieces of chicken, beef, fish or turkey.  We're assuming it's a texture thing with him, but who knows.
We won't go to the doctor until next month so I don't know how much weight Eliel has gained but we do know that he's getting taller!  He can easily see over the edge of his crib and the playpen where as a few weeks ago, he had to get on his tiptoes to do that. His legs must be getting longer, rather than his body though because he is still wearing 9 month onesies!  I keep thinking tomorrow will be the day when I go to put them on and they don't fit.  He's been wearing that size since October.
All in all, this little guy continues to amaze us every day.  He understand so much more language that I thought he would at this age.  He's not signing as much as I would like but he does so when he needs to (or when he really wants something).  He also imitates Nugget with a cute little bark!  Now that he's started the process of learning to walk, talking won't be far behind.  I'm guessing his first word might be book but we'll see.
Hope you enjoyed this long update!  Hopefully I will get around to posting some short videos soon but most of my day is spent chasing this little guy.  At least I don't have to worry about working out anymore... :)