11 Months: From Baby to Toddler

Caedmon turned 11 months on Saturday.  Eleven months!  And he's growing in leaps and bounds--not so much in stature (he is STILL wearing some size 6-month pants!), but definitely physically and cognitively.

Right after I posted his 9 month update, in which I reported that Caedmon was not yet mobile, he started crawling (tripod style, with his left leg lunged out in front of him--which he still does), and then a week later, before he was even 10 months, he took his first steps! It was while I was taking this photo to send to grandparents for Chinese New Year, that Caedmon decided to walk right to me!

I'm pretty excited that I literally caught his first steps on camera (in a picture, at least), his blurriness being proof of this new mobility.  And just like that, my baby became a toddler!  Now at 11 months, Caedmon is toddling all over the place, busy exploring the new frontier that is our home and collecting his fair share of bumps and bruises and battle wounds... but nothing so serious as to stop him from getting right back up and plodding right along.  That's my boy!

Now that he's fully mobile, my life has changed.  Other parents have alluded to this shift in attention to hyper-vigilance, and after 11 months, it's finally come to our household.  While I'm not the kind to hover over Caedmon, I can no longer just leave him in one area and expect him to play nicely in that same spot. There has been a lot more chasing around and a lot more "no"s as he gets into everything... and a lot more fun as Caedmon is now able to participate so much more actively in the world around him.

Cognitively, Caedmon is developing right on track, and it's been fun for me to match his new actions with all the information I've gleaned from my extensive reading.  I can almost see the cogs in Caedmon's head, spinning and turning as he tries to make sense of our world.  He is already a very methodical little scientist, and I have noticed that he proceeds with generally the same course of action when he encounters something new: 1) Put in mouth.  Chew for a bit and examine.  2) Scratch at its surface, shake item if able, and if necessary, put back in mouth.  3) Drop on the floor to see what kind of racket it can make.  Repeat. ...again and again.

And while just a month and a half ago, Caedmon loved taking things apart (dumping his bucket of toys on the ground, emptying cabinets, ripping paper), he is starting to learn that things can be put back together, and he enjoys putting his blocks back into their box (though he hasn't yet mastered putting paper back together again.)  He also enjoys dropping items into other larger receptacles, as evidenced by his work here.  That's Lucy's toy squirrel that he stuffed into his diaper champ.  Thanks, Caedmon, for trying to clean up.

Caedmon has four teeth now, still loves eating bread (and now cheese), and is still making me pull my hair out sometimes with his picky eating... but he is also still super sweet and cuddly, still has the best belly laugh, and still melts my heart the way he squeals and pumps his fists when I come home, and while before, he was only able to lunge towards me with all his excited might, he now hobble-runs, arms wildly flailing for balance before grabbing my legs as he runs into them.  That will never get old.  :)

And there he goes...

Some other Caedmon pictures at 11 months...

Caedmon loves scrunching his face up like so, and breathing really hard through his nose so that he sounds like a baby dragon doing his calisthenics.

This picture is blurry, but I like how Wayne is passed out in the background.

Learning how to drink from a straw... I did it!