Sunday, March 10, 2013

11 Months



These two pictures are pretty descriptive of life in our house right now. Steele is all over and into everything. He is Curious and Determined, which is a deadly combination. He doesn't want to take no for an answer. Today Josh took him away from something three times and he would get out of Josh's hands and crawl right back to it. We finally just shut the door to that room. Tears ensued. Another thing about Steele-if he doesn't get what he wants and especially if a door gets closed, it is the end of the world and he cries like the baby he is. He is usually a pretty quiet guy, until you get somewhere where it is supposed to be quiet, then he lets it all come out. Today during church he decided to start singing the hymn with everyone, which was fine, until the song was over and he was still singing at the top of his lungs. He has discovered the joy of emptying drawers and can pull open ever drawer in the house I think-yes, even the heavy drawer under the oven where pots and pans are, he can even get in there. Sigh. He is a turkey.
He loves the bath and will crawl from anywhere in the house if he hears the water going. Ember has decided that she wants to take showers now so we usually put her in the shower and then when she is done, Steele comes in and they both play in the bath. Josh will do everything in the world to block him or try to hold him back but he claws his way to the bathroom the second Ember gets the water on. I told you he was determined.
Another thing about him is that he has no fear whatsoever. He will  lean out of your arms as fast as he can when he decides it is time to get down. There have been near drops from our arms to the floor. He has come very close to climbing straight off our bed too. I hope he lives to adulthood.
He loves to dance in our arms. We will turn on music and dance around the living room almost every day and sometimes more than that and I think it is the highlight of his and Ember's day. They both have a great time.
Steele has recently learned to clap and he thinks it is so fun. He just smiles and smiles when we get him to do it. He also is cruising pretty well and sometimes will stand for up to 10 seconds by himself. He loves to walk holding onto your fingers but not very far. I think he gets bored with it. Lately he has been bouncing himself off things and just bouncing on his legs. He has far too much energy.
He can say Mama but we aren't quite sure if he is saying it to me and tries to say Ball but that is about the extent of his vocabulary. I am pretty sure he is starting to understand things though. He will look for Ember when I say her name and you can tell that he understands when we say other things too.
Tonight at bed time he was very tired, I was reading a book to him that had pictures of different objects and the word under them. We got to the picture of a ball and he said "BA" then he tried to reach for the ball, when he realized that he couldn't grab it he started crying as loud as he does when we close a door. I decided that was the end of the book and he went to bed immediately.
Up until about 2 weeks ago, Steele was waking up about 4 times a night. He was a difficult one. We finally had to just let him cry it out all night. He has improved, but, even now, he will wake up once a night. Hopefully this phase will end soon.
He is a fun boy and we love him. Ember has been especially fond of him lately and will often give him a hug without any prompt from us. Sometimes her hugs are closer to tackles, but at least she loves him. He can't get enough of her either. Whenever she walks into the room he lights up and watches her every move. It is so fun to see.