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.

 

10 months

Steele hit the 10 month mark and he has turned into quite the trouble maker. He is a speedy little crawler and is into everything. He loves to play with the colanders, the blinds, and anything his sister is playing with. He loves balls and Legos too and I will sometimes catch him playing alone with Ember's train set. He pulls himself up to standing on everything and I have seen him stand without holding on to anything for a second or two. He is a very good eater but he seems to like vegetables and grains more than fruits although I introduced grapes recently and they were a big hit. He likes to feed himself more than having my help so I try to give him foods he can put in his mouth or just deal with the mess he makes when he tries to feed himself the less toddler friendly fare. He loves to be held but will instantly turn around to see what is going on around him. He is interested in everything and always wants to touch it and hold it but after about 10 seconds he is done and ready to move on to the next thing. He won't hold still for very long either. He and Ember have started butting heads. She often starts screaming NO the instant he so much as looks in her direction. It is a struggle because she does need to learn how to share but I also want her to not share certain things with him so we are still working on that. She has been a little bossy with him but does love him and often will give him a hug on her own. I hope they will be good friends as they get older.

9 Months

Steele turned 9 months old on Saturday and Josh and I both decided that we wanted to eat him that day- not in the he is so cute that you could just eat him up way, in the I can't handle another minute of listening to this whiny kid kind of way. Granted he (and the rest of the family) had the flu for the week prior which ended in a nasty sort of cough with a congested head so I am positive he was miserable and just wanted someone to make him feel better. It was not a fun day because we were all feeling about as miserable as he was and no one wanted to hear about how miserable anyone else was. But we did survive and I am happy to report that no children were maimed in any way and everyone is feeling significantly better.
So, on to the 9 month milestones. Steele finally learned to crawl, on Christmas morning, no less. He finally figured out how to do more then plop on his face and he is loving it. He follows us from room to room and gets a big goofy grin on his face when he sees us again. He is still pretty methodical (aka slow) and hasn't really started getting into anything yet so he is just at the cute stage of crawling. He has started trying to take whatever Ember is playing with though and she doesn't like it one bit. We have been talking about sharing and also about taking your toys to a place were he can't reach if it is something that isn't meant to be shared. It is going to be a learning process-probably for the rest of their childhood.

Steele went from just being able to crawl to being able to cruise so fast. He will pull himself to standing on the toy box and can take a few steps to get any toys he wants. It was so quick. He is babbling quite a bit now and will say Mama all the time. It doesn't really mean me so we aren't counting it yet, but he seems to like that sound more than any other (he IS a momma's boy). We haven't heard anything that resembles Dada yet. He loves to play with balls and hard plastic toys. It is interesting to see the difference between toys that Ember loved and toys that Steele loves. Toys that she wouldn't even look at are some of his favorites and vice-verse. I wonder if it is boy vs. girl or if it is just the difference of personality. He is definitely a cutie and we love having him around!

Visit with Santa

The Jolly Old Elf visited our ward Christmas party this year and so the kiddos made their yearly request. Ember's conversation with the man in red went something like this.
Santa: What would you like for Christmas?
Ember: Presents.
Santa: What would you like in your presents?
Ember: Um, just red presents.
You can't argue with that. I did finally get it out of her that she wants big puzzles. That is better than the Barney dinosaur she wanted about a month ago. We will see what he brings. Steele didn't much feel like talking this year. Maybe next time...

8 Months

Steele turned 8 months old last week and he is as cute as a button. He has lately taken to getting up on his hands and knees and rocking back and forth but has yet to master any forward motion. He is getting good at going backwards and we often find him on the opposite side of the room from where we set him. He has developed quite the sense of humor and loves to laugh. He thinks his sister is absolutely hilarious. If she comes into the room when I am putting Steele down for a nap he will watch every step she takes and will often burst into uncontrollable laughter. It is cute to see how much he loves her. We are reaching the point where he is more able to get at toys and Ember doesn't love the idea of sharing. It makes me nervous about how it will be once he actually can crawl. He has his two bottom teeth and his top ones have looked like they are about to burst through at any moment for awhile now, but, alas, no dice. He is getting so that anything that is within arms reach he will grab and hang onto, this includes hair, skin, glasses, blinds, dishes full of hot food, toys, and all other grab-able objects. He can be a handful but he is really a sweet boy who loves to be held and to see the world around him. We love him.