Eleven months and more

Franklin's going to be one in a few weeks and its blowing my mind! His senses of humor and music are coming around stronger these days; we keep catching him dancing. You can getting him laughing pretty good with just making faces or turning him upside down. He's very enthusiastic about play these days. He initiated peek-a-boo with a blanket over his own head the other day. He says ba-ba now for bottle and I think may have said cracker a couple of times today. He still does both his crawl methods and is getting quicker at them...still not too much trouble yet but we're waiting for it!

The brothers post-nap; guess which one is still waking up.

If you look closely, you can see those canines on there way!

A Walk to the River with Grandpa Steve

I went with Grandpa Steve and the boys down the little walk to the Willamette River that Grandpa has done many times with Theo, but this was Franklin's & my first time. Franklin's reaction to the river is captured below. He waved his arms and kicked his legs and grinned big at mother nature's grandure. The river was too low for Theo to get his rocks he was throwing to splash, so Grandpa gave Theo a rock throwing lesson. He caught on right away and was pretty thrilled with his new range.

Dog! Dog! Dog!

Franklin is crawling all over the house, using multiple techniques, but most frequently now the traditional hands-n-knees crawl. The "butt-scoot" has become more of a "seated-crawl" because he uses his hands and feet in a back and forth motion. Its not as efficient as hands-n-knees crawling, so I'm afraid he's going to stop doing it soon and only do the traditional crawl, so I wanted to get it on video before he stops! Here he is going after Lucy repeating "dog, dog, dog", a common scene at our house lately, and doing his seated-crawl at the same time. The sound at the end is Theo burping. Don't worry, I grabbed Franklin and moved him before he interrupted Lucy having her breakfast too much :)

Franklin's talking a lot, and has added "ba-ba" for bottle as his fourth word. This morning when I went in to get him from his crib, he smiled at me and said "Da-Da!" At breakfast, he saw his brother and repeated "bruh bruh". When he sees cats, he excitedly repeats "dog". We went to the pet store over the weekend and there was a cage of kittens. I parked Frankie in his stroller in front of them and he sat up excitedly and reached out his hands, "dog dog dog"! The kittens were equally as interested in him. He also saw our cat Myrtle on the stairs under the gate as we were playing on the landing the other evening, and he tried to reach her, exclaiming "dog"! over and over again. I'm finding this phase terribly amusing! 

Proud mama

I shared this on Facebook a couple of days ago...thought it belonged on the blog too!

Feeling so proud of and happy for my kids today. Franklin has gone in just a few days from pushing himself backwards to fully crawling in not one but TWO ways– he can crawl sitting up and on hands-n-knees, and is having so much fun with his new found locomotive power. Theo we took to the birthday party of a preschool buddy yesterday, and we didn’t know anyone but that family, but he was so comfort...able and social with everyone and had such a good time. He pretended to be a dolphin and a pelican in the kiddie pool, ran blissfully through the sprinkler, hit a piñata for the first time with the other kids (and without any parents nearby for moral support), and dazzled everyone with his great sense of humor while he decorated his face with his chocolate cupcake. AND he wrote his name for the first time over the weekend. Can't help but be proud of that. I sure do love those little rascals.

Theo at 3 1/2

Theo is officially three and a half on Tuesday. He is a wonderful, helpful older brother and continues to impress with his intelligence. Lately he's been developing his skills with pen and paper. A couple of days ago, he was drawing and said, "I did it! I drew a firetruck!" and I'll be darned if he hadn't, complete with wheels and a driver, and on a road and everything. The most amazing news is that just yesterday he wrote is name. He asked me to show him how, so I wrote on my piece of paper, and showed him how I drew each letter. Then he did it, his whole name all by himself. He is so ready to start big boy preschool in September! 

Theo writes his own name for the first time.

Theo shows off after he took off all his own pjs and got dressed all by himself.

Franklin's 11 months old

In the last week, Franklin has gone from not crawling to crawling in TWO ways - he can hands-n-knees now, as well as his "butt-scoot". His frustration with locomotion has all but disappeared. He seems to have so much fun now in his body with his new freedom. He will just roll around, sit up, roll over, crawl, sit up, get onto his belly, crawl a bit, sit up and scoot, and then roll around some more. 

We went to the pet store today to get dog food and there were kittens for sale. They were nearly as enchanted by Franklin as he was with them. He sat straight up in his stroller, reaching his hands out for them, calling out enthusiastically "dog! dog! dog!" :)

Theo and Franklin go to the zoo

Such a fun day with the whole family at the zoo yesterday. It was our first trip in a long time, and Franklin's first trip since he could see further than 2 feet in front of him. He was still more interested in the people and plants around him than trying to find the animals, but he did see the elephants and pigs. The highlight was the boys watching the big sea lions swim in great big circles in their aquarium.

Catching up on lots of development!

Nearly 11 months old, and Franklin's gross development is exploding with activity. He's suddenly very mobile, with one big difference from pushing himself backwards around the house: he can go forward! He moves mostly in a butt-scoot while sitting, pulling himself forward with his hands, and helping with his feet. He also rolls to get where he wants to go, and sometimes pulls himself forward on his belly. Crawling is still a possibility, as he practices rocking up on his hands and knees. Just yesterday he figured out how to get himself in a sitting position from his belly, so now the locomotion possibilities are endless. He's still not too quick, but he's getting faster every day. It is one of the cutest things I've ever seen to watch him eye a target and start scooting after it. This evening Daddy was singing kirtan, and I sat him down 10 feet from him, and he scooted straight for him, DaDa! DaDa! DaDa!
He loves to open and shut drawers and get into anything novel. He's developed the cutest toothy grin, tipping his head back and squinting his eyes. Someday soon I'll catch it on film. He got his four middle top teeth all within two weeks of each other, and gave us a brief teething reprieve, but is now working on his canines. He has three words, DaDa, which means "any beloved being" it seems, bruh bruh, which he doesn't use too often, and dog.

Getting into the laundry...

Mmmm...vibrating teether!

Found the kiddie piano...now where's that lamp cord?

Getting into drawers...

The Flower Farm Train Ride!

The Flower Farm! A miniature train ride twice around a farm in Camby, with a stop to feed the farm animals and check out freshly laid eggs. What could be more fun?