He's ready for the toddler room???

Today I was told that Dane is doing so well with walking, not taking bottles (he actually hasn't had a bottle in months), and no morning nap (he kicked the morning nap about a month or so ago) - that he is essentially ready for the toddler room. Normally kids aren't moved there till they are 18 months old, and I asked them if they plan on moving him and they said no, but just wanted me to know that he is well ahead of the game and is the youngest kid ever to be ready for the toddler room at 11 months! Whoah! He really is growing up too fast!!
He is doing really well eating with his fork and spoon too. He likes the fork much better than the spoon because he can spear the food and i guess its fun. They wont let him use a fork at school because of the danger and the chance for injuries, but they do let him use a spoon.

Can you believe he is going to be a year old in two weeks? yowza!!!!!!

Phah? Nanoo?

Dane added two new "words' to his vocabulary. He now says "Phah" for phone (he is always playing with my cell phone) and "Nanoo" for banana! I can see the wheels turning when we are teaching him a new word, its so fun to teach him things and have him catch on and learn so quickly! His other words are Mom, Dada, Woof (when he is barking with the dogs), Dat (that), Yah (yes)....i think that's it. He babbles so much I might be missing one or two, but will add them as I recall them!

He is still a walking machine, and has learned to bend down, pick something up, and then stand up. He doesn't have it mastered yet, but he CAN do it - which is just awesome. This whole walking thing just hit us so fast - it's so fun to have him walking! I love it! All though the "potted plant" stage was much easier, and sometimes I miss when I could just put him somewhere and he would stay there, this by far is much more fun! I find myself saying "no touch" all the time, but hey - he'll get the hang of it!

Energizer Bunny!

That's monkeys new nickname! He just keeps going, and going, and going! Now that he knows how to walk there is no stopping this kid! He gets frustrated when he isn't walking! I got to daycare today and he was walking all around the room picking up peas on the floor (it was lunch time, so it's not like there were random peas on the floor). He doesn't have the whole bending-down-and-standing-up-again down pat, but he'll get it soon.

I was also told today that Dane is grouped with the older kids in class in regards to gross motor skills (walking, interacting, eating, etc.) and he is the youngest to ever enter that classification or group or whatever you want to call it! The other kids in this so called group are 13,14 and even 15 months old or older, and here is my monkey at 11 months doing what the big kids do! Go Dane! Ugh...if growing up isn't fast enough, I think he is growing up WAY TOO fast!

These darn eye teeth (or canine teeth, i think they are called too) of his won't come in! It feels like he has been teething forever, and I should buy stock in Motrin, Tylenol, and oragel at this point. This poor guy is in pain all the time it just sucks. I can see the tooth, and it's a little sharp when i rub my finger over it, but that's it. It hasn't moved from that position in about a week. Poor guy....soon my little man, soon!

What hasn't been happening?

Sheesh! So much to tell you!!

I will start off by saying that Dane has been walking more than crawling lately! It's awesome! He does so well, and is so happy with himself! He holds his arms way up in front of him and laughs the whole time he is walking. When he falls (basically just sits down) he claps and laughs, and then crawls to a place where he can stand up again and start walking! Its awesome! I am so glad he is walking because now we can play outside and I don't have to worry about making sure the deck is brushed off and whatnot (dirty hands and knees from crawling).

And yes, he finally learned to clap and play patty cake! Mema (my mom) flew out from PA to visit for a few days and taught him. It was such a great visit, and she got plenty of Dane time. She even did the laundry for me and cooked and cleaned! She can visit anytime....haha!

While mema was here, Darren and I decided to take advantage of having a "live in babysitter" and took on some projects around the house - we rented a dingo and ripped up all the bushes and plants around our house (and even the neighbors house), built a 4 foot tall retaining wall, removed all the rocks around the house and re purposed them to a little patio thing on the side of the house for the garbage cans, dug a hole for a new patio (we have to flatten out the dirt yet and fill it in with a ton of lime stone pebbles which are sitting in our yard waiting for us) and planted new trees and bushes and layed mulch down. We moved almost 10 tons of dirt and rock by ourselves....my muscles are so sore! Mema has most of the pics (which she will be emailing me soon), but here are a few that i took with my cell phone. Enjoy.

Monkey has entered a new stage in his life - separation anxiety :( Its really hard on me, but I am being strong (well, trying to be anyway). When mema was here, I couldn't leave the room without him freaking out. I would have to sneak out so he wouldn't see me leave and then he was fine. I even had to whisper so he wouldn't hear me talk. If he saw me or heard me all hell broke loose and he was a crying screaming mess. He usually is fine too when Darren drops him off at daycare, but he is starting to freak out now. His teachers swoop in and grap him and divert his attention, so hopefully this stage is quick and painless. Even though this is really tough, it's a milestone. He is learning that he has emotions and it's a good thing!

For some reason it never dawned on me to be teaching monkey to be eating with a fork or spoon. I would just dump his food on his tray and he would feed himself with his hands. It's how they do it at daycare, so I figured it was all right. But, mema questioned why i feed him that way and it got me thinking.....so, i went out and bought him some toddler forks and spoons and suction cup bowls and didn't even have to teach him anything! He speared the pineapple chunks with his fork and ate them! What the heck?!?!? I thought this was going to be a tough thing to teach him, but boy was i wrong. They don't use silverware at daycare, so I guess he just knew how to use them by watching me eat. What a guy! Yesterday I put his mac and cheese in a bowl and he used his fork. He doesn't get as messy and it's so fun to watch him eat! Yay! Poor dogs though, not as much food falls on the floor anymore. Maybe they will start to lose some weight....haha!

Swingy Swingy Swingy!

It was such a beautiful day out today, and monkeys fever finally broke so we decided to take a walk to the Zachary Road Park. They have swing sets there for little itty bitty kids, perfect for our monkey - so we put him in and low and behold, he knew how to move his body back and forth to swing! He's never been in a swing before! Darren and I just stood there watching him in amazement. I don't know if this is some big huge thing, but we are just astounded and impressed! He kept himself swinging for a while, and was just chilling in the breeze! What a guy!

I didn't realize!!

I didn't realize that throwing a temper tantrum (like Dane did yesterday when I took away something that he was playing with and should not have been) was a milestone! I was just chit chatting with the ladies at daycare and telling them about Dane's 20 minute crying episode where he was throwing his body at me and very angry and they said "Good Job Dane!!" I gave them a weird look, like why are you instigating my child to throw a tantrum? She laughed and explained that it's a milestone that kids don't usually reach till well above 1 year old, and Dane reached it at not even 11 months! So, WAY TO GO BUDDY! I guess I can't be too frustrated at him when he is freaking out because its what he is supposed to be doing!

No girls allowed! (except for mom)

This is what the shirt that Dane was wearing yesterday had written on it. Apparently the flirty girl toddlers in the next room can't read yet because I heard they were flaunting their stuff and flirting with my little boy.... haha! The ladies told me that their outside play area's are separated by a chain fence, and Dane crawled over the fence so he could pull himself up and walk along it. When the girls came outside they immediately went over to the fence and started playing with Dane (through the fence...they were on the other side). They were sticking their fingers through the fence and saying how cute he is and oogling over him. I guess he was overwhelmed by all the estrogen because he sat down and just stared at them. The girls freaked out and wanted to know if he was OK! Miss Venette had to assure them that he was indeed OK, he was just sitting down for pete's sake. How cute!

I was also told that the other teachers love to fill in during break time because they get to have Dane hugs - how stinking funny is that!?!? He not only gets attention from the wee little ones, but from the adult females as well!! Gosh, he is going to be a heart breaker.

He is being a little stinker lately - remember me telling you a few days ago that if he has a hold of something that he shouldn't, and i take it away, he screams his tiny head off? Well, its not getting any better. Yesterday he cried and cried and tried to keep climbing up on my lap so I would hug him because I wouldn't let him have something (I don't even remember what it was). I crossed my arms and didn't pay attention to him. If he got really out of control I said calmly
"Dane, calm down. We do not cry when we don't get our way. Once you calm down we will play" Once he finally stopped crying (20 minutes later) I started playing with a toy and he joined in and was fine and dandy. I guess crying it out works for other things, not just sleep training! I just hope this lesson is learned quickly because I don't want him to cry every time I take something away from him, it's really stressful!

He hurt himself AGAIN at daycare. Now, don't get me wrong, I am sure if he wasn't at daycare he'd hurt himself just as much, it's just that every time he is hurt, it just happens to take place at daycare. With that said I will move on.... He was trying to push himself up to standing and his hand slid on whatever he was pushing himself up on and he fell forward and his top teeth dug a gouge into his bottom lip. It's pretty significant, but wounds inside the mouth tend to heal quickly, and here it is two days later and it's almost completely healed. It hasn't affected his eating so I didn't think a doctors visit was necessary.

Steps, steps, and more steps!! He is a walking machine! The most he's taken in a row is 5 steps, and he's mastered the art of not falling once he is done walking. He just stands there for a bit, then sits down and starts crawling. It's so fun that he is starting to walk! I can even put him down on his feet and he will stand! I don't have to put him down on his butt anymore (unless he holds his feet up which was cute at first.....but then......)

Hopefully it starts getting nice out here! It's been in the 50's all week and I'd like to spend some time outside - especially with the dogs. Cora is in desperate need of some exercise. I've been putting her on the treadmill again, but her hips are bothering her. I think it's from laying around all day and old age - poor girl. If I don't get a chance to take her for a walk outside, I will put her on the treadmill. Hopefully she starts to feel better soon. We've had her on a diet (we've cut the volume of food in half) and she doesn't seem to be losing any weight, maybe she has a thyroid issue? I'll ask the vet when we take her in for her shots this month. I know she is getting old, but I am just not going to accept it! She needs to stick around FOREVER!!!

Those shoes were made for walking!

It's time to buy Dane some walking shoes because HE TOOK HIS FIRST STEPS last night!!

WOO HOOOOOOO!!!

He was holding onto the ottoman and Darren was sitting a couple of feet away from him, and Dane took three steps towards him!! He is growing up so fast I cant take it! But, I am super excited about him walking, I think it will be so much fun outside this year to play in the yard and not have him crawling in the grass (dirty knees and hands). GO DANE!!!