Fri 25 Apr 2008
I cannot believe it, but in one month our sweet boy will celebrate his first birthday! His. First. Birthday. I’ve asked this question before, and I’ll ask it again, where does the time go? Tobi at 11 months is one active little boy. He took his first unassisted steps on April 15, five consecutive steps before he dove into my arms in a fit of laughter. Each time I would stand him back up and cheer for him to try again, he would laugh even harder as he wobbled towards me. Since then he has taken more and more steps each day. He looks like a little tin man as he moves his stiff legs one foot at a time. It is amazing to watch him learn to balance and navigate upright. I didn’t think I would be so excited since I’ve already experienced one child’s first steps, and I knew Tobi would walk eventually, but it seems that no matter how many children you have it is truly amazing to witness each one take their first steps.
Here is a little video of our man in action:
Although he is taking more and more steps on his own each day, he still LOVES to walk behind his push walker. He makes laps around our house and can turn and maneuver the toy without any problems, rarely getting stuck. He is such a proud boy! He also likes to walk holding onto my hand and can balance and walk well by just using my finger for stabilization.
In addition to walking Tobi has decided climbing is lots of fun too. A few weeks ago we were having dinner with friends, and Tobi followed closely by Andrej, climbed to the very top of their staircase as if he had been doing it for months. He still needs help going back down, but we have been working on the concept of turning around and going down feet first. He is slowly getting it and has also used the trick for getting down off of the couch as well.
In the language department, Tobi is a little chatter box. However, the only sounds that he has made that resemble words so far are mama, dada, nah-nah-nah for “no” and a few times he has said “ba ba†as he is waving bye-bye. As for baby signs, he hasn’t shown much interest. I wrote in his nine month post that I thought he would start signing soon because he could manipulate his hands to make the motions for “more†and “all doneâ€, but he hasn’t progressed much since then. He waves his arms frantically and says, “uh uh!†if he wants more food. We are still working on it though and as I recently watched a video clip of Kaiya’s first attempts at sign language, I was encouraged to keep it up.
Recently Tobi decided two naps were no longer necessary, much to my dismay. He most often either takes the morning nap and plays in his crib through his afternoon nap, or plays through the morning nap and can barely make it through lunch he is so tired. I remember this stage well when Kaiya went through “two naps are too much, but one nap is not enoughâ€. Although, I can say that I am looking forward to him being consistently down to one nap by summer so we can get out of the house in the mornings and enjoy trips to the zoo, local parks, our backyard and time with friends.
At 11 months, Tobi is so much fun! He keeps us laughing and his snuggles are priceless. He is working so hard on his fine motor skills and can sit for quite a while stacking rings and blocks or putting small things, like the coins in the picture, into various containers. He is growing up way too fast! The other night as I was nursing him before bed, I could not believe that the huge baby sprawled across my arms and lap was the same tiny one I brought home from the hospital almost a year ago. I laughed as I thought what Kaiya would say at the situation, “Mama. Tobi is such a BIG bo-weeee! He’s all growed up!â€