11 months

 In the eleventh month of Dexter's life, I am feeling shocked, excited and kind of sad. The time has passed so quickly. His personality is getting bigger. He is getting bigger. He squeals and kicks his legs when he's really excited about something. He totally knows when he's going somewhere he isn't suppose to because he looks over his shoulder to check and see if you're watching. The look he gives you isn't a sheepish one, like "oops, I got caught", it's a "well, are you coming or not?" look. He loves the other boys at daycare and I can't say how much of a relief it is to be completely confident in the person that's supposed to stand in for us on weekdays.

Speaking of standing, Dexter has stood by himself a few times for the briefest of moments. I think I am more impressed by it than he is. I stay perfectly still and urgently whisper to Josh, "Psst, look, honey!" As if Dexter's a T-Rex who can't see you if you don't move or make a sound. No steps yet, he's gotten too good at real crawling and has lost interest.

He thinks handing toys back and forth to you is hilarious. He gets a big grin on his face when you say, "thank you" after he's given you the toy. He still loves to roughhouse and get thrown into the air and lets out a squeal of delight when you pretend to drop him. He also has a flair for the acrobatic as he figured out that the world looks silly when it's upside down.

The kid knows how to eat too. He hasn't really balked at any grown-up food yet. Mashed potatoes were pretty mind-blowing. I think we might have done ourselves a disservice by giving him fruits almost exclusively towards the end of his stint with baby food because he definitely shows a preference for them over veggies. Oh, well. I'm not really one to talk since I didn't discover that I like mushrooms until ten years ago, broccoli until five years ago and brussel sprouts until two weeks ago.

Eleven months, mark it down.