So, milestones. He can crawl up a flight of stairs like he's been doing it his whole life (which is so far 327 days). I don't really give him a lot of chances to practice since we have no carpet on them, but when I started, he just crawled right up them like he knew what he was doing. I tell you - this baby makes me look like a star parent. One day I shall put the Reimann Hypothesis in front of him and he will solve it, then say his Momma taught him everything he knows.
In the mean time he has better time pursuits like learning how to say 'doggie'. It sounds a lot like 'oggie' right now, but it is the first thing where it is obvious that he is associating a word HE says with a thing. He understands a lot of word (let's go, tiger, nose, mouth, hungry, etc), but he doesn't attempt to say any of them, except for doggie. One of the dogs will come in the room, he will look at the dog, get excited (usually point) and then exclaim 'Oggie!'. Today we saw a cat up close and personal, he got excited and said 'Oggie!'. Guess I need to work on animal differences when it comes to the live ones.
In other exciting news, he started signing 'more', when eating. I pulled out the dehydrated apple bit treats today and before I even opened the bag he was signing 'more' very enthusiastically. I was pretty excited too, because it's the first time he offered it without my prompting. He saw what he wanted and asked for it. I showed him the sign for 'want' just before giving it to him and he immediately copied the sign. That was exciting as well! It's the first sign I haven't had to physically move his hands into the sign, in order for him to pick it up. He still uses 'all done', sometimes angrily.
Calvin has five teeth still, but it is apparent to anyone around here lately that there is a new tooth about to erupt. Lots of ear pulling, crying and 'all done' signs given to anything and everything while screaming at us. His pain gets so bad that he crawls over to you to get comforted and then when you touch him he gets even more angry and pushes you away. Repeat this over and over for hours. Poor baby. We use tylenol now when it gets that bad. He didn't nap for two days in a row, and his night time sleeps suffer because of it as well. I'm hoping we have passed the worst of it, as he had a three hour nap today, when it would normally be one. He's been pretty happy in comparison to the last couple days, and eating again.
For my own records, he is now in size 18 month clothing (arm sleeves are a touch long, but in general those sizes fit him perfectly right now), his shoes are size 5 and winter boots (if I can find a good pair) should be size 6 to make it through the snow season. He's been in 18 month clothing for a while now, I'm guessing since 9.5 months. Next week he will be 11 months old, soon, much much too soon, to be followed by his first birthday. Gone are the days of saying he is 'x' weeks old, or 'x' months old. Now he will be considered a toddler. A big boy. I don't know how I will make it through the day, and for sure there will be crying and kleenex. We are hosting his family and friends birthday party on January 14th, but on Christmas Eve when you go to church after dinner, or relax with your loved ones before settling in for sleep the night before Christmas, please say a little prayer for our boy and wish him a happy birthday.