Growing up :o)

My baby is mobile! Ahhhh! :o) Just kidding, I am actually more excited about it, than I am dreading it, although thats probably because I don't know what I'm getting myself into! Ha! :o) All I know is James has been so frustrated not being mobile, but definitely had NO interest in crawling, and is obsessed with standing now. So, while he can crawl and has found many different ways to do it (Army crawl, traditional crawl on hands and knees, knees and elbows, hands and one knee and one foot - see first pic, and finally what I call the "monkey walk" on hands and feet, as you see in the second photo above as well!) he still definitely works hardest at pulling himself up off the floor and getting back down again, he used to try and just grab onto something and pull up his dead weight, without using his legs to help, which obviously is REALLY hard, so I showed him how to pull himself onto his knees first and he quickly figured it out from there and now he's a pro! And his favorite trick: picking stuff up off the floor while standing. :o) And he's always so proud of himself afterward too, which is evident by the huge grin from ear to ear as he looks to you for praise. I just wanna eat him up, he's so cute! :o) Ha ha! And he lets go of furniture to grab onto something else, including me, and he will go back and forth over and over from one piece of furniture to another, maybe stopping to play with a toy or two. And he pulls himself up on EVERYTHING he can, including in his crib, so we had to lower it. And with my growing belly, and his growing body, I am not looking forward lifting him in and out of there. Ugh. :o) And while he's still fruity about me holding his hands, he will will allow me to for a short while as I walk him around. He occasionally stops walking to look up at me, its so adorable! :o) He definitely doesn't like being carried, and I don't like doing it anymore, cause he's so incredibly squirmy, so the harder he works the better! :o) And he'll push himself onto his hands and feet in an effort to just stand up and be free-standing, but thats obviously a big undertaking, so we'll see when he actually accomplishes a full stand from that. :o)

He is so interested in wheels. He will turn his cars and trucks over and just spin the wheels and watch 'em spin. The best is when he is on his back and he'll hold the car with his feet and spin the wheels with his hands, and occasionally will do all this while sucking on a bottle! Can we say multi-tasking? Ha ha! :o) I love it when we are out on a walk and he will look over the edge and watch the wheels on the stroller spinning. Thats what he did the "monkey walk" for, was to get to the stroller to make the wheels roll. :o)

He will be 11 months in a couple days and I am anxiously planning his first birthday party! :o) I am so excited for it! I wanna do a "Curious George" theme, since that is clearly his favorite character, but we'll see if I can get my hands on any of that stuff! I cannot believe how fast my baby is growing up, of course soon enough, I'll be right back where I started! Dave laughs at the idea of Jay being a big brother, like how can a baby be a big brother? Ha! :o) But we think he'll be great!

I am 17 weeks and I had my first prenatal appointment and everything is fine so far, heartbeat is strong, and I'm doing well. I will have my ultrasound in a couple weeks and I'll of course post the news on the sex of the baby as soon as I can! Wish us luck and pray for us that all is well in "waterworld". :o)