OK ... Walking! ... ??

Well, as I just mentioned in the post that I published this morning (and actually wrote last night) Luke has not really started walking yet. The trouble is, that we don't really know when to say that he is officially walking. Way back when he took his first steps, I posted about that. Now he is making gradual progress and taking more steps at once. We can set him down and he will walk from one of us to the other.

Before today, his record had been about 3-4 steps at a time. Then, this afternoon, he took 9 steps from me to Ryan at my parents' house. Just now as the three of us came into the office, I set him down and he took 13 steps into the room before plopping onto his bottom. So, he's walking! ... kind of. He still really prefers crawling, and he still really doesn't initiate walking, but he'll do it if you aim him and clap when he's done. So, is Luke walking? Who knows. You be the judge. I guess all we can do is to continue to update you on the progress!

P.S. Just to let you know, we are having some very frustrating problems uploading pictures. At first we only had difficulty with Snapfish, but now we are having trouble uploading pictures to Blogger.com as well. In fact, I have almost half a dozen posts that are saved as drafts waiting for pictures. But I think I am going to just start publishing them without the pictures so that at least you can have the information, even if there are no photos. Hopefully at some point, I can go back and add in the pictures. (Note: This means that some "new" posts are going to appear before some that are already up. Be sure to scroll down and look for them coming soon.)

Thirteen Months

Yes, one year AND one month old. This is how many months old I have been telling people Luke will be when his sister is born, and now he his that old. My how time flies. So, here is a brief update on what Luke is up to in his last few days or weeks as an only child.

Communication:

• He just started doing "please" (in sign language) this week. We have tried to introduce it before and it just lead to a lot of sign confusion. This week, however, I only had to show him once, and he had it!
• He has been signing "Thank You" but just in the last couple of weeks, we think he has actually been saying "Thank You" except it sounds like "dee-do" or something similar. He says and signs "Thank You" at the same time (which makes sense as this is what we have been doing all along to teach him the sign).
• We are also about 97% sure that Luke has picked up a few other words. He says them with some regularity in a way that we can be reasonably sure we know what he is talking about, but the pronunciation is sometimes such a stretch that it's hard to be absolutely certain. Also, I'm not sure of the rules for pronunciation respelling in baby language, so you'll have to make your best guess!
  Daddy ("da-da") - this is the most likely (he even calls for Matt "DAAAAH-DA" from another room)
  bear ("baaaah") - the large stuffed bear in his room
  baby ("bah-bah') - himself in the mirror or any other baby
  I did it ("de DE de") - I first noticed him saying this after I said it to him following an accomplishment (like turning on or off the light switch or closing a door or drawer)
  gentle ("deh-dow") - we just noticed this one this morning (he was petting Charley and I was saying "be gentle" and I realized that he was repeating after me!)
• He has been using all kinds of his own made-up ways to communicate with us as well. For example, he has been pointing to things or places. Today, he was using the "more" sign to ask me to do something for him. I couldn't tell what he wanted. Then he pointed to the ground right by where he was sitting. It was like he was saying, "Come over here and I'll show you what I mean." I did and he did.
• It seems that Luke is quickly learning to understand more and more of what we say to him. The other day, he was standing by my desk chair in the office. I gave him a coupon to hold. A few minutes later, I needed it back. He didn't have it in his hand. I asked him, "Where is the paper?" His eyes opened wide, he looked all around, then he spotted it on the floor, picked it up and gave it to me!
• He also knows lots of commands, like "stay in this room with Mommy," "close/open the door/drawer," "give it to Mommy," "don't smush your food," etc/

Transportation

• I was really sure that when I wrote the post for thirteen months, I would be able to say that he is walking. He almost is ... but not quite. More and more recently, we have had random episodes of two or three steps in a row, but it is clear to see that he still vastly prefers crawling.
• Luke has gotten so good a crawling and very quick. He can get around almost anywhere he wants to go. And if he is standing, he's pretty quick at cruising around holding on to the furniture, too. He can move all the way around the sofa (even the back, which really has nothing to hold on to) balancing with just one hand and moving his feet side-to-side pretty efficiently.

Eating

• Except for nuts and honey, Luke is allowed to eat pretty much anything now. His only real limitation is the consistency of a food (i.e. apples are too tough for him to handle, though he loves applesauce).
• He seems to have a pretty wide ranging appetite (from sardines to hot dogs to tomatoes and much in between) though I have heard that the scope of his preferences may narrow as we enter the toddler years.
• He has started using a spoon to feed himself occasionally. Matt's Mom gave him this really great spoon and fork set, each utensil having a big easy-to-grip handle. I let him try feeding himself applesauce one day, and he did pretty well. His biggest challenge is not getting the sauce onto the spoon or getting the spoon into his mouth with the sauce still on it (as I thought it would be) but getting to all of the applesauce that is in the deepest part of the spoon. Interesting. I guess that whole maneuver that we take for granted comes with practice!

Other

• Luke had his first bubble bath about a week ago. At first, he was a little puzzled by the bubbles and couldn't figure out how to get them off of his hands. Then, he was puzzled by the fact that he couldn't see any of his toys in the water. Finally, though, he adjusted to the new environment and was comfortable crawling around in the water - with little patches of bubble fuzz on his hiney!