A Japanese Lunch with my Students [Camilla from Columbia!]

Anoke | Playground III ["Walking, walking, walking!"]

Anoke | Playground II

Anoke | Playground I [April]

1 Month Away from 1 Year!

Anoke is 11 months old now! Felicitats!

Anoke is now walking! He started his baby steps last month, holding on to walls, fingers, walker-toys, etc., but this month he's taken his first "solo" steps!

His balance is pretty amazing and he has no problem bending down to pick things up and stand up directly from bent knees.

When he's tired he cruises, but it's not a slow cruise. He can cover a lot of distance in a very short amount of time.

In addition he's climbing up and down everything (sofas, beds, chairs, laps...)

Anoke is also signing and knows how to signs for "milk" and "more"!

He's also clapping and waving, "Hi!" and playing "Peek-a-boo!"

He understands that his refelection in the mirror is him and often leans into it and gives himself a kiss between smiling, laughing, and babbling! And, believe it or not, he also seemed to understand the complex phenomenon of shadows.

He understand a lot! He understands more than he says (or signs), and he's aware that everything around him has a name. I do my best to help him understand and am constantly narrating our activities and asking him questions and naming objects:
"Where's _____________ ?", "Do you want more, Anoke?", "Look!", "Touch the wall!", "Come here Anoke", "car", "outside", "tree", "run", "walk"," book", "dog", "bath", "splash", "Grandma", "Avi", "Avia", "Minelle", "careful" . . .

And he's responding with his own unique sounding words. A lot of, "gah, gah, gah, gah, yah, yah, yeah, dah, dah," and he always says, "mum mum" when he's hungry, tired, or just wants to be held.

He can open doors and turn knobs, unscrew lids and containers and crawl and walk with one or two things in his hands. The pincer grasp was an early milestone for him, but these complex ways of opening and closing and turning and unscrewing is relatively new.

He has just begun to share transitional objects such as, Snuggly. He'll give it to you and then take it back and repeated it. Repetition is a constant with him.

He now has four teeth....I can see four more under a thin layer of gum, ready to cut through any day now!

I'm not sure how much Anoke weighs right now or how tall he is (his 1 year visit with Doctor Osler is a couple weeks away), but the boy is BIG! He's 11 months and he's wearing clothes sizes 18-24 months! His hands are huge ("big hands I know you're the one....") and the same size as a few of the 2 year olds that he plays with at the playground. Anoke is no longer an "infant" . . . he is a bonafied, "toddler"!

It's all amazing! It is my greatest joy watching him grow, day by day!