11 Months!

Liam is officially 11 months old! Hard to believe!

Let's see, at 11 months, Liam is now:

+a proficient crawler (he started crawling right at 10 months--sorry it took me so long to post video evidence--haha! See video below)
+loves to play with cars and trucks, and will even make a noise like a car (buuuuhhh) when he is playing with them
+Often says "ball... goooo...geeeeit" which we think means, "ball... go get it!" (you can hear that in the video)
+Loves to play w/balls (hence, the theme for his upcoming 1st birthday!). And along with one strong kick, he's now on to perfecting his overhand throw
+Often will try to feed us a cracker or with a spoon.
+Can pull up to his knees, but is still very hesitant to try to pull himself up to full standing--he's a very cautious little guy! The second he feels unsure about something, he sits back down, and pops the thumb back in his mouth!
+Now that he's crawling, his emerging vocabulary has kinda gone to the back burner. He still babbles non-stop, but we haven't had any new words (with the exception of what we believe to be "get it") all month. I think he's focusing all his energy on crawling and getting into things for now!
+Another funny development is whenever he finds the lid/cap to his bottles, he puts it over his mouth and makes this loud breathing noise. We think it is because he's had to have so many breathing treatments over the past few months (w/the nebulizer machine and finally the doc prescribed an inhaler--but for babies you have to pump it into this tube thing that you put over their mouth to breathe). So it always cracks me up when he "pretends" to breathe into the bottle caps! So smart, too! Speaking of which, on his 11 month birthday (yesterday), he came down w/croup! Not fun! But we seem to be quickly getting over it w/some steroids from the Ped.

As far as the doctor's concerns of possible hip displacement causing the delay in crawling... well, now that he's crawling they are no longer concerned! Thank goodness! I think he's just on the slow end of the curve, mainly because his personality is very laid back, sensitive, and cautious--thereby taking his time in the physical development area. I recently read that the average age for babies to learn to walk is between 9 and 18 months! Since he's still not pulling up, I think we'll definitely be pushing the envelope somewhere towards the end of that range. And while I'm totally okay with my boy going at his own pace... at the same time, I'm hoping things do pick up some, because, honestly, I can't imagine carrying him around up to 18 months. I mean, he's already 20 lbs! And my arms are already breaking! I can't imagine doing it when he's 2x that size! I guess we'll see. Verbally, though, I think hes right on par w/Elizabeth at this age, which is surprising because I'd often heard that boys can be a little bit slower to talk. So far, that hasn't been the case with Liam! Hey, Up, Ball, Car, Mama, Dada, Gooooooal!, Get it, sometimes Bear... I can't wait to hear what he has to say next!

We are also getting excited about his upcoming 1st birthday party, which we plan to celebrate back home in Kansas w/the fam! Since we haven't been back since Christmas, I'm pretty sure they are equally excited about our upcoming trip---especially Nana!

At any rate, I'll leave you with some video of Liam crawling! Enjoy! :)