Video: Tissue shredder - 11 months

One of Boyd's latest favorite activities is to pull as many tissues out of box as he can and then slowly shred the paper into little strips. Sometimes the pieces make it into his mouth if we aren't diligent enough.

Twinsies

Thanks to Risha for snapping this photo.

Boyd - 11 months

In just a few short weeks I'll be the mother of a 1-year old. Sometimes I look at Boyd and wonder how we got so lucky to have such a beautiful, healthy, and inquisitive baby.

• Boyd has been waving when we say "hi" or "bye-bye." Sometimes he'll even just do it out of the blue or with two hands. I'm sure we look like idiots waving to him all of the time, but hey, when a baby interacts waves at you - you wave back.
• Likes shaking his head back and forth, like he's saying "no." I'm not sure he knows what it means, but it's still funny to see him do it with a smile on his face. 
• This cracks us up too, but it's hard to explain - Boyd will scrunch up his face and breathe in and out really quickly through his nose. Somehow he gets us all to do it and then we're all laughing hysterically. Where do babies get this stuff?
• He says "dada" a lot. Constantly and every day. I say "mama" to him and he sweetly replies "dada!" He uses varying inflections, depending on the situation. Really happy? Screams it. Mellow? Says it like he's talking about a mythical creature.
• I dread diaper changing time now. The best analogy I can offer is it's like wrestling an octopus - a writhing mass of arms and legs. Especially if an octopus shrieks and screams in the process, and tries to roll over on the changing table with a diaper full of poop.
• Has been all over the dog lately. He will crawl up to Drift to pet him, taste his fur (yuck), or hug him. Boyd will also do this thing where he'll use Drift's body as leverage to get into a standing position. The other day he did this and then promptly tumbled over Drift.
• Yes, our baby has been standing BY HIMSELF for a few seconds at a time. I'm not sure we're ready for our Tasmanian Devil to start walking yet. We just put up baby gates to block off his access to both sets of stairs. He is quite the fast crawler and moves faster than I thought possible.
• Another thing he loves to do is a baby-modified version of the Captain Morgan pose (crouching with one knee up).
• My mom works with him on vocabulary when she watches him, and at home D and I explain things to him so we think he's picking up a wide range of language skills.
• He absolutely is a music fan. Likes to do his version of dancing - sitting on his knees and bouncing up and down. We'll say, "let's play music" and he'll hit the music player's buttons. 
• How exactly do you discipline an 11-month old? Anything we tell him not to touch (e.g. the stand-alone radiator in his room, the pet water bowl, etc.) he of course touches and gets a big smile on his face. I know it's a big game to him but I'm getting tired of pulling him away from this stuff.
• We're pretty thankful that he loves food - all and any types. He's still drinking breastmilk, although less than before, and when he turns 1 we'll start supplementing with whole cow's milk. Or I've heard goat's milk is really beneficial (it's most like human milk) but I'm not sure where to get that in Anchorage. 
• This week there were a couple challenging evenings when he we would wake up about 40 minutes after bedtime and couldn't soothe himself back to sleep. I'm thinking he has too much excitement about learning new skills (like he can't turn his brain off). So I would have to go in to calm him down, which mainly consists of singing songs (which he loves) and holding him. He still goes down sleepy but awake for naps and bedtime. We're on a fairly consistent schedule for sleep (most days). Nap times are around 9:45 a.m. (takes about 15 minutes to fall asleep) and 2:30 p.m. (15 mins to sleep).
  At night we start the bedtime routine at 6:45 p.m. (diaper, jammies, nursing/milk, books and songs, then sleep.)

Super cute outfit my friend Stephanie bought Boyd for Christmas!

Even has flap on the butt - adorbs!

Hanging around outside during the warm days earlier this month.

I love his little off-center hair swirl. 

Broccoli, cauliflower and cheese.

Video: Crab fest - 10.75 months

My mom's birthday was earlier this month so D, Boyd and I took her out to a really nice Asian buffet here in town. The restaurant features crab at dinner time so my mom loaded up and even shared with Boyd, who apparently loves shellfish too.

Video: New shoes - 10.75 months

Why can't they make baby socks that actually stay on feet? I've started putting shoes on Boyd when we go out because those darn socks always fall off. Now he likes pulling off his socks AND shoes. These shoes were a gift from my boss - very cute!

Video: Reaching out - 10.5 months

Daddy teases Boyd using a tape measure.

Ski day

The snow finally arrived and we were outside ASAP on Saturday! Because it was our first time pulling Boyd in the Chariot, I wanted somewhere fairly flat with no creek crossings to ski on this day. We ended up choosing the Campbell Airstrip, which isn't too far from our house in the Campbell Tract BLM - except for the fact that the gate nearest our house (less than a mile) was closed. Was very surprised about that since it was the first weekend day after a big snow - didn't they think people would want to use the trails?

Anyway, we drove to the east side of town for the other access point, a trailhead in Far North Bicentennial Park. D estimates that just the airstrip portion was about 3/4 of a mile and we ended up skiing that 4 times, so total for the day was somewhere around 4 miles. We would have gone longer but Boyd started to get fussy after he awoke from a nap - our outdoor adventures are much shorter now that we have a baby!

The Chariot isn't heavy, per se, but it's definitely a workout to pull it with a little one inside. The ski attachment worked perfectly and the harness was pretty comfortable. I pulled it for about a mile until I got tired - D did the rest. Boyd weighs about 23 pounds now, so it's only going to get heavier as time goes on.

Chariots are very common around here, so we only received a few comments on our setup. We unscrewed the stroller wheels, removed the back wheels and popped on the skis. All very easy and quick.

We put Boyd in all of his layers plus the down snowsuit, and then popped him a warm bunting bag. I put Vaseline on his face (especially those cheeks!) to protect his fair skin. Definitely got the fair skin from his father.

From the looks of it, many people were happy to get out into the snow. We saw people walking with dogs, running, skiing (classic, like us, and skate skiing), and skijoring (skiing while a dog in harness pulls you).