Lately...

Whew, I need to play catch up!

Bruce is growing and growing!!
He is 11 months old! I cannot believe how fast it has gone! I remember when Bruce was a newborn I would see women at church in the mother's lounge with their 11-12 month olds and thinking to myself - 'that is not a baby!'

He is wonderful, and I still consider him a baby... even if not for too much longer! He is so mobile now! He can stand up on his own without using anything for support. He likes to climb up the stairs at his grandma's house. (now getting back down is now going to be our big worry for the next months! yikes!) He is quick as lightning at crawling. He will dart across the room to get through an open door, especially if it leads outside. And although I didn't see it, my sister-in-law and grandma informed me that he did a pretty spectacular handstand the other day. I guess his top half is just a little too heavy for the rest of his body!

Just yesterday I put my finger in his mouth to check if his other bottom tooth had come through yet, and what did I find? The child has his top right tooth halfway in! It must have broken through the gums at least a week ago to be so big already! I hadn't even noticed it! I was just sure that the second bottom tooth would come through before either top one! Perhaps for Halloween he will have a Jack-o-Lantern smile! Top Right and Bottom Left teeth! Last week I made him a little quesadilla, and he was working so hard with his one little bottom tooth. It looked like a little mouse had been nibbling on it. There were tiny chunks missing from the edge, where he managed to bite it with that single baby tooth.

He is also much more vocal now! He talks a lot! His favorite sound to make is still DA, although the last few days he was with his Cousin Hannah, who uses BA for everything, and he switched over. I guess they were just speaking each other's language!

Bruce loves other kids! I know I have said that a million times on here, but he just ADORES having kids come to our house. We had a friend and her 3 year old stay with us for a week, and every waking moment Bruce was following Nevaeh! He would laugh and laugh at her whenever she would jump or run or roll on the floor. It was so sweet! He will be a great big brother some day!

Bruce has learned to give me 'kisses' although I think he is probably really just trying to bite my chin or cheek. We will call them kisses though. He likes to 'tackle' too. He thinks it is so fun to lay on top of me or daddy.

He is still very attached to his parents. We celebrated our 4th anniversary last Thursday by going to the temple for the first time since Bruce has been born, and left him with a family in the ward. They have had 12 children, 6 of whom are still at home - they know how to handle babies - but I think he gave them a run for their money. They said Bruce screamed and cried the.whole.time. They tried everything they could think of to clam him down, but apparently he would start crying again pretty quick. I really feel bad for both parties involved. Poor Bruce probably was scared out of his mind and the babysitters were probably pulling their hair out. Two days ago David and I ran the Rebel Race in Dallas and left Bruce at his Great Grandmas house with my mom, grandma and his aunt and cousin, and he cried for 2 hours before finally falling asleep. We were gone about 6 hours total. By far the longest he has ever been away from us.

He does a really funny thing with his mouth to entertain himself. He opens and closes it again and again and makes a smack-smack sound over and over. It is really cute!

He has figured  out how to open cabinets and some drawers, although so far he just opens and closes without taking anything out. He does like to eat toilet paper and paper towels. He makes a beeline for the toilet paper roll when he gets in the bathroom and tries to unravel it before I get there.

He still dislikes car rides. We drove from Greenville to Elkhart just yesterday, and boy it was not fun. He cried for at least an hour, then fussed the rest of the way. David and I make sure to leave for long trips between the hours of 8pm and 5am so he will most likely sleep on the drive, although sometimes even then he will stay awake and cry. We rarely take car trips more than 5 - 10 minutes long though.

I think that is all about Bruce I can think of.

I can't believe 11 months has gone so quickly! I sure love my big guy! He is my sweet, sensitive, cuddly buddy.