Milestones pt. XIII: 11 months

Justin Alexander turned 11 months old today, and to me it is totally crazy to think that he will already be a year old in 31 days. Wow... so this is what people mean when they pose the rhetorical question of "where does the time go?" Incredible.

Justin at 13 weeks, and again at 9 months

As for milestones, it's now official: Somewhere between 10 and 11 months old, Justin Alexander officially started walking. Granted, if you count "baby steps" (i.e., two steps and a plop) then he's been walking for a while, but Grandma inadvertently came up with a better definition of walking the other day when she asked if he is walking more than he is crawling. And the answer is yes. And even more to the point, he has gotten to where he pretty much doesn't like to crawl. We have video of him walking, but I'm almost reluctant to post it because he has gotten so much better at it even since the video was shot (a couple of weeks ago). Even in the progression of the video you can see a decrease in is his need for deep concentration and hand waving for balance. He still teeter totters through the house, but the progression has been fast. Just today he was flying around like he had a shot of caffeine in his bottle; clapping, screaming, zigzagging and speed walking through the living room like a lunatic. It's like something just clicked (I think his confidence, mostly) and now it's off to the races. Here's the video link.

The second big milestone is that sometime during the past 2 weeks, Justin finally broke the 20-pound barrier in weight. The big deal about this is that, by Virginia state law, we can turn a rear-facing car seat forward if the child is older than one year and weighs 20 pounds or more. As of his previous visit to the pediatrician, we were a little skeptical about him breaking that mark by 12 months since he was in the 8th percentile (yes... I said 8th) for body weight. But sure enough those weight-gain milkshakes we've been feeding him finally kicked in and presto... he'll get to see the highway from a whole new perspective in 31 days. It'll be nice to actually be able to see him while we're driving. On the other hand, he has gotten so accustomed to looking out the window and not being able to see us while we drive, that it might also be amusing to see his reaction to the 180 degree rotation.



Last but not least, in case you missed the previous link, the photo archive has been updated for May, so you can click here to access new family photos (including a few more from our Shenandoah trip last weekend). Enjoy.