Seth is 11 months old!

Seth is 11 months old - it is crazy how fast time is flying. I feel like Seth should only be 4 or 6 months old. He can't have been born almost a year ago!

Seth is growing up so fast. And he is everywhere.
Seth's favorite things to do:
- pull all the books off the shelf
- look through all books
- pull at the DVDs off the shelf
- try to put the DVDs back on the shelf (yeah! maybe, he'll be a clean kid)
- splash in the toilet
- unroll the toilet paper as fast as possible
- eat the toilet plunger
- play with and eat the cat litter
- splash the cat water on the floor
- eat the cat's food
- pull Tabasco sauce out of the fridge while Mom is trying to get something else out of the fridge & he is in my arms
- pull Brita filter out on the floor and get water everywhere (when he is on the floor)
- play in water where ever he can find it
- propel self off of couch
- climb through all jerry-rigged baby gates made from kitchen table chairs
- pull all the toys out of containers
- propel and/or crawl away as diaper and clothes are being changed
- be in baby swing at the park
- crawl up the stairs or the slide at the park

Seth has learned some new things this month. Most notably: standing on own for a few seconds at a time, letting go and taking steps (still very occasionally), and going down backwards to get off of something. He will even do this to go down the slide by himself. In fact, he navigates the playground pretty well - climbing up the stairs himself, crawling over the structure (of course, I am right next to him), and then sliding down the slide on the belly feet first himself. Of course, he wants to do everything that Andrew does.

He babbles all the time. Not a lot of words, mainly just Mom and Dad (and usually it's just Dad for everything). He might say the word "Cat" and maybe cracker. I am not sure about those. Oh, and he says "Bye" at least sometimes. He also whines. And throws tantrums when he doesn't get what he wants (usually reserved for when I put away a toy he wants to play with (today, the sidewalk chalk) or close the bathroom door (oh, the horror! What a mean mom I am!). He cries when someone hurts him or hurts his feelings, but if you apologize, he will stop crying. He actually is pretty easy to understand most of the time, even though he doesn't talk.

He refuses to have anything to do with baby food, and will only consent to being spoon fed a couple things, like yogurt and curry. He could live on curry - well, he practically does. He also loves strawberries - he is a Funai after all. We can go through 2 lbs of strawberries in like a day. He really likes Japanese noodles and crackers and string cheese and fruit. No rice, so he's no Andrew.

He really likes baths. And Mom. Katsu thinks he is getting a comfort object - we'll see. My kids seem to have one or two comfort "objects" - Mom & Dad. He loves Joe - the feeling is not reciprocal. He loves touch books and lift-the-flap and insists on lifting all the flaps himself. He cries whenever someone leaves because he wants to go somewhere too. He is practically hysterical some days when Katsu leaves. He wants to watch TV, but I try to forbid it when he is awake. The couple times he has seen Sesame Street he is enthralled with Elmo. He doesn't want to sit still to hear a story anymore. He cruises as much as possible, but when crawl if needed. Even in pavement. He loves his older brother. They love to wrestle and crawl all over each other and play together. He knows when Andrew really likes a song and gets really excited when it is played and looks around for Andrew. He loves music and instruments. He is getting two teeth - one of the top middle and one of the bottom on the side. Weird.

It's been a fun month. Now, we just need to get a bruise-free head for 1 year pictures and also plan a 1st birthday party. Too bad we don't have any friends here, it will probably be a small affair.