11 Months Old!! What?!!!

So Collin is now 11 months old! What?!! I'm really not sure how that happened! I don't think I wrote about his 10th month, but he is now walking, well running, ALL OVER THE PLACE!! For the longest time he was OBSESSED with walking around the house while holding onto one of our fingers. Daddy was always a sucker for this and Collin caught on fast! Anytime Daddy came home from work, Collin would rush over to him! Eric was pretty excited about this until he realized that Collin now had his finger and was pulling on him to walk around! Collin finally made the realization around Easter that fingers were not necessary and made walking his primary form of transportation! He had been taking multiple steps since about 9.5 months old, but it wasn't until then that he pretty much ditched crawling all together. Now one of his, and my, favorite things he does is run around the house picking up whatever toy or tupperware may be along his path while laughing hysterically! He will then walk with the item outstretched in his hand towards anyone around, and give it to them. It's pretty stinkin cute! He will also try to imitate them saying, "thank you", but his version is basically whatever babble noise he can make, but in a high pitched voice. Apparently we say thank you in a high pitched voice?? Other words I'm pretty sure he's trying to say are, "Ma ma", "Da da", "Doggie", "Buh buh"(brother), "bye bye", "hi" or "hey", "get it" (ok, well he says something all the time that sounds just like it anyways!), and his version of "thank you". He is actually pretty good at trying to mimic different sounds! He also loves to shake his head. When we tell him not to do something, he shakes his head. . . he's already learning "no" before he can even say it! And can I just say that I LOVE LOVE LOVE when he throws a fit! Is that just wrong?? It's THE CUTEST thing! I just can't take him seriously when he does it. He just sits down on his bottom and hunches his back over and gives the pouty/cry face. It just makes me want to squish him!! Other new things from this and last month are that he is eating table food(a feat that seemed to take Luke FOREVER!), has 6 teeth now, waves, claps, and makes a fun clicking sound with his tongue. Oh and his last weight was 19.2 lbs (only 5 lbs smaller that Luke now!!).

Onto big brother . . . He is getting a LOT better with the whole jealousy thing and actually tries to play with Collin now! He likes to follow him around and do whatever he does. He also is more liberal with giving hugs, kisses, gentle pats, and "i love yous" to his little bro. Luke has been such a good helper at closing doors to keep Collin out of trouble and loves to help us feed him. Speaking of Doors, Luke has also recently learned how to open them! Eeek! That is one thing I've been dreading, but knock on wood, it hasn't been the nightmare I imagined it to be just yet! Luke loves to be the center of attention especially at dinner time where he makes up songs and makes crazy faces!! Luke loves to leave us surprises in the car, but the best so far were the 20 or so chuck e cheese coins in the steering wheel column. We have, on occasion, gotten in the habit of letting Luke play in the car or jeep while we work outside. The vehicle is always off with no keys in sight, mind you, and we always try to keep a close eye on him. Aside from a cute little plastic lion staring at me from perched on top of the dash as well as wipers, blinkers, and lights left on, we've escaped any major mishaps. Well, his most recent escapade with the coins left us with a steering wheel that would honk everytime the wheel was turned. Can you imagine driving down the road incessantly honking at every turn? Apparently Luke thought the coins would make the car go just like at Chuck e cheese! I found it quite humorous although it took Eric a while to see it! Eric was able to fix it and all was right again! Luke might've lost his car privileges though! He has also discovered the joys of video chatting. He loves to video chat with his Luna, and Aunts and Uncles, but mostly he likes to look at "Luke"! He often refers to himself in the third person. It's actually pretty cute! Another huge step for him has been using the potty at school! He finally got over that hurdle, but we are still pretty far from being totally potty trained! Oh, and he recently refused to let me walk him to class! Is he really that grown up already? I was still able to get a kiss in, and it hasn't happened again, but it just gave me a horrible taste of what is to come! =( My patience is often worn pretty thin with this one, and I sooo wish I could say I loved when he threw fits too, but it's not quite the same! I love him to death, but am also just waiting for his good days to outweigh the bad! He is the BIGGEST ball of energy I have ever seen and has always been that way! Luke's level of understanding is slowly getting better and better and we often forget that we REALLY have to watch what we say around him because he might actually understand it! We're still working on the alphabet and counting, but he just doesn't seem to have much interest yet.