The Dickinson Boys: 11 months old

Little Luke is 11 months old! Closing in on that big first birthday! Luke has had a lot of big things happen over the last few weeks. After weeks and weeks of just rocking on all fours, he finally decided to take off. After just a day or two of practice he was crawling like a pro. Now it's like he has a little motor attached- he's so quick! Just days after he started crawling, he started cruising along the couch when I'd stand him up against it. In the last couple of days he's been pulling himself up into a standing position. That's a lot of skills in a short period of time! Now that he's mobile, though, there's a whole new dynamic around the house. I have to be so much more careful because Luke is very curious and so quick. Poor Will is really being put to the test too. Luke is so interested in Will and loves to watch every move he makes. Now that Luke is crawling, he is only interested in the toys that Will is playing with. So Will has a little shadow. The problem is that Luke wants to touch Will and the toys Will is playing with. It's been a struggle. Luke is so focused too- he's very hard to distract with other things. It's like he's magnetically drawn to Will. Will is usually so good-natured with Luke but when there are toys involved...watch out. When Luke swipes at a toy Will has Will likes to yank it away and yell "not a toy," which is what we say to him when he is playing with something he shouldn't be.

After a couple of weeks of what I called Luke's "hunger strike" when he wasn't eating much, he's back in fine form. He still loves trying to feed himself and some new things he likes to eat include cheese, black beans and pasta. The food doesn't always make it into his mouth or down the hatch, but he loves trying.

Luke is really starting to show his smarts. He's a very social little guy and he loves clapping and playing peak-a-boo. I noticed one day while feeding him that I said something about the dog and he started looking for Zoe. Then I started testing him and I'd ask "where is the dog?". He looks for Zoe every time. We've even started teaching him other words. My mom taught him "balloon" and he'd look up at the balloon every time we asked him where it was. Any time I say any words of praise (usually "good job" or "yea") Luke claps his hands. He understands the word "bottle" and "eat." Sometimes he makes sounds that sound like certain words but I'm not really sure yet if he's actually trying to say those words. I've heard "hi" "bye" and "eat." He does say mama and dada too. He has also started pointing at everything. He seems like he's trying to communicate a lot.

Will's big news is that he got to go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum at Dulles to see the space shuttle. He liked it but was a bit overwhelmed by it all. I kept telling him it was the space shuttle we watch on the computer, but I think he had a hard time taking it all in. It was down like an airplane whereas he's used to seeing it upright on a launch pad. It was also so big that from underneath it was hard to see it all at once. So I think Will didn't fully understand what he was seeing, but he still had a good time. He loved seeing all of the airplanes and helicopters too. We also saw the Enola Gay, which I thought was neat, and a Concorde supersonic jet. So, if you're keeping track, at just over three years old Will has seen the Discovery space shuttle, the Enola Gay, The Spirit of St. Louis and many more historical treasures most people never get to see. I'm pretty proud that he has so many enriching experiences, even if he won't remember them.

Will has matured a bit in the last month or so. He is really into being my helper and has tried to step up and do some of David's "jobs" around the house. Will spots and picks up bugs, brings the empty trash cans back to the garage, refills Zoe's food bowl, helps carry in groceries and walks Zoe on the leash during our walks. He also likes to push Luke in the stroller and push the grocery cart (which he can't see over the top of but gets upset when I help him steer). He's like one of those German Shepherds that wears a backpack so it feels like it has a job. Will loves to help so I give him things to do. He still has his toddler moments, but on the whole he's more cooperative.

One of Will's new skills is putting on his own shoes and socks. He can do it all by himself and most of the time gets his shoes on the correct feet. Since the last post he's also mastered saying the alphabet. So now he knows all of the letters, upper and lowercase, can say his ABCs and knows the sounds for maybe 6 or 7 different letters. For a couple of days he showed some interest in trying to write. He'd ask me to help him hold the pencil and we'd trace letters on a large writing pad he has. He doesn't really have the fine motor skills yet to trace them on his own, but he liked writing them when I put my hand over his and showed him how. Then he'd say "write W-I-L-L" so he could write his name. I got a taste of how hard it will be to teach a lefty to write. I had no idea how to show him to hold a pencil even. We'll have to schedule some face time with Uncle Ben, a fellow southpaw.

Will is making some progress with language. His vocabulary is really outstanding (he comes up with words that amaze me sometimes) and he understands most of what we say, but I've been a little concerned about how much and how well he talks. Probably not shocking considering his parents, but Will is just not a big talker. Over the last few days I've made a point to work with him on certain speaking skills (like talking in full sentences, asking questions and using pronouns) and he's making some progress. We're working on it. He occasionally spits out helpful nuggets like "don't touch bird poop" and "don't eat watercolors." He should write fortune cookies.

Last weekend Will finished up his swimming lessons. He's pretty fearless in the water. His favorite thing is jumping in off the side. He only occasionally waits until I'm ready to catch him. He's pretty good at "scooping and kicking" motions and doesn't mind going underwater. He doesn't like to float on his back though. He won't have any more lessons in Maryland but once we get to Alabama we're going to get him some more lessons through the YMCA in Prattville.

This morning Will and I had a little date on base. Luke stayed home with a babysitter and Will and I went to the USO's Sesame Street Experience for Military Families. It was a full live Sesame Street show with Elmo, Rosita, Cookie Monster, Grover, a honker and Katie, a new character who is from a military family and is sad about moving. The whole show was about helping kids with the frequent moves- timely for us! It was a really good show and the USO gave out lots of goodies. Will was not one of the kids jumping around and going crazy but he was definitely entertained and he smiled and waved at the characters a few times. He was just taking it all in. Then we went out for pizza at the BX and to the commissary. It was a nice morning and it was great to have some one-on-one time with Will.

We're very much looking forward to the return of someone special in a couple of days. Poor Will especially has missed him a lot. We're excited for a relaxing holiday weekend too!