I know this post is late, but we had to borrow Heidi's camera to take some pictures. Our baby is nearly 1!! Can you believe it? He's becoming such a little toddler, but he's still a baby to me (sniff, sniff). Here's a taste of the things he's now doing as an 11-month-old (give or take a few billion things since he changes so frequently now!).
On the motor front: As our recent videos have shown, Rowan is becoming more and more steady on his feet. He gets so excited right before he lets go and takes some steps. He looks excited and nervous and super proud all at the same time. He's able to walk across the room to us pretty well now.
Rowan can crawl up to the top of stairs, turn around and crawl down on his tummy (uncle Scott taught him how). We still use our gait, of course, but this is a great step toward safety and independence! He also can get down from furniture on his tummy.
He also has become quite a climber. He's climbed into cabinet drawers (yes
into cabinet drawers) and uses objects to try to climb onto furniture and get to things out of reach. Yikes!
On the communication front: Rowan says mama quite frequently. He also started saying Scott this past month (while pointing incessantly at his uncle). He says duck, quack quack, baa baa and makes the cutest horse noise. He has said dada and grandpa, but they aren't as frequent. He knows and uses the ASL signs for eat and more. He also says full sentences in a strange baby language that we, of course, can't understand.
One of Rowan's favorite communication techniques is the "shrug and 'huh?'" Any time he wonders something, he'll hold up his hands, shrug and go "huh?" He does this a lot whenever Kyle leaves the room, as if to say, "where's he going?"
Listening! Listening! Listening! Rowan seems to understand much of what we're saying. We learned in our ECFE class that babies have 80-90 percent of their language comprehension skills at a year. It shows! Rowan can follow instructions, can find objects (like his football, puppy, ducky and specific books). He can hold up his index finger when we ask how old he is (I've been teaching him that so he'll know it when his first birthday rolls around). He loves to point at things while we tell him what they are. He's soaking it all in!
Favorites: Rowan's favorite book is
I Love You Stinky Face (super cute!). His favorite foods are blueberries (frozen or fresh), plums, watermelon, green beans, meat (organic hot dogs, chicken, steak, free-range turkey meatballs), spicy black beans, egg yolk and organic fruit leather. He doesn't eat a ton at each meal, but he eats a pretty good variety now. He likes eating at Chipotle (the the black beans and chicken out of my burrito bowl) so we meet Kyle there for lunch sometimes. They used naturally raised meats (no antibiotics or hormones) so I feel good about letting him eat there.
He's a little charmer with a sweet personality, and we feel so blessed to be his parents!
We celebrated Rowan's birthday with his aunts and uncles, grandparents and great grandparents. The theme? Ducks of course! Needless to say, we heard a lot of "quack quacks" that day.
Rowan got lots of great loot, and some fun keepsakes for his time capsule (he'll open it when he turns 18). 
We tried giving him his first taste of sugar, but he didn't eat much -- if any -- of his cupcake. 
Hmmmmm...maybe he felt a little too much pressure. Ya think?!?! 
So, he fed Grandma Connie instead. We've since discovered that Rowan's more of a chocolate lover. He's only had it a few times (in mama's homemade flourless chocolate torte), but it got a resounding mmmmmmmm. 
Overall, it was a fun time! Good food, fun presents and an awesome family! I wonder if this next year will go by so fast!
Oh, those overgrown bangs! 
