air poop
up
all done
more
Mama
Dada
milk (hand sign)
brother
open
thank you
again
poop
diaper
謝謝 (xiexie; thank you)
ball
yes
go
爸爸 (baba; Daddy)
on
魚 (yu; fish)
hello
ding!
yuck
peepee
apple
baby
hot
幫忙 (bangmang;help)
let's play
armpit
did it!
Well, the little guy made it - a year old! We celebrated in abbreviated fashion today with a little cake and song:
We plan to have a little more elaborate birthday party for him this weekend when we are more recovered from our recent trip to Singapore (more about that in a future post) and our friends here will be able to attend. Here's a few more photos from today:
...months, that is. Today our little toddler is 11 months old. This calls for some video!
In related developments, Lance is also (finally) getting more teeth in. Three more, in fact - all on top. It's his two front teeth and one right next to the right front tooth. He's been dealing with the teething pain very admirably - not too much crying or crankiness, although there is a fair amount of drooling going on. 'Tis to be expected... We figured he would have a whole mouthful of teeth by now, seen as how he had his first ones coming in when he was only six months old. Well, they come in when they're ready, no sooner. Now he can start eating a much larger variety of foods, since his chewing capacity will be increased mightily!
If he's already walking this well at 11 months, I wonder what he'll be doing by the time he is a year old next month? He's growing up so fast!
Lance will be 9 months old this week. Hard to believe how time flies! I am really enjoying seeing him grow up. There are a lot of things I missed when John was a baby because I was deployed – his first tooth, learning to crawl, pulling himself up, and standing on his own. (Just for a second!) His hair is growing in and starting to get longer. I have been able to see all these things with Lance, and I am very grateful.
He can do more and more each day. He loves to explore the house now that he is a good crawler, especially, it seems, the bathroom. If you let him crawl where he wants to, invariably he will head there. He is completely fascinated by the toilet and the toilet brush. (!) We are doing our best to keep him away from both things, but especially the latter. The other day, Barb caught him standing next to the toilet, seemingly trying to reach in and touch the water. No, baby, no!
I love this toy!
While he once really enjoyed spending much of the day in his walker, he now enjoys crawling and exploring without it much more, for he can get to places this way that he was unable to when in the walker. He pulls himself up on furniture and other items all the time. Sometimes he will walk while holding on to my or Barb’s hands. Too cute!
Well, I've been doing a lot of triathlon training, first of all. Then, we were out of town the weekend before last to Sun Moon Lake in central Taiwan. Right after we got back from that trip, I found out my grandma died and I went back to the U.S. for the funeral. Now I'm back in Taiwan and headed back to class tomorrow. More busy-ness!
Back on this side of the Pacific, I'm going to be busy writing term papers, preparing presentations, getting ready for the Taipei Half Marathon later this month, and all the biking and swimming I can manage to fit in!
I did post a bunch of photos from the trip back to the U.S., the trip to Sun Moon Lake, and other assorted goodness over at Flickr (some are also on Facebook, if you are on there). I'll put up a few here just for fun:
At the Formosan Aboriginal Cultural Village (FACV) near Sun Moon Lake
John at Sun Moon Lake
Barb and Lance on the Sun Moon Lake "ropeway" (cable cars)
This guy likes to ride on trains (at FACV)
On the way to the funeral
An all-grandson casket detail
Mild weather in Omaha means backyard football!
There was a massacre (of Lego men) - at the Fun Fair at John's school
Our new pets (two are still alive)
Folks, that's Carl "Stump" Merrill on the right, former NY Yankees manager (early 1990s). He was the "guest of honor" at the school Fun Fair.
It was a rainy day at the Fun Fair. Here's John trying to outleg his best buddy.
John's new tattoo (don't worry folks, it's only temporary!)
One recent evening the family went to a one-year old's birthday party and we came home well after the boys's bedtime. I had Lance in the back carrier, sleeping peacefully, and John fell asleep on the subway ride home. I decided the easiest way to get him home was to carry him. Here you go - action shot!
I explained to Barb that even though they probably weighed 60 lbs together, that was peanuts compared to the average load of any combat soldier, so it was an easy day!
To celebrate his "ripening", he decided that today would be the perfect day for his first tooth to erupt from his lower gums, right in the front, on the right (his right). We also fed him vegetables for the first time - carrots! (cooked and blended, of course) He was a bit flummoxed by the taste and texture at first ("Hey - this isn't rice cereal!"), but before long he took a liking to it and finished the bowl. And he followed it with his customary bowl of rice cereal - and kept it all down!
We have a couple significant developments on the child-rearing front to report. First, John has recently begun 5-day a week, full-day pre-kindergarten classes. This school, unlike the one he had attended since last October on a part-time basis, teaches in English. (John likes this much better.) Week one was successful, and John even told us that staying at home was "kinda boring" compared to all the fun stuff he gets to do at school. You go, John! Keep that attitude forever, son!
我喜歡吃crackers!
Lance is also hitting the developmental milestones. Like I mentioned in a recent post, he is just a week shy of 5 months old right now, and this past week he began limited non-breast milk food trials, a first for him. One evening he dined on a cracker (pictured) and since then he has begun regular evening servings of rice cereal while sitting in his high chair. It took but a few days of this for him to develop quite a gusto for the stuff, pulling the spoon into his mouth and celebrating each mouthful. This new food's "staying power" seems to be allowing him to go longer without feedings in the middle of the night, sleeping for a solid eight hours the other night. In non-food related updates for Lance, he is edging ever-closer to becoming mobile, perfecting his ability to hold his head up high while on his tummy and beginning to get up on his knees (but not the essential hands and knees that he needs to figure out to crawl). He's also working on being able to sit up by himself (actually, maintaining a sitting position on his own after being helped into it by Mom or Dad). But he likes being in a standing position more than anything (photo).
