Seth's 11th Month

Seth learned to do so many things in his 11th month. Yes, today is his birthday and he's now 12 months, and I will put up a post and pictures tomorrow with birthday stuff. But first I wanted to let you all know what he's been up to. In about 2 weeks he learned to do all these new things. Jonathan was gone for a week to Arizona, then my mom was here for a week, and in those two weeks he learn to crawl properly. He had been butt-scooting, as you've all seen, and could army crawl. He also learned to stand up to things without forgetting to hold on, or falling back. Then the next day he figured out how to pull up to things on his own so he could stand. Then the next day he learned how to cruise along the coffee table, walking from end to end holding on to the side. Amazing! I don't know how he learned all that in a matter of days. Maybe he'll even walk soon! JJ and Elise both walked at 14 mo. and it would be funny if he walked before that, because he has been behind them in all other physical milestones. He's still so little that he looks funny standing up. People still think he's 7 mo. old.
One area Seth is ahead of the game is verbally. He can say several things already that we understand. He first said "uh-oh," but now says mey-mey (mama), na-na (nurse), di-di (kitty), dah-dah (daddy), dah-der (tractor), day-day (JJ), and this wee-wee thing he says all the time and we can't figure out what he means. It may be as close as he can get to saying Elise. That's a lot of words for an 11 mo. old. I'm so proud!
Seth still has a pretty laid-back personality. I guess he's about middle of the road. He loves interaction, but really keeps himself occupied a lot of the day. He just crawls around looking for things to play with (ususally not his toys). He loves to play with Elise's little metal pots and pans (good noise!), the CD cases in the CD rack (a no-no), and he likes to stand up and play the piano. He can just reach the keys.
Read more tomorrow on how his birthday went!

Seth's Early Birthday

Seth's birthday isn't until next Tuesday, but with Grammie visiting, we had to have a little celebration so she could give him his gift from Grammie and Grandpa Mercer and Mom and Dad. Seth really didn't like the cupcake. I think he was kind of afraid of it, but he loved the candle! He's taken lots of rides in the house, and rides around the block outside, in his little sports car. I wish someone would get me a red convertible for my birthday!

Seth Butt-Scooting

Family and Friends

JJ (6), Seth (11mo.), Elise (5), Brook (7), Hope (5), Kara (3)
We had dinner at Karl and Allison's on Saturday and took a few pictures.

I realized when I was updating the blog that the last picture I have of all five of us is from Seth's dedication at church when he was about 1 mo. So Allison took a good one for us! JJ is of course making a silly face. He had that stage when he was 3 and we seem to be entering it again, where he thinks he has to screw up his face to smile. Arg.

Cradle, Diaper-Head, and Literati

Seth at 10 months in the family cradle. Jonathan and all of his brothers slept in this cradle, and some other children from our church. It was lost for a while, but found in time for Seth to use it. Jonathan painted it a nice cream color. I think it had about 10 coats of paint. We found a chocolate brown and a garish, bright green, to name a few. He has slept in the cradle from the day he came home from the hospital, until about 2 weeks ago. We have a picture similar to this of Jonathan in the cradle. I wish I had a scanner so I could put them on here together.

Seth (9 mo.) and his sister Diaper-Head. Elise wanted to model a style she learned from her friend Maddy, who had a similar picture on her blog a while ago. Seth was quick enthused about the whole thing. We had a hard time turning him around for the picture; he just wanted to stare at Elise's headgear.

My little literary fellow. Seth (9 mo.) doesn't normally sit here, as he tumbles right out, but I got him to sit for the picture. He just looked so cute and bookish with his sweater and vest (thanks Abby!) and Charlotte's Web.

Seth Watching Trucks

This is a video from January when the giant snowblower was removing the snow from our street. Seth would get so excited he didn't know what to do. What happens is that the plows push the snow up onto the curb, but after it snows a lot or many times, it gets to be a huge bank. Then the plows come and scrape it to the middle of the street. A large tractor fitted with the world's largest snowblower called a Sno-Go (really) comes and blows it into dump trucks. The dump trucks line up 4-5 deep and just keep catching the snow until full, then pull away and the next moves up. They dump the snow in a "snow lot" at various places in the city (empty lots and such). Seth could recognize the sound of the Sno-Go (an unearthy decibal) and would start kicking and clenching his hands. I'm so glad I caught this on video.