Ewan is 11 months old!

Ewan turns 11 months old today!

He has two teeth on top -- his second top tooth broke through just yesterday. It makes his smile look so different. He is not happy about this new development. He is cranky, picky about food, and dealing with a runny nose all the time. Ugh. This is a huge contrast to his usual SUPER happy, smiley self.

Ewan is a super fast crawler now and if you turn your back for a second, he's gone. He likes to make a break for the refrigerator or any kitchen cabinet when the door is open. He also likes to sneak his way into the bathrooms when no one is looking. Upstairs he pulls himself up on the tub and turns on the faucet (and cries LOUDLY when you take him away). Downstairs, he likes to pull himself up on the toilet, the tub and the garbage can.

Amazingly, another place he crawls to is the playroom -- to play by himself! It is absolutely incredible to me. I'll be working in the kitchen and he'll play there for awhile. Then he'll take off down the hall, scooting on his knees, all the way to the playroom. He enters, looks around and then starts playing.

His favorite toys are: Eli's big green garbage truck, his Leapfrog table, and any car or truck. He doesn't really play with any of the toys Eli played with at this age because there are so many more big-boy toys around.

Ewan's taking two naps a day these days, and they are both about two hours long. He must be resting up to keep up with his brain development and motor skills. He pulls himself along the couch and from chair to chair -- preparing to start walking soon I think! And he definitely understands more of our words. Sometimes I say, "Ewan come here, come into the kitchen for some food," and he crawls right into the kitchen. He plays peek-a-boo -- holding the napkin in front of his own face and peeking out after we say, "Where's Ewan?!" And he even responds to my "Ack, ack, ack!" which tells him not to touch whatever he is touching!

He's also eating a lot, and he's not satisfied with just pureed baby food. He wants to eat finger foods, and more importantly, he wants to eat what we are eating. We give him whatever we can from our plates and if he doesn't like it, he feeds it to Zula!

Ewan is still nursing -- about four times a day. He's still squirmy but he has many moments where he is calm, especially before bedtime.

Ah, bedtime. Ewan has been sleeping through the night for months now and this Mama is quite content about that. Ewan goes to bed about 8:30 p.m. and wakes at 6 or 7 or even 8 a.m.! Glorious!

Now that Ewan is almost one, Eli is really enjoying his little brother. One time he said, out of the blue, "I just love Ewan. I love his face. I love his eyes. I love his hair!" (He does have hair; it is very fine and very blond and VERY hard to see :) ). At the dinner table, Eli and Ewan sometimes play a tug-of-war with Eli's napkin and both of them laugh a lot. Eli loves to hug Ewan, most of the time too tightly. Eli is genuinely excited for his brother's accomplishments, which is just about the cutest thing to witness. When we said, "Ewan's top tooth broke through," Eli clapped his hands and his eyes grew bright and he said, "YAY YAY YAY! Now he can eat pretzels!"

Our family is looking forward to Ewan's first birthday in a month. Eli talks about how fun it will be for baby Ewan to eat a cupcake for the first time!