Growing Up!

So, this isn't a monthly update. Canaan is currently 13 1/2 months now. I just had a few things I wanted to write about since I am "WAAAAY overdue for a new post!" (Thus said Timbra.)

New Word: Guess what? CANAAN SAID MOMMA! Horray! After adding over 30 words to his vocabulary, he has finally decided to say "Mamma." I ran downstairs in the basement and he called out, "Mamma, Mamma!" I ran up the stairs saying, "Here I am!" It was wonderful. He started signing "Mom" (not the exact sign- but something close) a few days ago. If his ball rolled under the table or he needed something, he would sign, "Mom. Help." It was cute. But now he is calling after me! Does this mean I am officially a Mommy now?!! Ornery: Canaan is just getting bigger everyday! He has a few new signs and words, some new games, and some new attitude! Today, he decided to disobey Mommy and not come when called; he just looked at me with a sparkle in his eye and slowly backed away from me. So, after he was properly disciplined (and then came to me much more willingly), Auntie Livi said that she didn't like him growing up and getting in trouble. These feelings are shared by Gran-Nan too, who in the past has offered to buy Canaan anything he wanted in a catalog after he got in trouble! Oh my! Games: Dougle was in the shower the other day. Canaan walked in the bathroom and started playing peek-a-boo with him behind the curtain. It was so cute, I had to snap a picture! Canaan just loves peek-a-boo these days. He just laughs and laughs! I just can't get enough of him some days! He also loves playing chase. He looks at you in a teasing way and then turns around and runs the other way. This means, "Chase me!" He will just go as far as he can, looking behind his shoulder the whole time to make sure you are following. If not, he kind-of giggles to get your attention and let you know he is playing with you, and that you should be playing with him!
Bible Class:
For the past few months, Canaan has been crying when I drop him off in the nursery for Bible Class. This is very sad to me, since I have always had the impression that he loves Bible Class. There were even a few times when the nursery had to page me because he wouldn't settle down enough to stay. It has got much better recently, so that he would only cry when I first dropped him off; then he would settle down and enjoy class. But now, Janie in the nursery has figured out that Canaan loves trucks. So, when we go to drop him off, she asks him if he wants a truck. Canaan immediately perks up, forgets about crying, and goes right to her! So, he now goes to Bible class without a worry! It is wonderful. Thank you Janie and all the nursery workers who allow me to enjoy my Bible class in peace!

One Year Milestones

Introduction
To confess up front, I am stealing this idea from my friend Timbra Wiist. She keeps up a cute blog about her family (mainly her little girl- Alani). Alani is about 7 months Canaan's senior. Anyway, Timbra does a post on Alani's month birthdays (15 mos, 18mos, etc.) that records all her milestones she's reached. I thought it was a great idea. Since Canaan just had his first birthday, then I can tell you all about where he is at in the baby world. Though I am very convinced that Canaan is my little genius, I do know all babies reach different milestones at different times. Even Canaan seems a bit behind on some things (like he doesn't point or gesture at much now), but I think he is ahead on other things. So I guess it all evens out in the long run! So, here I go at bragging!

Up-to-Date Stats
Height: 30 inches (50th percentile)
Weight: 20 lbs 6 oz (20th percentile)
Head Cir: 19 inches (85th percentile)
7 Teeth
Light Brown Hair
Green(ish) Eyes
Beautiful!

Physical Feats
Canaan was a late crawler, starting around 9 1/2 months of age, but started walking at about 11 months of age. He would walk with his hands stretching out straight in front of him for about a month; many people thought we should dress him up as Frankenstein for Halloween because of his entertaining walk. Now that he is 12 months, he is toddling around without any hand balance. When he gets really excited, Canaan tries to run. It is adorable: we'll pretend to chase him and he starts walking/running away as fast as he can. But he is so excited, his legs get a bit stiff-which makes it hard to get anywhere fast.
Canaan also has started throwing a ball. It is just an excited hand thrust-and-release. But it gets the ball rolling forward for the most part. He also loves pushing around his big truck and small trucks.

Vocabulary
Canaan has been our little verbal genius. He started with uh-oh at 7 1/2 months. When he turned 9 months, he already said 4 words. Now, at 12 months, Canaan has about 23 words. They include: book, Bible, truck (uck), tractor (trator), daddy (dad), bye-bye, up, sock (ock-usually he calls his shoes socks), uh-oh, auntie (a-tee), UD (stands for Uncle David), Gran-nan (Na-nan), Grand-dad (dad-dad), thank you (da-doo), ba-ba (any animal except cat), hi kitty cat (hi key-tat), ball (ba), teeth (teet), elbow (e-bow), bath (bat), all done (all), peek-a-boo (a-boo), drink (nk).
We've also been signing with Canaan. Although his verbal vocabulary is so big, he relies on the signs to help communicate these important words: help, more, please, eat, milk, more, elephant, all done, and (waves) bye.
Canaan has started putting together random syllables lately. I think this is the beginning of babbling. He hasn't really done this yet. He always has been intentional with his words up until now.
Canaan also can point to certain body parts. He can identify his toes, ears, head, teeth and fingers (by wiggling). This must be attributed to his Gran-Nan buying him a flip book with body parts. He loves to read it, so we go through everything as he does. The first time he heard the word elbow, he said it and can identify which picture is the one of the elbow! Kids are so funny as to what they pick up on.
Canaan also gives high fives and claps when asked. (He's been doing both of these since he was 9 months old.) Canaan thinks clapping is TONS OF FUN! He always smiles and cheers up when we clap. If we are having a hard time getting him to smile for a picture, we start clapping with him and he smiles instantly! He even claps for himself if I tell him he's a 'good boy.'

Favorites

• Even now, Canaan definitely has some preferences. He loves books. Often the first words that pass his lips after we get him out of bed is: a book. He loves reading. This past week he's been sick and has constantly asked for a book. He just likes to cuddle on your lap and read. Right now, Grand-Dad is his favorite book pal. If he is around, then that is who Canaan wants to read him a book.

• Trucks are his favorite toys. He calls anything with wheels a "uck" (despite mommy's efforts to help him identify that some are cars or trains). He does recognize a tractor (ta-tr) with little or now prompting. But trucks are the light of his little life. I have decided they are a wonderful and pure boy toy. So, we are all about trucks these days. This is actually the one thing that will distract him from a book! Balls are also a big hit lately. He loves to carry two around and throw them toward us.

• Baby Einstein. We bought him a movie about a month ago. It is "First Signs." We thought it would help him with his sign vocabulary. Until recently (since he's been sick), he would only sit for 15 minutes of this 27 minute video. His favorite part about it is this little blue puppet. I am in a quandary as to what animal it is supposed to be, but I think it is supposed to be a cat. I have included a picture of it so you can ponder as to it's identity as well.

• He is definitely a home boy. He loves being at home. We can keep him out late, past his bedtime or nap, but when we get home, he has to have some 'unwind time' before bedtime. He just loves playing with his toys and being amongst familiar surroundings. He is pretty good at independent play, though he has started wanting more interactive play with mommy here lately. He also loves helping mom around the house. He goes behind me and shuts all the doors I open, including the fridge door and all cabinet doors I try to open. Often he shuts the doors before I am finished digging in them. Ummm. He also likes to help with the dishwasher. He will pull in and out the racks. We've begun learning not to touch the silverware, because he always reaches for the sharp knives. When he thinks I should be finished with the dishwasher, he closes it all up for me. The other day, he was helping me with the laundry, carrying around two empty detergent bottles. What a big helper I have! :)

• Animals. Canaan gets very excited when he sees our cat. He squeals delightedly as he says hi kitty cat! He also likes dogs, horses and other animals. He clumps all other animals (besides the cat) into the word: ba-b0. Very strange. I haven't figured out yet where that came from.

• Canaan is an excellent sleeper. However, he has become attached to his pacifier and blanket for sleeping. The pacifier is a good thing; when he doesn't have it, he sucks his fingers or thumb. The blanket was an accident. I think we are going to have to get a 'back up' blanket for when we move- just in case mommy accidentally misplaces his favorite one.
  

Culinary Delights
Canaan is still hanging onto his bottle. He loves his milk. Right now I am mixing it half formula with half real milk. He is doing well with that. He loves to drink our drinks- especially from a straw. He like pretty much anything we are drinking. In his own cup, he likes water and some watered down cranberry juice. That is all so far.
Eating is a bit of a challenge right now. He still loves his baby oatmeal (the stuff that tastes like paste and cardboard). He does like cream of wheat and regular oatmeal too. He likes Mommy's homemade rolls (who doesn't?). Yogurt is a big hit now. He will eat up all you'll give him! He is currently not eating baby food anymore, but will try a lot of what we eat. He'll eat many cooked vegetables. Spaghetti is also a favorite. However, he almost refuses to even put fruit to his lips. He's never been real big on the baby food fruit and that has carried over into regular fruit. He used to like bananas, but he'll have none of those anymore. In fact, whenever I put something into his mouth that he doesn't like, he starts gagging. He even started gagging the other day when I brushed a grape across his lips to see if he'd like the flavor. What a silly boy!
I haven't been brave enough to let him feed himself with a spoon yet. I think I will be starting soon though!

I'm sure I could write TONS more about our little boy. But I will stop myself. I hope you enjoyed reading ALL ABOUT CANAAN!

The Boy in Him

Canaan is definitely all boy! He has always loved making lots of loud noises. One of his favorite pastimes is to take two toys and bang them together. If they don’t make much noise, then those aren’t his favorite toys. Now Canaan is starting to play with a ball (since we finally found one for him). We will roll it back and forth, only he doesn’t roll the ball- he picks it up and hands it to me to roll back to him. It is great fun and way too cute! The other new boy thing is his obsession with trucks (“ucks”). Dougle and I bought him a Tonka truck to stand behind and push. It also has a cool steering wheel where each thing (blinker, horn, key) makes different noises then turned or pushed. He just loves his truck! He walks behind it everywhere. It really just goes in a straight line, so when he ran into things that stopped him, he would grunt for us to come over and turn it around for him. Now he has learned that he can just walk to the other end, and push it right back the way it came- all by himself. He is so cute to watch! He also recognizes real trucks (anything from a riding lawnmower to a big vehicle he calls a “uck”). He especially loves it when they drive by making lots of noise! So now, his two favorite words are “book” and “uck”. That’s our boy!

Canaan Talking

Click To Play

This is Canaan laughing and talking. He has this funny little fake laugh. Gran-Dad and Gran-Nan had him at Taco Bueno today and said when things got quiet between them, he would just start fake laughing. Then they would laugh at him, which caused him to laugh more. They were cracking up the whole time together (as they fed him his first tamale!).
At 10.5 months, Canaan now has 13 words: uh-oh, auntie (ah-tie), bye-bye (ba-ba), bath (ab), bible (bi-bo), dad, gran-dad (ded-ded), gran-nan (na-nan), book (boo), up, UD (ud is what he calls his uncle david), peek-a-boo (a-boo), and all done (ah-do). He is not consistent with using all of them, but he has said them all within the past three days. He also signs four signs: more, all done, milk (for bottle), and elephant. Unfortunately, we weren't able to get him to use all his words on one video, but he did pretty good! We are just the proudest parents ever!

My Name is What?!

Canaan's first word was "uh-oh." About a month ago, he started saying "up" whenever he dropped a toy. So, I quickly decided that if he could say "up" for toys, then he could say "up" if he wanted picked up (instead of the complainy whine he was doing). We worked on this for a week and a half before he finally learned that "up" could be used for himself too. Now, if he crawls over to me and cries to get held, I ask him, "What do you say Canaan?" and he usually responds with "Up!"
The other morning, Dougle and I both went into his room when he woke up. We stood over his crib. Dougle said, "Can you say Daddy?" and I said "Can you say Mommy?" Canaan crawled over to me and said, "Up!" I guess mommy and daddy are words for another day. Right now, everyone responds when a cute, ornery, little boy crawls to their feet and says, "Up!"

Canaan's Latest Stats

August 1, 2007

Canaan Kirt McDougle

• 9 months, 2 days old
• 6 teeth (one we can just barely see)
• 18.0 pounds (25th percentile)
  
• 28 1/2 inches long (50th percentile)
• head circumference: 45 cm (85th percentile)
• cute as a button
• perfect

We took Canaan in for his 9 month check-up yesterday. So, our boy has a big head. I think that means lots of brains. But the doctor said it was at least a pretty round one!

The doctor was impressed with Canaan's vocabulary. He said boys aren't usually so vocal at such a young age! I've always known he was smart! Canaan continues to say "uh-oh" and sometimes "a-boo" for peek-a-boo. He says "up" at times when he drops things that he wants back. He is also saying "ab" for bath every night. He loves his bathes!

Canaan also can clap. He loves the noise he can make with his hands. He also gives kisses. He gives people kisses sometimes, but more willingly will kiss his book with family pictures in it. He opens his mouth wide and leans in! Canaan has also started mimicking us when we laugh. Dougle and I will be talking with each other, laughing about something and Canaan will join in laughing too. It is so adorable.

Canaan still isn't crawling, but is extremely close. He wants to crawl so much; he gets on his hands and knees and tries, but then lands on his belly. He can scoot backward on his belly, but usually this just makes him more frustrated as he gets farther and farther from the toy he so desperately wants. Canaan also wants to walk. He loves holding onto our hands and strolling around. He even thinks he can do it on his own sometimes and lets go of our hands. Good thing Mommy and Daddy have quick reflexes to catch him before he crashes to the floor. He also runs around in his walker, around the kitchen and dining room area. Being mobile is just a crawl or step away....