Months 10 and 11

I feel like I will forever be playing catch up.  Whenever I foresee a "break" on the horizon, it ends up being just as busy, if not busier.  When will I learn?

Month 10:
A few days before Jackson turned 10 months, Kyle left on his deployment; it was a short one, he got back right after Jackson's birthday, but it was still hard.  On me mostly.  Jackson missed his daddy too, he just couldn't articulate it.  We did get one of those hallmark recordable books that Kyle read for Jackson.  It was one of his favorite bedtime books while daddy was gone.

His crawling got fast, and quick!  His favorite thing to do is crawl around the house and look at stuff.  And by look at stuff, I mean get into stuff that he isn't supposed to.  He really enjoyes pulling all of his books off of the bookshelf and dvds out of the cabinet.  Sadly, I have given up going around behind him until the end of the day.  So my house is clean in the morning before he gets up and after he goes to bed.  So, like for about 4 hours.  Well, longer than that, but I am asleep, so I am not really counting it.  His other favorite thing to do is play with Gryffin's toys.  If Gryffin has a toy, Jackson will crawl over there and take it.  Thankfully, the dog is great with the baby and waits as patiently as he is able for Jackson to give it back.  He learned how to "throw" a ball doing this.  He rolls it towards you and you roll it back.  It is really sweet.  He still pulls up and has started to cruise a little more too.

He has started to eat more finger foods and less baby food.  We are still doing mostly really soft things, like beans and fruits, but we also tried some green beans and meat loaf.  He loved them all.  But he pretty much eats everything.  He still gets formula bottles, but we have cut down the amount he takes in each bottle (mostly because he won't drink more than 5-6 ounces, and formula is expensive, so I stopped making bigger bottles).  I don't think he likes it much.  I can't really blame him, it smells bad.

He babbles all the time and makes a sound that sounds like "dadadada" all. the. time.  I try to get him to say mama more, but nope.  He makes other incoherent noises to; he loves to "talk".  He is also cutting more teeth, but I'm not sure how many.  The top 2 for sure though, they are almost through, but I think there might be more too.

Here is his 10 month picture (I might note, it is getting considerably harder to take this picture, especially by myself):

 Month 11:

Not gonna lie.  I don't remember much.  We were in Texas most of this month.

Jackson is so active.  He loves to move and look at everything.  And then touch it.  And then throw it on the floor.  And then move on to the next thing.  It's pretty cool.  He also can climb stairs.  He likes to swim and play with Gryffin.  No steps yet, but he loves to walk using your fingers.  We (I) also got him a little walk behind toy that he learned how to use this month.  I'm not for sure, but I think he can say "momma".  I mean, he says the word, and I think he actually means me, but its hard to tell.  Some of his favorite toys are his blocks, trucks and his music table.

As far as food, it isn't very interesting.  He only eats table/finger foods, so he basically eats whatever we eat.  He also gave up formula, so he drinks whole milk now.  No more bottles/formula for this big kid!

Kyle also got back from his deployment right around his birthday, so that was really special.

This is the best picture I could get.  He doesn't sit still anymore...