02/12/31 update…
seems like I will never actually get around to writing unless I start… it has been a long time and I always make mental notes of things I want to write about (mainly something too cute that one of my boys has been doing of course). Ouch – I just went back to look and the last one was early November! Tells you something about our life… we kept quite busy doing this years edition of Cole Valley Herald. It seemed to take on a life of its own and grow and grow… Then it was time for the calendars… now I just need to trim the file sizes to something that will open from the CD for Kinkos to handle – apparently 125mb files just don’t work – and that is only ½ the year in pics only. Oh well.
So, we end the year with a little toddler – and he really does. He now only crawls if he is moving a vehicle around the floor – just like his older brother. Vroom vroom. It was fun to watch the progression just in Portland from wanting to walk to almost exclusive walking. I took the boys shoe shopping on a rainy day the Thurs before the holidays. Aidan got a very nice (expensive) pair too and was very happy. Quincy wasn’t happy at all about having clunky shoes put on his feet – he thought maybe he should just sit down and scream about it. A short while later he forgot about it (at a friend’s house afterwards) and toddled around in them. The toes are already nice and scuffed. I would have put him in Aidan’s old shoes except that he is younger than when Aidan got his first and as I suspected, has smaller feet. We love to watch the glee in his face as he does his best Frankenstein impression lumbering around – usually with something in one hand and the other raised about his head – like he wants to hail a taxi. With nothing in either hand it is both hands above his head – rather hysterical.

Like the rest of Quincy’s development, the move to walking has been progressive. About a week before his 1st birthday he started letting go and taking a few steps – I even captured some of the earliest on video and sent it forth across the web to the grandfolks. Just a week ago before we headed north I watched his persistence in walking the length of our hall (long as you know) – he stumbled maybe 5 times but only crawled perhaps 4’ out of the total length – he just kept getting up. Now he thinks nothing of the hall and back.

I have been interested to see his language skills blossoming the last week or 2 as well – interesting that he is working on both at the same time. He does have clearly distinguishable words now for some things (clear if you are his mom that is!). Mostly things that start with “B”. Ball, Boom, Book. Pete is thrilled that pointing has become a big part of communication. He can be very clear in his intent now. He seems very interested in animals too (I don’t remember this kind of interest from Aidan). He was trying to say “cat” and “meow” and then “woof woof” for dog. He seems to have decided that all furry 4 legged creatures work fine with a “whooo whooo”. Last night at a party he was excited to see a cat “whoo whoo” and we watched it go outside. Several times during the course of the evening when I had him in my arms (usually to distract him from some mischief) he would point to the kitchen then the door and tell me “whoo whoo” – it was clear he wanted to go find that cat. He is ignoring my effort to get him to sign – although he is interested in watching me do it and seems to comprehend my signs.