13 months!

Somehow August has come and nearly gone without any posts from me.  There have been so many post topics, videos of Marlin doing cute things, pics from various adventures. 

Alas, life goes on without me updating you all.  [Sorry to you few faithful readers!] 

Yesterday Marlin turned 13 months old.  I suppose it won't be long before I'll stop counting the months and merely going by years, but I'm not ready for that.  He changes so much, that each month still feels like a milestone these days. 

His level of understanding has really increased.  It's fun to give him a command (can you get your green truck?  where is your blue ball?  go pick out more books.) and watch him happily oblige.  And he has started really connecting certain sounds with certain objects.  A couple weeks ago, we were hanging out with Mickie and Randy, and he pointed to Ryan's bike on top of our car and apparently said "Bike" clear as day.  I didn't hear it but just these past couple of days, he has really been saying it again and again, every time he sees a bike.  He has made sounds like mama and dada in reference to us, and says "da" and "beh" to dog and ball, for example.  But I would say that his official First Word is Bike! (Would you say the "Nature vs. Nurture" argument leans toward the latter in this case?! haha!) 

He loves books and has a much longer attention span these days for them. (Well, maybe not for more than a couple pages per book, but he'd happily speed through 17 books in a row.) It's fun that he can pick out things by name on the pages. 

Marlin still loves eating, pretty much everything we put on his plate and a lot of it!  Still can't believe how much he can fit in that little belly of his.  He's not too keen on cow's milk yet, but is gradually drinking more and more of it. 

He's active, active, especially when it's time to sleep.  He is all over his crib these days before finally crashing, and really seems to need the sense of security that having me or Ryan in the room brings.  [And we've realized lately that he hardly sucks his thumb anymore.  He did it so much for awhile that I wondered if it would be a problem later, but now I can't really even remember seeing him do it much in recent weeks. ]

Though he has sort of waved before, last weekend Grandma Rosemary was visiting and we were around lots of people for a pro bike race in Colorado (hmmm...what did you say his first word was?!).  He really started waving a lot, and to strangers wherever we went.  [For the record, it's the cutest little wave I've ever seen.]

Also, he is really starting to balance without holding on to things, and showing more sign of walking soon.  He sort of took two steps before falling into my friend Amber's arms but I wouldn't say he's really "walked" yet.


Hard to believe that he sometimes seems more like a toddler than a baby, but it's so fun to have him be so playful and interactive and to watch him grow and learn by the minute. 

[There are of course, lots of other fun things that we've been doing that some of you may be more interested to read about than Marlin's growth and development! Hopefully I'll get to some of that here soon!]