Just Another Ordinary Miracle: Moving Right Along

We're still in the middle of the Great Traipse Through Ontario. We're having fun seeing new places, but we're ready to be home. I miss our stuff and our babyproofed house and our clean floors. I never knew how clean our floors were until we started letting our baby crawl around other houses. :-) I think people who don't have little kids probably have no idea how dirty their floors really are.

Anyway... so much going on with our suddenly-not-so-little guy. Approaching 11 months and he already seems like a miniature grown-up. Here's a little run-down on new developments:

He's added a few new words to his vocabulary and he tries to repeat words we say sometimes. The most random new word is "button". The coolest recent event came when I was reading to him last week. In one book there were ducks, and he repeated the word "duck" when I said it. Then we read another book that happened to have ducks in it. As soon as I turned the page and he saw them, he said "duck" on his own. He's a real book lover, but it's the first he's shown any evidence of actually understanding what those abstract shapes on the page are.
His funnest sound right now, though, is his siren. If you say "fire truck", he'll "weeeeeee weeeeee" like a quiet little siren.
Lots of new gross motor skills. He squats, sits on his knees, and can twist around into numerous configurations. Especially when he's being changed or taking a bath. We're creating a song to go along with our new mantra "down for diaper, down for clothes."
Fine motor skills are coming along, too. We think he has a pincer grasp (picking up things with index finger and thumb), but he dreams bigger than that, so usually the whole hand is involved in picking things (especially food) up. Peek-a-boo is still very popular, and he's started clapping in the last couple weeks, but usually with closed fists.
He's starting to play the "dropping game". What fun. You hand him his sippy cup while he's in the high chair, he drops it on the floor. He picks up finger food, and drops it on the floor. You give him a toy while he's in the pack 'n play, he drops it over the side. He's also good at smacking a spoonful of gooey food at the perfect time so it splatters all over the kitchen.
He's starting to imitate movements, too. We started using sign language very early on for a few key words (food/eat, drink, milk, more, all done). We know lots of parents who have used sign language somewhat successfully. It gives a kid a way to communicate before he can talk. Zain generally seems to have ignored the signs for months, but there are glimpses that he's finally catching on. He's been able to understand the "milk" sign for quite awhile. And now when you say "food", he'll do the sign. And he's done "all done" a few times. For the most part, he doesn't really do them on his own or at appropriate times, but there's progress.
The ultimate imitative movement lately, though, has been the phone. If you say "hello", his hand (or whatever object is handy) goes straight to his ear. For a while last week, he was having probably 50 phone conversations a day. He doesn't actually say anything, or seem to care if you're talking back, but he's on the phone. He'll do it in the middle of taking a bottle or to random strangers.
He's also become a dancing fool. He'll dance (well, let's call it "dancing"; it's more like bobbing and weaving, or gyrating) to actual music. But also to noises his toys make, or the vacuum cleaner.
We're still working on the understanding of the concept of "no". That's becoming increasingly important as our super-curious boy gets around better. It's a work in progress. He is starting to understand the idea of giving something to someone. He'll give, but he usually won't let go. :-) He will occasionally try to feed us while we're feeding him. That's really sweet.
Certain things are incredibly hilarious. Lately, it's been things on heads. Mommy with a block on her head. Zain with a sippy cup on his head.