Will You Be My Valentine?

Today is an awesome day because I have two valentines. That's right. TWO. Obviously Alix is one of them (sigh, I know, aren't we disgusting), but the really special one is my little guy because - get this - today he is 11 months old! I absolutely cannot believe that in a month we'll be celebrating his first birthday and that I've been taking care of him now for almost eight months. He can do so many things that he couldn't do before, and crawling is only one of them. He babbles constantly now, desperately trying to form words, and I'm convinced that he can say "diaper" even if only I can understand him. He can eat solid foods (banana and sweet potato, so far), even if it takes him half an hour to go through an inch of banana. The way he eats is pretty hilarious too: he will pick up a piece of banana in his right hand, for safekeeping. Then he will eat with his left, occasionally dropping a piece or getting one stuck on his lower lip. Finally, when the tray is clear, it will dawn on him that he has one piece left, hiding in his right hand where he put it twenty minutes ago! A grin will slowly spread across his face as he attempts to maneuver this last (slightly mangled) bite into his mouth. I'm still spoon-feeding him at each meal as well, to make sure he gets enough to eat before losing patience with the whole ordeal.

Sadly, he is not picking up any of the sign language that we I am learning at our weekly class.  Monkey is as independent as they come (except when he's sick or cranky, then all he wants is to be cuddled) and will thus spend the entire class roaming around the room, playing with the toys, and attempting to steal our teacher's notebook and water bottle.  When we're home, I sing him our songs (I can sign to Twinkle Twinkle and Skitter-a-dinky-dinky-do.  I bet you never thought those would be useful life skills.) and I sign every sign I know when he's eating, drinking, having his diaper changed, playing with his toys, etc but so far - nothing.  I have an anxiety-guilt complex about this issue too, since it took a lot of courage for me to ask my bosses if they would be willing to pay for Monkey and I to take some sort of class together this winter, in an attempt to combat the daily monotony of not being able to go outside.  They agreed, even though they're not rolling in dough, and they are genuinely happy that he and I have something to do each week, but I still feel like I'm somehow not doing a good enough job at getting their money's worth if he's not signing anything.

I wish I could post some pictures or videos of my little man, but he's not my baby to exploit...for imagination purposes though, he's a behemoth of an 11-month-old, completely tow-headed, and has a grin full of four front teeth that would make your heart melt.  Happy Valentine's Day, little man.  I love you to pieces.