The latest version of Voyaging Under Power, updated by Denis Umstot, came out in late December. We are excited to report that we (Christi, Eric and/or Kosmos) were referenced seven times with two photos. Voyaging Under Power is the bible of Passagemaking, so being included in the book is an honor. Denis did a great job with the new book.

Life continues to roll along for us. Eric has been putting in long days at the office and is traveling a lot for work. Christi is busy being a mom, which takes all of her time and energy. Keith is now 10.5 months old. Keith is getting easier and more fun every day, and Christi and Eric are enjoying parenting life more and more each day, too.

Three days after we published the November 2012 Update, Keith started crawling. He still demands the undivided attention of the person watching him. If the person watching him walks out of view, he’ll chase after them. If Keith crawls out of view of said person, he’ll stop and turn around and wait for about 45 seconds to make sure he is being followed. If he is not followed, he’ll crawl right back and complain about not being followed.

Even though he likes to crawl, he still prefers to be held. He is affectionate and loving, and likes to initiate hugs and cuddles. He’s recently become ticklish and loves to be tickled. A couple days ago, he started to “high-five.” He likes to clap and will do so every time we say the word “clap.” 

When he hears his name, he turns to look at the person who said it. When we ask if he wants milk, he invariably giggles in delight. If he’s hungry, he’ll respond to the word food with screams of joy. Though he doesn’t react as excitedly to any other words, we’re sure he understands quite a few words now.

Another kind of weird thing he likes to do is beat his heels against the floor, which looks painful to us, but doesn’t seem to bother him.

He also keeps trying to stand without support, but this as close to standing as he’s managed to get so far (without leverage. He can stand up no problem with a little leverage).

His favorite toys are things that rotate: toys with wheels, rattles that spin, balls, etc.

But to be honest, he isn’t particularly interested in toys. We call him “Mr. Entropy” because his favorite thing to do is tear apart things that are neatly arranged. So, we spend a lot of the day putting together train tracks so he can tear them apart, putting hangers on the hanger holder so he can take them off the holder, putting together mega blocks (giant legos) for him to tear apart, etc. We also give him piles of paper to scatter, crinkle and tear.

Since Keith really enjoys tearing paper, we thought he’d love opening Christmas gifts. We were surprised to see that he had no interest in the gifts what-so-ever. He kept crawling away! 

You might get the mistaken impression from the “Mr. Entropy” name that Keith is destructive. He isn’t. He is pretty good about stopping when told no.

He also is fascinated by doors. He’ll spend a lot of time swinging an open door, pushing it one way and then the other. If he manages to close it, you can see he is baffled as to why it won’t open again.

He has warmed up to other kids and sort of plays with them, meaning he’ll babble to them and try to touch them. He usually screams in delight when he sees an animal, but he is usually too afraid to touch them.

Keith is very passionate about eating and tries to assert his independence at meal times. He doesn’t want baby food — he wants to eat off our plates. He wants to feed himself and he wants to eat big pieces of food–he will try to shove pieces into his mouth that are bigger than his mouth! Needless to say, meal times are messy. 

He also wants to drink from big people cups.

He’s always been eager to eat like adults to a certain extent, he’s just getting more forceful about it now. Ever since he started crawling, he’s been eating a shocking amount for such a small person! He’s also starting to become a pickier eater. When we first started giving him solids, he’d eat anything we gave him. Nowadays, there are a few foods he won’t eat (though not many). His digestive issues seem to be gone now, though we often wonder if the reason he wakes up so much at night is heart burn.

Keith has always been a talker, babbling on and on and on. His babble is starting to sound a little more like words, with bah-bah-bah, beh-beh-beh, meh-meh-meh and abu-abu being his most common words. While he is eating a food he likes, he’ll say num-num-num. And if he loves the food, his voice will get deep and throaty and he’ll say nummmyyyyyyyyy, nummmyyyyyyyyy, nummmyyyyyyyyy. He also sings and spends a big part of the day making silly noises with his mouth.

He’s back in sign language classes, but still isn’t signing yet. He’s still going to swimming regularly, and we are committed to taking him to swim classes permanently. As we alluded to earlier, Keith still wakes up 3 to 6 times a night (and sometimes more). We bought the Ferber (renowned sleep guru) book, and are half way through it. We’ve implemented all applicable suggestions that we’ve read so far. As a result, his day time napping has improved considerably, but he still sleeps just as poorly at night. Hopefully, his sleep problems will be fixed by the time we finish the Ferber book.

Separation anxiety is in full swing, but it has taken an interesting shape. Keith is generally happy to be babysat (as long as the sitter showers him with attention) and doesn’t seem to miss Christi at all. But the minute Christi returns, Keith becomes super clingy and literally won’t let go of her for hours.

We are pretty sure his rash issues are caused by polyester. We keep him in 100% cotton clothing now, but he seems to always have a couple bumps here or there as it is hard to avoid polyester altogether (blankets, swim suit, etc).

The pix above were taken between early December and late January and are not in chronological order. Here are a few more fun photos. The first two were taken at the end of November, all the rest were taken in December, and this set is in chronological order.