Only one month left of being a baby (but he's still OUR baby)

     Marcus is 11 months old today and I just can't believe it.  We only have one more month before we celebrate his ONE YEAR OLD birthday!  I said, in the title, that we have one month left of him being a baby, but understand me when I say he will ALWAYS be our baby boy.
     He amazes Mark and I at his ability to understand and do things.  The other day, in the bath, Mark said, "Where's your crab?" and Marcus picked up his red bath toy crab.  Then he said, "Get your blue dolphin," and sure enough, Marcus grabbed the right one.  He knows the meaning of words like: book, ball, doggie, outside, bottle, paci, and of course he knows who we are.  When Mark is coming up the stairs, I'll say, "I hear Daddy!" and Marcus will turn and look and sometimes crawl towards the door in sweet anticipation.  There's no doubt about his adoration for his daddy, but he has a sweet spot for his mama, too.
     Marcus has been cruising around the furniture for a while now, but has yet to take his first steps without holding onto anything.  We try every now and again, for him to let go of our fingers and walk towards us, but once he realizes he can't reach our hands, he'll bend over, sit down, and crawl to us with a big ol' smile on his face.  He's so proud he figured out a way to get there!  He's SUPER fast when it comes to crawling, and he loves it when we say, "I'm gonna get you!" and run after him.  It's amazing his little knees aren't blistered from all the crawling he does.  But he pulls up on everything and stands a good majority of his day.  He loves crawling into the cabinets (the ones without locks that we allow him to crawl into) and making a huge mess.
     This month, Marcus has also found the fun in "happy screams."  In the grocery store last week, he screamed his face off the whole time.  But they weren't upset screams, they were little screeches to get my or someone else's attention.  I tried giving him a paci, shushing him, giving him toys, etc, but NOTHING worked.  I finally asked another customer what she would do and she said, "just let him scream."  It was embarrassing and stressful,  but luckily Mark came and rescued me, taking Marcus with him. :)  It's funny to think about now, but at the time, it was terrible!
     Finally, Marcus is doing pretty well with self feeding and trying new foods (and so is his mama, by the way).  Tonight for supper we had baked chicken, okra, and potatoes (both picked from Miriam's garden on Tuesday).  Now that I get to stay at home, I have time to explore and try new recipes and this was a GREAT meal!  I cut up the okra and chicken into small pieces and Marcus made a funny face at first, but then ate it right up.  I even put a few pieces of the mac-n-cheese I made for lunch onto his tray and again, he ate that, too.  He finished it up with eating half of a whole wheat bagel, all by himself.  I know we hear this from lots of people, but no, "he doesn't miss many meals."

I was taking a picture of his face after eating green beans and caught him mid-sneeze.

Hopefully Marcus will grow up to be an amazing man like his daddy.

"Reading" - so studious.

Daddy was trying to hold the sign still long enough to see it in the picture.

He's pretty quick when he pushes his, "car."

Yes...still eats the card.

Mark got smart and taped the sign to the front of his car.

     In this clip, I was reading one of Marcus' favorite books, "Jungle Babies."