-ing

The action verbs best describe David lately.

He likes playing.

And he has learned about climbing.

(oh the places he can go now that he climbs!)

And along with everything else comes a little tumbling.

David likes standing.

Here he is pulling himself into a standing position--at first he would push himself up using the tops of his toes. It's so much easier to watch now that his toes are bending the direction they were meant to bend.

His specialty is keeping us on our toes.

Play Ball!

David seemed to host his very own ball tournament while he had a "court" in our living room. He couldn't get enough of watching it bounce across the hard surface.

Sam and I bounced the ball for him, and he rewarded us with his laugh

that seems to come all the way up from his toes.

The temporary court was from removing the above non-descript doors, and replacing them with these lovely doors:

A huge improvement, especially because the previous doors were mismatched and didn't quite cover the entire opening. Once David became mobile and found the water heater, replacing the doors became urgent. We were happy to have a home improvement that is functional and nice to look at. Somehow all the shelves we have added to three closets and the insulation we added to the attic haven't been nearly as pretty to remind us of the small improvements we're making to our home.

Sir David Newton

Caught! This is the look David gets when he drops his tray contents on the floor. We practice "On the tray, David. On the tray." while pointing to his tray. But somehow, he ends up with this face, his arm disapears to his side, and we hear a thud.

Very occasionally, when we coax him to put it on the tray (with our hands moving his arms in that direction) we will cheer for his success. But most often, this is how the saga continues--David inspecting his goods, and probably wondering how they got all the way down there.

Can you see his sippy cup, his teething biscuits, and a few small crackers? Notice that all the items are "dry"--he'll have a chance at a bowl of food in front of him once he can manage to keep these things on his tray.

Lick'd Clean

Sometimes David wants to feed himself.

He starts with the spoon in one hand, and puts both ends in his mouth to lick it clean.

Then he switches hands . . .

. . . and starts the process over again with his other hand.

He likes to double check--just to make sure he got all the food off before he hands the spoon back to me for a refill.

Voracious Eater

David has definitely overcome his fear of the spoon. Now he attacks it with intensity when there's food for our growing boy.

At least he helps clean the place up once he's done.

What a good boy we have!

Fall Harvest

Sam got off work early one day, so we took a drive to a U-Pick farm about 45 minutes away to enjoy a little family outing. Romanians describe a day like this as "The sun, with teeth." In America, we call it a crisp fall day. Here you can see Sam heading out to the fields with David and our harvesting buckets in tow.

David liked his ride in the wagon through the rows of zucchini. Zucchini was the first vegetable he really liked. We were happy to bring home 18 pounds of it that day.

And he was happy to get his first taste of fall while we were there.

(Of course those leaves headed straight for the mouth.)