Curriculum night

Frank's day care had a curriculum night program for parents on Tuesday night, so I went up to the school to check it out. I actually got there about an hour before the program started, so I spent some time in Frank's classroom just playing with him and the other babies. Then they did the curriculum presentation, and it was honestly fascinating to see how they structure all of the babies' activities to teach them skills that will help them succeed in school later. They said they base their play around the creative curriculum that is used by many private preschools. I really like Frank's day care, and I absolutely love his teacher. She has a degree from Texas A&M and you can tell that she really cares about the babies and also really tries to be creative in the activities they do. She gave me a couple of good resources for ideas of things I can be doing with Frank on the weekends and weeknights that are productive as well.

In other news, Frankie is still moving full steam ahead. He is now pretty much exclusively walking. It is so funny to look up and see him come toddling into another room. He also just learned to nod his head "no," although he does not know what that means. He is still clapping a lot, but he cannot walk and clap at the same time, so he will walk a few steps, stop to clap a few times, and then walk again. It is the cutest thing! He also likes to carry objects when he walks, and he loves throwing the ball for Katy. He is making a lot of new noises lately too, but we cannot figure out yet what he is trying to say. He is growing and learning new things every day.

He still seems to be experiencing some separation/stranger anxiety, but it is very random. Two of my neighbors came over last week, and both times he burst into tears and got very upset when they tried to talk to him. We cannot figure out if he is shy, or scared, or what causes his little outbursts sometimes. I am hoping this is a phase!

New teeth & clapping

Can you spot Frankie's new teeth?? It is so hard to get a good picture of them, but he has three new teeth on top! They all broke through at the same time last week. Little man is growing up too fast. On a completely unrelated note, Frankie also started clapping today. His day care teacher had told us that he clapped one other time, a few months ago, but I had never seen him do it. Then, today, he decided he wanted to clap non-stop. We went to The Ranch for dinner, and he literally sat in his high chair and clapped for 10 minutes straight. It was sooo cute. I am so proud of him! Here are a couple more pictures from this week:

little cutie

yummy cheerios!

Happy Birthday (big) Frank!

Saturday was also Frank's birthday. I surprised him by having surround sound installed in our living room and on our patio. We had been wanting to do it for years, but we kept putting it off. We also had our TV mounted on the wall, because Frankie has been messing with it lately and it was just a matter of time before he pushed it over. When we turned on the music to test it out, Frankie had a blast "dancing" with his parents. Happy Birthday to my sweet, amazing, handsome, wonderful husband. We love you so much!

Here are some pictures from this weekend:

Frank and Frankie

little Cowboy fan

...in a 49ers hat

playing

play with me Daddy!

lil cutie

birthday boy

new favorite trick

10 months!

My little man turned 10 months old on Saturday. Wow, how time flies! At ten months, Frankie is walking more than he is crawling, loves reading books, loves to "dance" to music, loves to eat people food (Frank even fed him TONGUE yesterday, gross!) and now has five teeth! He is all over the place, into everything, and loving every minute of it. We just had our first bout of stranger anxiety at day care on Monday. I was dropping him off later than usual, and Miss Chelcie, his main teacher, was in the room, but he clung to my dress, cried big fat alligator tears, and absolutely did not want me to leave. He has never done that! He cried again this morning when I dropped him off too. I am hoping that this a short phase and not the start of a trend, because I hate dropping my little boy off upset. Happy 10 Month Birthday little Frankie!

First walking shoes

A couple of weekends ago I took Frank to Stride Rite to get him some walking shoes. He looks sooo grown up wearing them. Someone at the store today asked me how old he was, and she said, "is he about 18 months?" HA! He is growing up way too fast. Anyway, he was really funny wearing his new shoes. He would lean over as far as he could and try not to pick up his feet. Or he would try to kick them off. But, he has been wearing them to school every day for two weeks now, and he is getting much better with them!

Poor baby is sick again

My poor baby boy is sick again. It looks like he as the dreaded coxsackie virus. He refused to eat or drink almost anything today, and I am so worried that he is going to get dehydrated. I hate that I am so busy during the week, and then when I get to spend the whole weekend with him, just me & Frankie, he is fussy and sick. He has had such a rough year with all of his various illnesses, and I pray that he is building up his immune system and that it will get better soon. I hope you get well soon, little buddy! In the meantime, Mommy and Daddy are here to give you lots of love and help you get better.

WALKING!

It's official...my baby boy is walking! He has been taking steps on his own for a few weeks now, but today when I picked him up from day care, everyone was so excited because he had walked across the room several times. He walked across the room to me, and I am so proud of him! When we got home, we had to show Daddy his new trick and take this video. I cannot believe that he is already walking. He is growing up so fast!!!