Peter Craig

Peter - showing off his fangs. If the picture looks a little strange, it is because he was upside down - the only reliable way to get him to open up real big. Photo taken by Christopher Craig http://www.flickr.com/photos/christophercraig

In Peter news, he is cruising big time. If he is able to get somewhere by cruising, he does it. He is also very into climbing. He discovered the joys of climbing the stairs early on. We combated this by putting Andrew's rocking horse in front of the stairs. It was the perfect size and the adults could move it easily and Andrew thought it was pretty cool that he had to get to the stairs by going over his horse. But alas, it wasn't long before Peter figured out how to move the horse out of the way and go up the stairs. So then we had to put up the gates which so far has been working well. He climbs other things too. He has a wooden slide in his room that he climbs up. But I think we are going to have to move it because he could easily fall off the top and besides, eventually Joshua's bed may need to go there.

He likes to climb onto the bottom lip of the fridge when it is open and play with all the stuff on the shelf. He likes to be big helper with both the fridge and the dishwasher. As soon as he hears it open, you can hear the pitter patter of his hands and knees across the wood floor scrambling to get to it. I think the dishwasher is his favorite.

Peter is also a very big talker these days. He says "uh oh". Not really in context but he likes to hear the sound of his voice so he says it over and over again. He says "up" and most of the time it is in context. We will be sitting in a chair and he will come over and put his hands on our knees and say "up up". He also says it repeatedly when he is on the changing table. Sometimes he says "bye bye" and he waves his arm. It usually takes effort to get him to say these things so I would say he is mostly just repeating us. The only sign language that he consistently uses is "more" which looks like clapping sometimes but "more" like other times. He will look at food that is not on his plate and start signing or sometimes we ask him if he wants more but won't make the sign and he will start to make the sign. If he sees other people with food, then of course, he wants some so he will cruise on over and start saying more.

Speaking of food, Peter LOVES to eat. It started at 8 months when we went to Hunting Island and discovered that he would eat all the food we ate but his favorites were ice cream and a dill pickle. Since then, it is not uncommon for him to have 2-3 ounces of chicken at dinner or 2 chicken nuggets and a fruit cup at Chickfila. He loves munching on crackers and the other day, we discovered that he had helped himself to 6 crackers - two in each hand and two on the floor. He didn't eat all of them right then but over an afternoon, they gradually disappeared making it time once again for Mommy to vacuum. He will eat a baby cone at Brusters but he doesn't like to hold it so we have to make him hold it. He doesn't devour it and cry when it's over like his big brother did when he was a baby. He likes apple juice but only from a juice box. He won't drink juice from a bottle and he hasn't mastered the sippy cup yet. He still likes to drink 4 bottles a day. He is very cute when he drinks his bottle. Sometimes he will hold it himself but sometimes he likes Mommy to hold it so that he can play with Mommy's hair and sometimes he is content just to twirl his fingers through his own hair which is what he has to do when Daddy feeds him.



Unlike his brother as a baby, he has full reign of the downstairs and that spells t-r-o-u-b-l-e for Mommy because he gets into everything that he is not supposed to. He loves to eat the cat food and splash in the cat water so the poor cats don't get food while he is awake. He crawls behind Mommy's desk and pulls out the papers he can reach from her "filing" system. He also likes to unplug her work phone so that she doesn't get calls until she discovers it. (Sometimes that's not a bad thing..hee hee). He is not a huge fan of Mommy being on her computer so he is constantly bugging her when she is on it. He is pacified when he is allowed to get up and play with the keys. And if he is super lucky, she will have left an empty coke can for him. He has his own basket of age appropriate toys that he likes to dump out and play with. He enjoys playing ball with himself and with others. When he is playing by himself, he will throw the ball and then crawl over to it and then throw it again.

His best friend in the whole world is Andrew. And that might be true for Andrew as well. Although Andrew has a great time with his Uncle Christopher who is a little more age appropiate for him. But seeing that Andrew and Chris don't get to see each other that much, Peter is definitely the next best thing. They chase each other around the house. Andrew will get down on all fours and crawl around with him. They have crawling races to Mommy (Andrew always wins). They play with Andrew's tool bench and kitchen together. They play music and dance together. They have quite a good time in each other's company. And well, Mommy must say..she also likes the built in babysitter factor. How much more fun is it going to be with three!



Peter just turned 11 months old. Mommy is working on gathering all the information she can about how to make the best cookie monster cupcakes in the world for his 1 year old party next month. I can't believe my sweet little baby has grown up so much.