Playing Catch-up

Ike is still sleeping (we had a rough night), so I figured I'd take this opportunity to at last update this blog. Who's bright idea was the whole blog thing anyway?
A coworker asked Joe when Ike started crawling, and he realized we really haven't kept track of these milestones. Some first-time parents we are. So I won't write a whole lot, but I'll try to run down what a year it's been. Can you believe it? Ike will be a year old a week from today. Whoa.

First smile - sometime in late June, early July
First roll over - July 31, 2005 (we were at a dog show)
Stayed sitting when put there - Sept. 2005? (I'm guessing)
Started commando crawling, scooting - Nov. 2005
First wave - Dec. 25, 2005 (yes, Christmas day)
Pushed into sitting - sometime in January, I think
Pulled up to standing - Jan. 2006
Started regular crawling - Jan./Feb. 2006
First sign - Milk, Jan. 2006
First sign in context - Light, Feb. 2006 (taught to him by Pappy)
Started cruising around furniture - Feb. 2006
Started walking h0lding our hands - Feb. 2006
Started initiating and doing more signs in context - March 2006

No, he's still not walking on his own. Note that he's been cruising around furniture with great proficiency since February. He can practically run if he's holding my hands. But he just won't let go. It's extremely frustrating for both of us. Most of each day is spent with me doubled over, holding his hands while he explores the house. Every once in a while he'll let go with one hand, which will allow me to stand up a little, but if I try to get him to hold only one hand he throws a fit. I sometimes think, "Four years at the U of C and I'm walking in a 3-foot diameter circle for hours on end." Come to think of it, I thought things like that a lot while I was working at a "real" job too, so I guess things haven't changed as much as I thought they had.
There are actually a lot of psychological things going on that cause this kind of behavior. Stuff like, he wants to be the one to walk away from me, not vice versa; he's realizing how much bigger the world is, so he's feeling more threatened than before; he's trying to decide whether he really wants to leave or not, etc. It's also right in line with his personality. Note that he gets to each stage really early (rolling over at 2.5 months), but then he's content to just hang out at that stage for a long time before he takes the next step. He was scooting around for a long time before he could push himself into a sitting position, but once he got that he stood up almost immediately. And once he stood up, he started using the furniture to get around almost immediately, but he still hasn't really even tried to walk on his own, and he still doesn't just push himself up to standing, he always pulls himself up on something — even though he doesn't really use it for much more than balance.
He also doesn't really say a lot with his voice. He babbles a lot, but I'm just now being able to make out words. He says mamamama, but out of context as much as in. Also, some dada. I think the thing he says most in context is "gog." The other day I was telling a friend how I think he says dog, and he said, "goggog" and made the sign for dog. So I think he's really saying that. Also, I swear that on Tuesday he said "wanna walk." He was on my lap, and grabbed my fingers like usual, and launched himself off the couch like usual, while saying, "wawak." It hasn't happened since, but I'm listening for it.
So, in case you're wondering, we are teaching him sign language. The theory is that babies' physical ability and need to communicate develop way earlier than their vocal chords develop. Okay, he's starting to fuss, but I'll run through his signs:

milk
light
eat
dog
diaper
more
cold (sometimes)
all done (this one is really, really cute)
cat (sort of)
book

I think that's all of them. It's pretty cool that he's actually communicating, and in theory, it's supposed to cut down on the terrible twos tantrums because a lot of that behavior happens out of frustration at not being able to communicate. We'll see about that. He's even told me a couple of times that he needs a diaper change, which will (hopefully) help with potty training. He also understands a lot of signs, but doesn't make them yet (it's just like with verbal words). We've got to learn a lot more, too, because he frequently looks to us to tell him the sign for something that he sees, but we don't know it. So we've got to work on that.
Whew. So much for not writing a lot. Time to go rescue him. Sounds like he's actually in a good mood. That always seems to be the case — if he doesn't let us sleep at night, he wakes up in a great mood.