Canaan's Auntie Kimby gave him his first haircut while she was here for Christmas.  I probably could have let his hair grow long and wild for another six months but there was family pressure and Nate was sick of combing out the crazy, gnarled knots!  It was a family event with my dad and FP taking pictures, Jordan toddling around the action and my mom and I singing "The Eensy Weensy Spider" and "Head and Shoulders, Knees and Toes" to keep Canaan entertained enough to stay on the chair.  Canaan surprised me with how calm he was and good at trying to stay still, though he started shivering near the end from being shirtless on our terrace at dusk.  

All done and posing with his new hair & Nona.

Earlier this month you turned 15 months old!  Last week we took you to your new pediatrician (who we liked much better than the first pediatrician we tried here) and you weigh 21.5 lbs now.  You charmed him by saying "Hola" and waving over and over again, sitting in the middle of the floor and eating Cheerios, and not even making a sound when he gave you your chicken pox shot.  He says you are eating well and only recommended that we give you extra iron, partly because of living in the altitude.

At 15 months you love to be independent.  At the park you have no problem running as far away from me as you can before I start to get nervous that you are too far away.  As independent as you are, you have started to show your very first signs of separation anxiety.  You fuss when either your dad or I leave the room ... even though the other one is still with you.  And at the church nursery you cry when we leave.  Fortunately you never cry when we leave you with your nanny because you love her so much.  

You love to run, to play in dirt, and to try to follow whatever the big kids are doing.  You still say, "Hola" to absolutely everyone you see, including the ever-present construction workers outside your window.  You are extremely friendly and always the first to approach other kids at the park.  

You are obsessed with dogs and exclaim wildly whenever you see one or even hear one through the window.  Before you loved to see dogs from far away but became terrified and cried if they got close to you.  But all of the sudden you are getting braver and you have pet some little dogs and let them lick you and jump up.  You chased the neighbors dog around our garage the other day, hoping to pet it.  A common exclamation from you is, "Ruff, ruff, ruff."  Although you are still a little confused between the difference between dogs and birds and sometimes bark at the birds.

Your other two favorite words are "boo!" (you've done this one for a while) and "ball."  You love to be scared and to try to scare other people.  Because your boo is so sweet we have to tell other people to act scared when you do it.  If they do, you just beam at them with pride.  You even say "Boo" over skype.  You just love balls now and you love that you can identify them by name.  Sometimes after your nap the first word you say when I come get you is "ball."  Then you find one to kick around.  

Just this month you are really starting to talk.  You talk non-stop in serious phrases that sound like "pagumba, gumba, gumba."  But for real words you say boo, ball, bubble, ruff ruff, bah (for a sheep), dada, mama, night night, buh bye (a good way to have you be okay with us leaving is to have you wave goodbye and say this to us), hola, nose (you love to put your finger up my nose when you identify it), ya (which means you don't want more to eat, you are done), and no (of course!).  Today you tried to repeat your own name for the first time.  You sign two things: hungry and more.  

You are very proud now of your ability to tip your sippy cup all the way back and drink large amounts of water until you choke.  You can drink a smoothie out of a straw, even though you still tip the cup back and you *sometimes* can feed yourself with a fork.  You can hold your snack trap and feed yourself nicely.  You've learned to climb an adult chair yourself and love to do so in the kitchen so that you can see what is going on up on those countertops.  You've had several spills this way as well when you forget there is an end to the chair!  At the park you have learned how to hold on to the teeter totter and love it.  You have also started climbing the stairs to the slide yourself.  

You get called a girl more often than a boy but fortunately you take no offense to this yet!  You only take one nap now, which I love.  You used to sleep 2.5-3 hours during this nap but now you often wake early.  But you don't cry, you play in your crib and when I come in you've got socks and your blankie thrown outside of the crib and you are laughing.  We are still working on hitting but have learned that it is often related to being hungry.  If we keep you well-fed there is less of a chance of you hitting.  But you still get time-outs whenever you hit.  Now you have started biting too but this you do when you are happy, not mad.  You don't yet understand that it hurts so we have to tell you each time.

You don't eat just anything but we can't complain too much in the food department.  Usually after two days of not liking something you will start eating it without complaint.  Your dad has been very good about being firm with you and making you eat things you don't like.  You have learned this is a part of life and don't fight it too much.  It helps if you can see how much is in the bowl and know you don't have too many bites left.  Your mom still spends a LOT of time pureeing things.  Texture is what gets you more than taste and you are very limited on what you like that doesn't come in a smooth form.  You will now eat cut up baby potatoes and yucca and any bread product that is whole but you like your fruit and veggies pureed.  

We still aren't sure whether you will be right or left handed.  You like to hold a pen or pencil with your left hand and often eat with your left hand but we are still waiting to see.  But several people have pointed this out to us, so it isn't just us noticing how much you use your left hand.

In honor of the Champions League final today your dad made sure you sported your spirit in style.  Never mind that this outfit is meant for you when you are four years old.  Never mind that you hung out with Linsey and I on the terrace at our house while your dad went to the Gardeens house to watch the game.

You just discovered what fun the firewood cubby hole can be!

And in case I forget to document it elsewhere, at the beginning of this week you finally abandoned the need to pull up on something in order to begin walking.  You are now pushing yourself completely off of the ground by yourself, in some rather theatrical feats of flexibility.

Cane-boy,

We celebrated your first birthday, we took lots of pictures, but then I never remembered to write down any of your daily milestones.  Now you are one year + 3 weeks old.

Nobody warned me that turning one is significant in more ways than one.  It's like the day you turned one you learned how to throw a tantrum.  By this week you throw probably 5 a day.  Nobody taught you how to throw a fit, yet you successfully, innately have learned that if you don't get what you want or get something taken away that the best way to deal with it is to kick your feet, pitch your head back (sometimes hitting the hardwood floor full force) and scream.  You've also learned how to twirl, which you like to incorporate into your fits.  As first time parents we look at you in amazement and are trying our best to ignore the bad behavior.

You have started getting time outs.  There are a few things that we think are dangerous and you KNOW are wrong.  Yet you still try to get away with them.  You open the broiler door and try to stand on it.  You move your high chair, unplug the refrigerator and then play with the socket, or you move the trunks that currently serve as baby gates and quickly scoot up the stairs.  These three things get you several time outs a day after you are warned with a NO.  

But you can also be totally charming.  When we're out in the stroller cars slow down and ladies pass us with big hellos.  It's amazing how social you are.  You love waving at people and then giving them a big smile.  You will hold out your arms to anyone to be held by them.  You don't mind wandering through all the aisles of church, greeting everyone and melting hearts as you go.  Your hair is still your biggest accessory that people love.  You also really "get" skype now and even when other people aren't on the video, you know you are talking to someone.

We successfully transitioned you to the sippy cup.  For a full week that is all you drank from.  But then we went on vacation and took bottles.  And you drank almost twice as much milk the whole time, so now we've been lazy about using the sippy cup since we think drinking your milk is important. 

You love taking off your shoes and socks (mostly from your right foot.)  In the stroller, high chair, shopping cart you wriggle your feet together until the shoe falls off.  Often you will see us with a one-foot, bare-foot baby walking around town.  We often get stopped as people notify us that we have lost our baby's shoe.  Thus far though we haven't lost a single shoe.  We just give up and carry it around in our purse or pocket.

You also love playing in mom and dad's room in the morning.  It's pretty fun having an air mattress that is just your height to climb onto.  You like being thrown on the bed or watching your mom and dad falling on the bed and then doing the same.  Today you tried to copy your dad and played "This little piggy" with your mom's toes that were just in reach at the end of the bed.

You are following in your mom's footsteps with food.  It it's bread or bread-like you will eat it up.  You aren't interested in a lot of other things though.  Many times you will try a food for the first time and eat a good amount.  But then you'll never touch it again.  You go back to the bread.  You don't like to eat things that you can't touch yourself any longer.  You want to play with it and explore it before it goes in your mouth.  You loved whole wheat quesadillas and now you won't touch them.  The same goes for red peppers and many other foods.  

You still sleep from 7p til 7a usually and you take two naps.  How long the naps are isn't super consistent though.  You love to point your fingers and have conversations or walk around this way.  You still love putting everything in your mouth, including toilet paper, dandelions, rocks and the dirty, dirty drain pipe on our terrace.  

You are hopelessly behind on teeth.  You are cutting your third and fourth teeth on the top right side.  No signs of any on the left.  You've figured out how to grind these little top nubs with your two bottom teeth, though, and this really grosses out your parents.

You know how to identify your tummy, head and nose.  Your favorite is definitely up your nose as you can shove your finger up it.  You can say a number of words but often you prefer to smile instead of say them.  You say mamá, papá, hola, boo! (you love to be scared), bye bye, and no pretty consistently.  Lately you have been experimenting with the G sound.

In January I started back to work and while we remembered to mark this momentous occasion with a photo, I forgot to post it until now.

You were far more interested in the taste of my necklace than the milestone of your mom leaving you for 8 hours.

And here you are with Ligia, your first nanny.

I was thinking yesterday how often I blogged about you in those first months, capturing our daily outings and your smallest development.  I've certainly not done quite as well with that your these last 6 months as I did the first.  Now we mostly make sure to capture as many photo memories as possible for your grandparents far away.

But now you are eleven months old!  That means it is time to plan your birthday party!  Let's see.  Tonight you took 11 steps to me.  Totally appropriate.  That's the longest I've counted yet.  You still prefer to crawl but sometimes walk a few steps toward us without or coaxing and sometimes without our noticing you're coming our way.

You have a few tricks up your sleeve now.  You respond to shake (shaking your head side to side), bounce (bouncing your bottom up and down and you do this on your own to music too), clap, kiss, hi, and high-five.  You've also noticed that doing any of these things gets you lots of attention.  This week your daddy has started showing you how to kick a ball and you are getting the hang of it.  You hold onto his fingers and walk after the ball, kicking it slowly.

You're a social guy and love letting anyone hold you or, more likely, walk you around.  When people come over you are wired with excitement.

Currently you seem to hate pureed food.  You want different textures and tastes in your mouth.  But you are fickle with food.  One day you love hard boiled egg and the next day you spit every bite out.  Sometimes you eat so well and other times you make us crazy as you fuss and lay your head down on the table as though you are too tired to eat.

We are also seeing a little bit of your will.  You aren't beyond instant crying when you don't get what you want.  Fortunately it's usually pretty short-lived when you realize no one is going to cave and let you play with the electrical outlet!

You've been able to hold your own bottle for months now but just this past month we have let you start feeding yourself.  Before you would get too distracted and never finish but you are getting better at that.  And you just started drinking whole milk about a week ago when our last can of formula from Costco ran out.  You haven't cared a bit.

The dumbest things make you laugh.  You love to get high-fives while you drink your milk and it makes you giggle and sputter milk everywhere.  The past few days you have found a fake smile and laugh.  It is super cheesy but it makes us laugh and that's all you want anyway, right?

The days are flying by and in just moments you'll be ten months old and then your first year is just around the corner.  I can hardly believe it.   I've had hardly a minute to think or write about all the changes that YOU'VE seen these past weeks.

Since moving to Ecuador you've thrown up for the very first time (about 20 minutes after we landed), you've lived in two more homes than the three you had already experienced, and you've gotten your first nanny.  So far you really like her, probably because she doesn't let go of you and helps you walk ALL DAY LONG.  

Three weeks ago you announced you were ready for two naps by talking loudly in your crib for your entire last nap and refusing to sleep.  You've adjusted nicely to longer wake hours and so have we, loving having more time to get out of the house with you.  This week has been rough because for 7 days in a row you have woken up at 5:30 am.  You refuse to go back to sleep.  We aren't sure what changed because your routine is still the same.  We are frustrated at the early wake up, but not giving up hope that you will go back to waking at 7am soon.  Thankfully you are no less happy at 5:30am than you are at 7am ... even if we are!

Let's see.  You've started using a sippy cup successfully to drink water.  This was nice timing because the weather in Quito has been hot and we don't want you dehydrated, but we also didn't want you drinking water from a bottle.  Your eating has improved significantly and now when you want a bottle we lay you on our lap and you feed yourself quickly.  

And you've taken some firsts steps, just recently.  

We have gone through countless pants and loads of laundry because we haven't found a brand of diapers here that works for you all night long or through a long nap.  You are the squirmiest little sucker when we are changing your diaper now too.

You continue to be such a happy guy, after about a two week adjustment to Ecuador.  You are charming everyone you  meet at the guesthouse.  They all comment on your hair and how happy you are.  You still wave when you see people, you still bounce and now we don't even have to do the motion because you recognize the word, "Bounce."  You love opening drawers and rubbing your teeth against metal.  Plain Cheerios are a fantastic way to keep you occupied for ten minutes.

There are a lot of little moments since moving to Quito that I haven't yet written about, but I didn't want to miss this one.

On Sunday you took three steps.  I set you down holding onto the bed and you turned and took three steps before realizing you were walking without help.  Later that night you let go of the bed and took another three steps toward your dad before falling.  And today you were holding onto the fridge, let go and took four steps straight toward Aunt Kelly.

So I'd say it's official.  You've taken your first steps, just shy of ten months.  You are such a determined little guy and you want nothing more than to be in constant motion so you keep pushing yourself closer to walking.

Kiddo you went and turned nine months old on us just when we were doing our final pack and move.  I got your photos just in time but never quite posted your new stats and accomplishments.  We went to the pediatrician for more shots and a check-up.  You weighed 18 lbs.  You haven't gained too much in the past three months but that is probably because you are crawl, crawling and standing at every opportunity.  You were 28.75" now, not much different than last time.  Dr. Fox thinks you may have been weighed wrong at 6 months.

You continue to love to crawl, pull up on things and walk with help.  No signs of anywhere near enough balance to stand or walk on your own.  I imagine you won't ever learn to just stand.  You'll go straight to walking.  Being still isn't your style and that is why sitting never interested you.  You pull up with ease now, anytime anywhere.  You think 2 year old boys are items to pull up on.  You like to use the coffee table to pull up and then walk around it in circles while holding on.  You are getting steadier and better at transferring between places, like from the couch to the coffee table without a spill.

You've taken some backwards steps in your eating.  It's hard to get you to drink all your milk.  You lose interest and start wiggling, then squirming, then crying.  Almost any sound or movement will catch your attention and seem more fun than milk.  This is frustrating because then you get hungry more often but don't eat very much.  We're working on it.  You also have had some trouble with eating solids.  Some days you eat so easily and other days you just want nothing to do with food because it means you have to stop playing.  The one trick that has never yet failed to get you to eat is to give you yogurt.  You love the stuff.  So one bite of yogurt, one bite of your meal.  We try not to use this method unless all else fails.  You have become finicky.  Some days you love sweet potato, some days you hate it.  Every time you eat banana, you choke and throw up the first bite.  Then you start eating it with relish.  This is strange because you have been eating banana since you were four or five months old and never choked on it back then.  Your newest food love is the tops of broccoli spears.  You can't get enough of them when your mom and dad are eating them for dinner.  Broccoli eating is always encouraged!

Sleep has been a little more tough too.  Your naps aren't very long.  An hour and ten minutes is a good nap at this point.  You've also started squirming and crying when we are getting you ready for naps but fortunately you still quiet down quickly when we put you in bed.  You also hate having anyone wipe or blow your nose now, which we need to do frequently because it seems this month you've had a constant cold (might be related to the fact that we've started putting you in the nursery at church?)  Diaper changes can be tortuous because you have to be still and are not allowed to roll over.  A toy makes it more bearable for a little while.

You learned LOTS of new fun things this past month from your Nona.  She's a teacher at heart and did just as well at teaching you as she does her second grade classroom.  She taught you how to wave and now you absolutely love it because you've realized waving gets you lots of attention.  So you wave at someone and then you wave again, and again, and again.  You waved through the whole airport on our trip to Ecuador and you wave up and down the streets as we walk, charming everyone.  She also taught you how to bounce while you are standing.  So when music is on or when someone bounces a little, you like to do the bounce right along with.  The other thing she taught you that you love is peekaboo.  What a fun, fun game!  Now peekaboo is a go-to method for keeping you entertained when you are upset in the carseat.  You like when other people hide and play peekaboo.  It has taken you a little while longer to like being the one whose eyes are covered when we say, "Where's Canaan?"  but you are starting to get it.  Peekaboo comes in many forms now.  You love when your dad and I toss you on our bed and pile all the pillows over you and then play peekaboo that way.

You've taken to doing a noise that sounds a lot like my Grandma Ruthie.  You kind of gasp for breath loudly.  You do this over and over again, wheezing around as you crawl.

Seeing you play with other kids is maybe the cutest thing.  You are still so little and unaware of some things and it makes you look vulnerable amidst the two year olds.  But you are also such a determined little guy and it shows on your face in these situations as you watch what kids do and try to move as quickly with your crawling.  My heart catches sometimes at these moments and I think it's just a mere glimpse of what it will be like when you are older and trying to make friends and learning the good and the bad that comes with that.

At eight months you have finally graduated from the army crawl/butterfly stroke that you have used so determinedly to get around to a bonafide crawl.  You were pretty quick with the other but now if I turn my back for a second sometimes it takes me a minute to figure out where you have gotten to in that time.

You still love wires, anything electronic, and string the best.  If I pull on a hoodie you'll crawl over to me with a smile that could melt anyone's heart.  Only the smile isn't for me.  It's for the strings your little eagle eye has located on my hood.  We have started telling you, "No" a lot because you like to try to crawl to the cable and DVD wires.  We're pretty sure you know you aren't supposed to play there.  But we're not sure you can figure out what "No" means.  Every time I try it you stop and look at me.  And then you give me the biggest smile, despite my stern look, and keep crawling straight toward the wires.  We're working on that one.

Your newest and favorite trick is pulling up on this.  Sometimes you like to climb your mom or dad or the bean bag in the play center but your favorite is to climb your bouncy seat and chew on the straps while you work on standing.  We've been using a little standing table and you love that as well.  You aren't allowed to play with it without mom or dad right beside you because it is not super sturdy and you fall a lot still when you are pulling yourself up on it.  But your face lights up while you bang at the buttons and nobs and the table sings back to you.

You love to "walk" with mom or dad holding your hands.  You've definitely got the hang of putting one foot in the front of the other and as we walk you down the halls of ITeams you smile from side to side at everyone you see.  Everyone thinks you will walk soon but I'm not so sure.  Even though you are good at putting one foot in front of the other you are not very good at balancing (you still fall often even when you are sitting up straight) and you are a pretty distracted little boy.  Something catches your attention and you lose all concentration on your balance.

You talk almost constantly now, whether anyone is listening or not.  Your favorite sounds start with a "D" and you say "dada" a lot, but you say it to anything at anytime.  You're still eating lots of new things, including tofu and hard-boiled egg yolks.  You love when I give you a carrot stick to gnaw on.  Food is fascinating to you and you watch your mom and dad eat with rapt attention.  Sometimes when you see your mom take a bite you will move your mouth and chew along with her, as if you are imagining what it tastes like.