Jack turned 11 months old on 10/23/05, which was this past Sunday.

In keeping with our recently started tradition of posting a milestone update as Jack gets older, here is the list of stuff Jack does now, at 11 months of age:

• Jack now walks pretty well while holding on to only one hand from his walking helper (usually Mommy or Daddy).
• While walking with a one-handed grip on his helper, he still holds his other hand up in the air, like he’s holding onto his helper with two hands… It’s too funny. He looks like he’s walking and saying “Yaaaay!” the whole time.
• Jack is now a climber. Jack can climb up into his Janicek rocking chair really well, which makes Christine laugh, while at the same time putting the fear of God into her that Jack is going to fall out of the chair and break his head.
• Jack dances. A lot. He hears music during a TV commercial, and he starts dancing. He hears the background track to a movie or TV show and he moves a little. He listens to the radio or a CD in the car and he grooves in his car seat.
• Jack communicates relatively well. Jack can now tell us what he needs with basic signs and sounds… he doesn’t say words perse, but he can tell us what he needs.
• When he’s done eating, he claps… meaning “yay, I’m done”.
• When he’s hungry or thirsty and you ask him if he is, he acts very animated and looks to you to satisfy his need.
• He says bye-bye and waves, though not always at the right time.
• He says “da-da” and “ma-ma” mostly at the right time now… and he acts excited and calls us by name when he hasn’t seen either of us in a while.
• Jack loves to go outside, as he always has, but he’s now not afraid to crawl around in the grass (he used to hate the grass).
• Jack ooo’s and ah’s and squeaks and squawks, and says “uh-oh” and “quack-quack” when he sees his ducky. I think spending so much time with Raymond’s ducks this summer makes Jack partial to duck toys at times… though he loves his ba-ba and his big doggy, and his froggy too… He just can’t call those by name, but he knows his duck is a “quack-quack”. Come to think of it, he knows his cow is a “moo-moo” too.
• Cagney is Jack’s riding buddy in the car (Cagney is a stuffed lion). When we get in the car, Jack’s just fine if he has his Cagney with him and his face lights up when he sees it. If we ask him where Cagney is (from the front seat) and he’s holding Cagney, he’ll usually hold him up to show us where he is.
• Jack is a very happy baby when he’s not sick. He has a bout of illnesses there for about a month that he just couldn’t get over. In the past 3-4 weeks he’s been very well, and so much fun to be around.
• Jack knows how to open the cabinets in the Kitchen, and he knows that he shouldn’t play with them, so he opens the ones he can, and then closes them, basically playing “open and close” with himself most of the time he’s messing with the cabinets. It’s cute.
• Back to climbing: Jack can climb up on the dishwasher door when it’s open and we’re putting dishes in the dishwasher or taking them out. This makes it a challenge to do the dishes quickly, but it’s fun. He also climbs into the fridge when the door is open.
• Jack plays “push the refridgerator door” when he’s standing in the fridge. He’ll stand there, holding onto one of the fridge shelves, and the door will close towards him, so he’ll turn and push it open and go back to the shelf, at which point the door will be swinging closed again. This back and forth will go on for hours if we let it… it’s cute to see Jack get frustrated with the door that keeps trying to close on him.
• Jack is now taking toys apart if he can. He can disassemble the lego blocks that Grandmother and Granddad gave to him… and then he’ll try to put them back together, but he can’t quite line them up just yet… and he gets royally pissed. That’s funny to watch too, but we have to stop it eventually, so he doesn’t go balistic.
• Jack knows not to play with the electrical outlets, or the gas lines that stick out of the floor, and will usually start shaking his head “no” as he gets close to playing with them… almost as if he’s telling himself no.
• Jack went to his very first tailgate party on Saturday before the t.u. vs. Texas Tech game. Murphy (friends from Freese and Nichols) and his friends have this bus called the “Texas Pig” that they host a party at before every home game, so while Christine was working on Jack’s halloween suit, Jack and I went up there to hang out. I just have to figure out now how to get more of Jack’s “firsts” related to Aggie stuff instead of t.u. stuff… we need to find a way to buy season tickets next year without spending a million bucks to do it.

I’m sure there’s more I could add to this list, but it’s so hard to catch everything Jack does now… he’s growing and learning new things at such a rapid pace.

As Jack gets older and develops his own little personailty, it gets tougher and tougher for me to leave him for a sales trip. I think about all the time I’m missing with him, and I’m thankful that I work out of the house and I can spend lunches with him, and see him at various times thoughout the days when I’m home. I’m looking forward to taking a couple of weeks off during the holidays to compensate for the travel I’ve done this year.

Christine and I were looking at photos of Jack from when he was born the other night, and we just can’t believe how much he’s grown.

Jack turns one year old on 11/23/05 and we’re going to celebrate his birthday with a party on 11/25 or 11/26 (the weekend after Thanksgiving). I’m not in charge, so I’m not 100% on the date, but if you’d like to join us for the party, you’re definitely invited (we know a lot of folks will be out of town that weekend, so the more the merrier if you’re staying in Austin).

Here’s looking forward to another month.