Eleven Months

Leif is turning into such a big boy. He has started eating breakfast and dinner with me and puts up a pretty big fuss if I leave him on the ground while I'm eating. He loves to eat "big people food" and often times eats more dinner than Asher does (who has taken to only playing with his food at dinner time lately). If I don't get enough food into him as fast as he likes, he lets me know it.
Leif is starting to become more socially aware. This is fun, but makes life a little more difficult since he is just starting to notice if he is getting left out of things. (thankfully he still doesn't notice most of the time, so we don't have to worry about it too much yet if Asher gets a treat that he is too young for :) Leif loves to brush his teeth (all whopping two of them) when Asher gets his teeth brushed at night. I think he likes the feel of the toothbrush on his gums, but he also likes to do what his big brother is doing. Sometimes when I have Asher laying on my lap while I brush his teeth, Leif will crawl over and try to stick his toothbrush into Asher's mouth too. He has also tried to stick it into my mouth while I was holding him.
Leif loves to clap, sing, and dance and will do all three on request, just not all the time (especially if I am filming him or trying to show it to someone). Leif loves music, so when we are in the car with the radio on, I often hear him singing along with a "Whooaa, whooaa". His dancing mostly consists of bouncing his head and shoulders up and down, but he stays with the beat pretty well.
Leif is pro at opening and closing doors and cupboards. This is fine most of the time, but occasionally he closes himself into a room and then sits or lays in front of the door so that I can't get in without running over his little fingers and hands. Sometimes he shuts himself into a room with me then stands against the door trying to reach the door knob. Of course, where Leif and I are, Asher is sure to be near by, so I usually have to lock the door so Asher won't come bursting in and knock Leif over.
Leif continues to be such a little instigator. If he isn't getting the brotherly attention he believes Asher owes him, he will yell or laugh at him and if that doesn't do the trick, he'll reach over and hit him or pull his hair. Asher doesn't seem to mind this at all and usually just does it back. I can't remember if I have shared this on our blog before or not, but Asher is very sensitive about having the tangles combed out of his hair and will tell us how much it hurts if we touch his head with a comb, but doesn't even flinch when Leif pulls out chunks of hair.
As you might be able to tell from the pictures, Leif had his first haircut the other day. Two haircuts in fact and they were both very traumatic, hence no pictures of the actual process. I trimmed his hair with scissors just taking off the parts that looked the most scraggley. He cried and screamed like it was hurting him. When Austin came home, he said it looked horrible and took the clippers to Leif's hair. He pitched an even bigger fit that time. I tried to hold his arms down while at the same time holding his head still so Austin could work, but that wasn't working, so I eventually ended up holding his hands, pushing my forehead against his so that he would hold his head still, and singing to him. He calmed down some, but every now and then would scream. It was pretty painful, but we got it done and Austin did a pretty good job.
Here are some photos of our big 11-month-old!