Eleven and counting...

We returned last night from a month-long visit to the East Coast. We have lots of photos, stories, and adventures to share. Here are a few to start us off.

This is a pretty good family portrait from our room in Maine.

Jude took his first steps this past month. Most of the time he still prefers to crawl, but once in a while he'll remember how fun it is to try to stand up and then he'll work on it for a few minutes.

Jude got to visit Baekeland Camp for the first time this summer. He's a little young to climb the Big Rock, so we found a Baby Rock for him to enjoy.

Jude had his first ride in the Yellow Canoe this summer. He also had a few dips in Utawana Lake, but it was a little cool so he mostly played on land.

Jude had a lot of fun on vacation. He adapted really well to all of the travel and actually seemed to enjoy exploring new places. He also had a lot of "firsts" in his eleventh month of life:

• Jude is now sleeping through the night (12 hours) pretty consistently. He started this due to exhaustion related to travel, but it turned into a habit. Can't complain about that one!
• After a lot of practice, and a few tumbles, Jude can now climb up AND down stairs. He still prefers to walk down the stairs holding hands, but he will feel his way down feet first on his belly if he doesn't get any help. It really helped that our room in Maine had three shallow, carpeted stairs, so we felt comfortable letting him loose to figure it out on his own.
• Jude has also become a very FAST crawler. If you suspect we are just inexperienced first-time parents not familiar with normal crawling speeds, you are probably right, but many other parents have also commented on his speed. He takes after his Dad, I guess.
• Jude said his first word. We fed him a little bit of sausage one morning for breakfast, then asked if he wanted some more, while making the sign for "more". Jude said MORE! Very clearly. Of course we had to give him some. He hasn't said it (or any other words) since then.
• First fireworks at the Piping Rock Liberty Bell extravaganza. It was a late night for Jude, but he handled it pretty well and was mesmerized by the explosions.
• As I mentioned above, Jude took his first steps and will stand unaided for short periods of time. He's not interested in pulling up and then letting go. Instead he starts from the middle of a room and does this funny lunge up and down until he's standing. If I can get it on video I'll post it, but he only does it a few times a day so it's hard to capture.
• Jude swam in the ocean for the first time off the coast of Maine. He also swam in a lake for the first time up at Baekeland Camp.
• Jude climbed a tree and sat on top of some big rocks. He loves the view from up high!
• Jude had a lot of foods for the first time this month, but the most memorable was his first lick of an ice cream cone. We all shared a cone from Stew Leonard's on the drive from Maine to New York. He was a little taken aback at first by the cold, but quickly learned how to lick the cone after a few demonstrations from Mom and Dad.
• Finally, Jude had his first babysitter who was not a friend or family member. My mom hired my grandmother's caregiver to watch Jude so that we could all go to my cousin's wedding. He had a great time with Michelle that night and she took care of him a few more times before the month was out.

We're not planning any more trips for a while, so the blogging should be less sporadic in the future. We're glad to be home, although the weather in Portland this week (103 today and tomorrow) is a little hard to handle. More to come later in the week!