Eleven Months!!

One short month shy of a year.  Holy crap.  He's developing so quickly.  I guess it's been a while since my last update because it feels like there's so much to report - and that a lot of these milestones have been around for a while.  Here's the short of the long:

• He's begun pointing, mostly at pictures in books.  
• He asks us to read him a book by holding the book out to us.  Right in our face if he can reach.  Often times immediately taking a book from our hands as we finish reading it, only to then hold it out to us again to make it clear that he'd like a repeat performance.  I'm sure my parents are chuckling to themselves about this since there were about two years of my childhood where I said "read books. read books." about then thousand times a day.
•  He's standing without holding on to anything for seconds at a time, walking while pushing things, and using the wall to cruise down the hall.
  
• He's still a dancing machine.  I love this about him.  The other day I turned off his music playing table (because it was driving me insane) and he pulled himself up on it and spun the piece that plays his favorite song and began to dance.  He danced two or three bounces before he realized that there was no music, so he spun it again.  He spun it 6-7 times (with two or three dance bounces in between) before I was finally able to stop laughing and turn it back on.  Also, he fell asleep in my arms a few weeks ago and as I was trying to tiptoe him to bed, I accidentally stepped on his musical octopus - of course.  As the song began to play he sleepily opened his eyes, looked so confused, and raised one arm and began to half-sleep-half-dance in my arms.  So freaking cute.
• He is understanding more and more of what we say.  He gives kisses when we ask for them.  He clearly understands "no" even if he disregards it most of the time.  "No bite" is often repeated these days because he is teething - again.
• I think he has a few words.  It seems a little early, and I admit that I could be jumping the gun on this one, but he does regularly make certain sounds that seem to make sense in context.  Dada(dadadada), guh (usually when eating or drinking, which I think means "good"), buh (ball), and a sound he makes for "Talula" that I can't really figure out how to capture with letters.
• He's still loosely using some signs.  The newest one is "finished" which for some unknown reason he sticks his tongue out when he does it.  Maybe because I enunciate the word when I make it?  
• He can unlock my iphone.  He knows to press the button and then drag the lever on the touch screen.  It takes him a little while, but he can do it consistently.  He can also flip through pictures on the touch screen.  AND he has recently discovered that if he presses the button on my keys twice the car will beep outside.  
• He got his first freckle on his right shin.
• He's a little mimic.  He plays peekaboo by pulling clothes or blankets over his head and recently he grabbed a dishtowel and used it to scrub a good chunk of the floor.  
• He's getting really good at putting clothes on.  It doesn't feel like we are working against him anymore - he pushes his arm through sleeves and lifts his feet for pants.
• He can get down from our bed (a mattress on the floor) by himself.  He finally mastered feet first - and now the house is his oyster.  Here's a video showing his new skill:

And some more pictures to round out the post: