10 1/2 months

Francis continues to run wild and keeps us busy chasing after him. He's not walking yet but is increasingly confident in cruising around while holding onto stuff. He repeats sounds we make like "yeahyeahyeah" "lalalalala" and "dadadadada" and he seems to understand more of what we say to him (even if he ignores us).

Francis got sick recently with a fever of 104.7 and a splotchy rash (seen in the topless photos below) but he's fully recovered by now. He is too excited about life to want to sleep through the night and over the past weekend woke up several nights at 3am screaming for company (for hours).

For those who think Francis is a little too protected from germs and danger, please enjoy the video of Francis's carefully supervised exploration of a flower pot, accompanied by a still picture of eating dirt. Francis has recently enjoyed crawling long distances through the yard and collecting leaves and sticks.