11 months old!

Dated May 23, 2013:

Sleeping: I don’t know what happened this month, bud, but your sleep has been a little interrupted lately at night!  We’ve been blaming the usual culprits: learning how to walk, teeth, being too hot/cold, losing a blankie, etc.  You still usually nap well (except when at daycare), but seem restless at night – we lately hear you whining or crying in the wee hours of the morning.  You do fall back asleep on your own, but sometimes it takes a little while for you to settle back down.  You are still taking two consistent naps a day: the first nap around 10AM and second nap by 3PM.  Afternoon naps still seem to be longer than the morning naps.  Mama has gotten a lot of gardening done between the hours of 3-5 lately!

Eating: You are still not a very adventurous eater.  If it doesn’t pass “the squish test” you won’t even try it.  Some things are consistent winners with you, though.  You will ALWAYS eat cheese, cheerios, animal crackers, cheese cracker sandwiches, etc.  Your new love is hot dogs.  We may have overdone it on the chicken – you seem to be on a chicken strike lately so we’ll have to branch out with new flavors and meats!  We try to sneak veggies into quesadillas or eggs, but you are too smart for that – you just spit it out.  You are still drinking around 12-16 oz. of formula in addition to the 3 meals a day.  I have a very hard time feeding you outside of the house if we’re out with friends.  You do not stop moving for a minute to eat!  Eating is a disturbance and annoyance for you, it seems!

Teeth: I recently noticed the beginnings of two new top teeth – maybe molars?!?!  Perhaps this is why you’ve been such a crank lately!

Development and play: We knew you would be an early walker and on Memorial Day weekend right around the 11mo mark you took your first long walk of steps!!  Since then, you have gotten much more coordinated and you can even turn in different directions without falling.  You look like a little drunk Frankenstein – it’s hilarious.  You love the inflated ball we got you and your favorite thing ever might be these stacking bowls from Fisher Price.  You try to carry two or more at a time and either crawl sliding them on the ground or walk around banging them on everything you can.  You play with Charlie’s toys at times and I get little glimpses of the two of you playing together someday.  You sometimes stop moving around long enough to open a book and sit there quietly for a minute turning the pages – it’s the cutest!

Temperament: You seem a little crankier than usual lately, mostly at meal times and at night.  Again, might be due to the teething.  We went to a huge party over Memorial Day weekend with lots of people and babies and you were a champ.  Showed off your new walking skills, smiled at everyone and only broke one thing!  We’ve been dragging you lots of places with us lately and you have been doing such a good job.  Lots of late bedtimes and you are able to bounce back very easily.

Random: With the unusually high temperatures we’ve been having here lately, we have been doing all we can to stay cool.  You went in your first ocean over Memorial Day weekend (well, pond side at Nauset Beach and just your toes), pond (Walden) last week, then tried your first real pool (and also dipped your feet in a kiddie pool) this past weekend and you had a smile on your face with every new adventure.  You also may have gotten pink eye for the first time this weekend – I came home yesterday to find you with red swollen eyelids – poor thing!  You got your first haircut this month, too!

I can’t believe you are going to be ONE in a few short weeks!!!  Time, slow down!!