11 Months Old

 This week has been a bit of an emotional one for me as a mama to this wonderful little guy. I spent my afternoon off on Monday organizing (and taking a little trip down memory) all of Carters baby clothes. It was so hard to believe that 11 months ago he was wearing newborn clothes, yes, newborn clothes at 9 lbs 3 oz and that he loved wearing those adorable little onesies, and footed pj's. I can't forget about the mizzou stocking cap that he rocked over the winter, and of course his little sweater vests he rocked at Christmas time. And.... all of his "first" outfits (Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, VDay, St Pattys and Easter). All of those clothes are now packed away and labeled in containers in the basement and are just a little piece of the many memories that we have created over the past 11 months. After I spend the afternoon organizing all the clothes, I gathered all my supplies and tackled the scrapbook that I have been working on since the day I got pregnant. I filled in 8 pages of summer fun that again, all made me sad to think of how big our little man has gotten over the past year, and even just the past 4 months. I am so glad that I am a picture person (and yes, with our next baby I will be too) because I have captured some of the best moments with Carter and cannot wait for him to grow up and look back at all the good memories we created in his first year!!!

Now as I prepare for his first birthday party, I am going to really soak in these next four weeks, because as much as I don't want to admit it, Carter is turning into a little boy and will no longer be the baby.

 

With that, little man you have turned 11 months old today and boy was it interesting to try and get you to take your 11 month pictures. We took almost 30 pictures and settled on these few for the blog. 11 months old, and you have such a personality. You know what you want and when you want it, and you definitely let us know. You have gone away from crying at everything and have really figured out that you can be independent when you want. You go about your business playing and laughing, and watching tv and doing everything you want to do. Its fun to watch you play and even better that you are ok with doing it alone, but you still love us to be on the floor playing with you and teaching you how to use your toys.

11 Month Photo Shoot

You love ALL of your toys and love figuring out that they all do alot of different things. You are a machine at putting the balls in the holes for all the toys. And you will stack your rings with a little help from mom and dad. You are pushing your walker, and you LOVE watching/playing on mom and dads iPhone with the FARM animals. You also have become a fan of the kitchen cabinets, and refrigerator and any kind of door. You love opening and shutting them and are content playing with them for a long time. We also bought you some letter magnets for the fridge and you like taking them off and putting them back on (mostly taking them off and leaving a mess on the floor).

 

You love to be read to and are venturing out when it comes to books. You still love to be read "I Love You All the Time," every night and we read it two or three times. But, you are starting to become interested in other books. We allow you to watch cartoons because you love them, but you dont spend hours upon hours watcing them. Normally, we play cartoons in the morning while we are getting ready for work and you will play and watch them when you want. You absolutely love Cat in the Hat and Super Why and we even have a few taped for those moments that we need you to sit and hangout.

You are still a very happy, smiley, and VERY giggly baby and it is so funny to watch you interact with everything and everyone. We love every little noise, and every little "word" (no real ones yet) that you say. We have lots of "conversations" and they can get pretty interesting. Sometimes, you laugh, sometimes you scream (grunt) and sometimes you don't say anything. But, all of those "conversations" we think you really are listening and understanding what we are saying to you. Which you really know now what NO means. Even though sometimes you think its funny, when we say it to you in a stern voice you know that it means you shouldn't be doing something and you stop. You also are able to give us things that you know you shouldn't have, or if we ask you for something you will give it to us . You also for some reason when playing with your toys you grunt and make these really funny noises. Not sure why you do it, but you do and its funny.

 

You are able to stand up on your own for a few seconds at a time, and love it when we work on it. I think you really just love being able to fall over onto us when your done standing up. Sometimes you will stand up on your own and not even realize it, and you stand for longer than just a few seconds. You think it is pretty funny when you do it and when you realize what you are doing you sit down or "fall" over. Not walking yet, but there is no hurry at all, once you start walking I am sure we will be in trouble. You are crusing around like mad, and go from furniture to furniture and even sometimes climb on things when you are able to. You pull yourself up just fine, and love standing up by the couch and soaking in everything going on around you.

We are still working on waving and "SO BIG" and clapping, but you just don't seem so interested in doing those things. You are more interested in tossing the ball, giving kisses, and giving high fives. So, we try not to push you too much, but hopefully you will do them at some point (and we know you will). Like I mentioned, you are not "speaking" for say, but you do make a lot of noises. We truly think your first word is going to be poop for two reasons (1) you already make the p-p-p-p sound and (2) you think its hilarious. While saying ma-ma and da-da do nothing for you.

 

You are still nursing and really are becoming an interesting nurser. You are still attacking me when its time to eat, but do a good job nursing. We only have a few more weeks to rock it and I think we will be fine and will have accomplished something not many people can say they have done. You are nursing four times a day (bfast, two daytime sessions, and a bedtime session) or during the work day you nurse in the morning and evening and then you get two bottles/sippy cups during the day. We have weened off the 5am feeding and now you sleep through it. The last week of this month, we started you on WHOLE milk and you are doing great with it. You get one sippy cup of whole milk a day for now, and you seem to be adapting just fine. I know you still prefer to nurse which is fine for now, but since the plan is to stop nursing after you turn one, we are working on making the transition a little easier by introducing some whole milk a little at a time.

11 month photo shoot take 25

You are no longer eating any baby food, you are on strictly table food. Which is nice, but sometimes not so nice. You are sometimes a fan of protein (chicken and ground beef), and other times you act disgusted. You were doing really good eating your veggies and now you want nothing to do with them. You would rather eat any kind of pasta, quesadillas, rice, beans, applesauce, peaches, or yogurt or fruit cocktail all the time. I have noticed though that it takes a few times of eating something and you do come around. You once did not like french toast or pancakes (and I kept thinking, how is this possible) but, now you love them (well, with a little maple syrup on them). One of your favorite snacks are the UTZ pub pretzels and these cheese flavored sticks that come in the mix and you cant seem to get enough of them. We have to hide the container from you because if you see it you just sit there and grunt at it until we give you some. Its actually pretty funny.

SLEEP... not sure what happened over this past month, but you have become a saint when it comes to sleeping .You go to bed anywhere from 8-830 every night (unless you have a big night, you stay up a bit later those nights), and stay asleep until at least 6-630. There are those random nights (which are becoming more and more as the days go on) you will wake up for a few minutes and then go right back to sleep till 730-800 am. Lately, we have been having to wake you up to get your ready to go to the sitters house. It is amazing. We waited along time for those kinds of nights and it was worth it. Tiring but worth it! You are taking two naps everyday, one in the morning (about an hour long) and one in the afternoon (about 1.5-2.5 hrs). The best part of all this is that you go right down to bed, you don't even fuss. You love your bed and all your "friends" who get to sleep with you.

 

Carter and his "Blankie"

You are still rocking size three diapers and are in 12 month clothes. You have really thinned out, but at times we still think you are a little chunk, which we love every little roll that you have  and always will. We are working on the bink and would like for you to be bink free by your birthday. You really only use it when you are in the car, and when your in bed. Its hard though because it is very soothing for you at  times, but we just want to try and break you of having that bink for longer than necessary. While some kids have a bink for a long time, I think that your "crack" that will be around for a while will be your "blankie," I have no idea what we would do without that blankie. You love it and get so excited when you see it. You sleep with it, and when you are upset we give it to you and you immediately clam down. You also have become quite attached to your momma and sometimes wont have anything to do with anyone else (besides daddy) when I am around. Sometimes that is a cute thing, but you mkae it hard to leave you at the sitters house when your screaming because you want me. One of these days you will be really independent and wont be sad when you leave me, so for now I am totally ok with you loving me as much as you do.

 

I am sure I missed a few things.. I know, how could I, I just wrote a novel for one month. In just four short weeks little guy you are gonna be one. So until then lets just make a ton more memories until you become mamas little boy instead of little baby boo!

xoxo

 

Mom and Dad