Life's Greatest Blessings: 11 Months

Sigh. One more month. That is it until my littlest guy will be one year old. How did that happen so fast? He is just as precious and cute and sweet as can be! We love him so much and can't really remember what life was like before him. This month Samuel has become quite the chatter-box! He is constantly making noises, grunting, babbling, howling (yes, howling . . . like a wolf! ha!), etc. It's so funny! He even likes copying the noises that he hears us make. Wonder if he'll be as much of a talker as big brother is?! :) He is also getting more daring with standing up, crawling, barely hanging on, walking around furniture, etc. He is sooo close to taking off! Samuel seems to be more tentative and careful by nature so we'll see if this holds true for walking.

Samuel is still a great eater! He nurses about 4x a day and eats solids for 3 meals and an afternoon snack. This month he tried a few new things (quinoa, steel cut oats, fried eggs, pinto beans to name a few) and liked them all! He definitely shows a preference for certain foods (any fruit is a favorite!) but once the fruit or bread is gone he will almost always eat the other foods we put on his tray. He's not a huge fan of beans or meat yet but will still eat them . . . or look at us and slowly throw them on the floor one at a time. Stinker!

This month he has mastered the big, sloppy, open mouthed kisses (when HE wants to, of course), slow blinking and wrinkling his nose on command, sitting down when we tell him to, holding his sock on his foot to try and put it on himself, crawling over the ledge from the front entryway to the living room or playroom (although he still doesn't LIKE to do it, he finally will), wiping down his tray or the table when you give him a napkin or baby wipe, dancing when he hears music, signing "more" while eating, and so much more!

Thankfully, this month he seems to have made a change for the better with sleep. We had a bit of a rough patch in the middle where he got croup and his first ear infection but even with that did okay. He has been sleeping through the night from about 7:30-5:30 (sometimes will go back down after that for another 45 min. or so) and taking two naps from about 9:00-10:30 and 1:30-3:00. He would sleep a little longer than 3:00 some days but I have to wake him up to go pick up Caleb from school. I previously was nursing him to sleep for naps but weaned him from that this month and moved the nursing sessions to other times so now I can just take him upstairs, give him "Monkey See", walk him around for about 1-2 minutes, and lay him down awake. Sometimes he rolls around and talks for about 10-30 minutes but other times he goes right to sleep. Finally Mommy can remember what it's like to feel rested!! Yippee!!

Month 11 favorites:

Mommy
Rolling over while getting a diaper change
Pushing his activity table around on the hardwood floors and walking behind it
Fruit, bread, yogurt, cheese
Unloading anything and everything
Tearing paper (especially toilet paper)
Splashing in the potty
Looking out the window
Knocking down block towers
Running errands with Mommy
Taking a bath

Month 11 dislikes:

The car seat (he mostly does okay with actually riding in the car but getting in to the car seat is a fight with screaming, back arching, flailing, etc. It's quite ridiculous actually.)
Having his diaper changed
Wiping his face after eating
Mosquitoes
Caleb taking a bath and not him (Yes, we threw a screaming tantrum one night when Mommy was holding him and walked too close to the bathroom where Caleb was about to get in the tub and he heard the water running!)
Mommy being more than about 5 ft. away at any given moment