11 Months!

Dear Jack,

You were 11 months old a little over two weeks ago! 

We haven't been to the doctor in a while, so I'm not quite sure how much you weight, but I'm thinking it's close to the 23-25 lb. range.  You'll have your one year check up soon, so we'll know for sure then.  You are wearing size four disposable diapers, although we try to do the cloth diapers as much as possible to save money.  You are wearing 12 to 18 months size clothing - 12 months fits and 18 is a little big, but we are buying mostly 18 so we can get a little wear out of them :)

You are still sleeping through the night!  HALLELUJAH!!!  You will usually go down anywhere between 7 and 8 pm and sleep until around 5 am.  It's like your little body has an internal alarm clock.  Every morning (and even when you were waking up in the night) you wake up at the same time (between 4 and 5 am) and want to nurse and then will go back to sleep and sleep until around 7 or 7:30 am.  Every. morning.  You could literally set your watch by it, and you've been like that since day one.  

You are now only nursing twice a day, morning and night, which is good, because Mommy was only planning on nursing you for a year . . . we ain't doin' this 4 and 5 year stuff.  I am trying to gradually decrease the number of times you nurse per day, so it'll be an easier transition for you.  Now we gotta decide which feeding is next to go, morning or night.  

You have been doing such a great job eating real food lately, which makes Mommy so proud!  I've been working on getting you on more of a strict breakfast, lunch and dinner routine, and it seems to have helped a lot!  Now when I sit you down in the highchair, you seem to know what you are there for and almost seem ready for it!  You like to pick up pieces of food with your fingers, although they don't always make it your mouth.  Most of the time, you still don't mind Mommy feeding you with a spoon, which is good, because I'm not sure how you would ever get full if we relied completely on you getting those tiny pieces to your mouth.  

It's like you'll almost eat anything now if you're hungry and in the right mood.  I think because, you don't have many teeth yet and some foods are hard to chew up and get down, so you just spit them back out.  You love bread, crackers of any kind, pretzels, sweet potatoes, regular mashed potatoes, grapes, butternut squash, any of those baby foods that come in a pouch (probably because they're sweet), carrots, and cheerios.  And I'm sure there are more things you like, and we just haven't tried them or I've forgotten.  

I keep trying to get you to drink whole milk, but so far, it's a no go.  Oh, and that's another thing . . . we had to switch you to lactose free whole milk, because regular whole milk made you sick :(  You have mastered the sippy-cup and really like to drink water or apple juice out of it.  For some reason, you won't drink breast milk out of it, you'll only drink that from a bottle . . . very strange.  

You have TWO tiny, itty-bitty teeth right up front, and they are so cute!  You may have more than that though, and I just can't see them!  If you have more, they haven't caused you to be very fussy like the first tooth did.  I have noticed a little more diaper rash lately, so maybe that means something.

You are still crawling everywhere and pulling up on everything!  You got a little toy that you can walk behind for your birthday from Uncle Ben, Aunt Laura, Kate, Henry, and Thomas.  You do a pretty good job of walking behind it, but I do think it'll be a little while before you actual take steps by yourself.

You said "dada" and pointed at Jonathan for the first time the other day when he walked in the door from work.  He was so excited I thought he might faint.  It is so cute to us to hear you start to make more complex sounds and be able to repeat sounds that we make.  Now, when we say something to you, you'll watch our mouths and kind of try to repeat what we said (or at least your version of it :)).

Here are a few quick lists of things you like, don't like, and new little things you are doing.


Things you like:

Baby Einstein CD's for the car.  There are three CD's in the set, and you can almost always count on one of them to calm you down if you are upset.
Anything that lights up and plays music
Books of all kinds - you enjoy being read to and you also like to flip through the pages
Songs being played - you'll bob up and down, wave your arms, and "dance" along
Kids and other babies
Animals
Bath time
Slamming drawers and doors
Crawling everywhere - lots of times you'll wriggle out of our laps to get down and crawl around
Swinging on our porch swings or on the swings at the park
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and most anything else that comes on Disney Jr.


Things you don't like:

Whole milk
Having your hands or face wiped off
Going down for naps (you fight it with all you have!)
Large crowds of people you don't know


New things you are doing:

Pointing at things with your cute, chubby, little pointer finger and saying "doo, dah, baba" or whatever else that comes to mind.
Recognizing Jonathan and I as "Mama" and "Dada"
Crying around new people or when myself or Jonathan aren't in the room
Giving kisses (to people and toys)
Throwing things (sippy-cups, toys, pacis, remotes, etc.)
Crawling on your knees pretty much all the time
Walking behind your walker
Eating well
Saying more complex sounds   

Jack, you are our sweet little angel baby who is growing into a precious little boy right before our eyes.  Mommy and Daddy can't believe you are almost one year old.  We love you very much, Jack Man!

*Pics. to come*