11 months!!!! NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

I can't believe my baby is 11 months old. This is it guys. He's going to be 1 so soon and I'm not ready for it. Not at all. It's gone so fast and so slow that I don't really know what to do with myself. I have a feeling I'm going to feel this way for the rest of my life.

The GOOD!
Z's dearest wishes finally came true and he is mobile. Extremely so. He can cruise all around the furniture, moving from one piece to another on his own, likes to walk holding our hands, crawls anywhere he wants to go on any surface, pulls up (or tries to) on anything he can get his fat baby hands on... basically he does what he wants. It's his world and we're just living in it.

We are forging fearlessly ahead with table food, which makes sense since he cut two more teeth this last month, bringing the grand total to 8. I feel pretty certain that numbers 9-11 (where is 12?) are right behind them. He still loves sweet potatoes and yogurt (separate and together) the most, but has expanded his horizons to eating pretty much anything we are eating. Fish, veggies, chili, bean soups, grilled cheese, and pizza have all made their way into his little belly. Some days he will only eat food he can feed himself with his own hands but one never knows when those days might arrive. Keeps us on our toes.











He's getting a little better at using a sippy cup but still prefers his bottle. In fact, he's gotten a little obsessed with his bottle lately, but I think that might be due to the massive teething effort he is currently undertaking (see below). He is almost always a solo bottle eater now, but every now and then wants to snuggle and have us hold the bottle for him. Mama doesn't mind since I feel like my snuggling days are coming to an end.






The BAD!
We've got all manner of bumps and bruises going on. Z has face planted into the hardwood floor more times than I can count, toppled over when trying to furniture hop, attempted to fling himself wildly after a toy... the child is a little crazy. He tends toward the dramatic, weeping hysterically whenever a bump occurs, which makes his mama very sad.
He also has had ups and downs with his sleeping - sometimes all night, sometimes up twice. He had a 3 day stretch where he though it was appropriate to wake up 1 AM and then party until 3-4 AM. That was not fun. He thought it was fun. I did not. It looks like we're over that hump now, thank God. My best guess is that all of the new skills were just way too fun for him to sleep since he would just cruise around his crib, sitting down and standing up over and over again while babbling loudly with absolutely no interest in any intervention from us.
He's gotten two more teeth (total - 8) and it looks like he's working on FOUR more. Four. The four "canines" is my best guess due to bumps and the ghost of white teeth under the surface. I guess it's good to get them out of the way but the little guy seemed pretty sad about it this week.

The AWESOME!



We just feel so thankful to have Z in our lives. He's such a cheerful, clever little guy. Watching him learn so many new things, seeing him know us more and more, hearing his new babbling and making him laugh are such glorious blessings. We love his toothy grin and his insatiable curiosity. It's amazing to think that a year ago we didn't have this little human and now he has completely rearranged our lives and we wouldn't trade it. We are heavily blessed.