Eleven Months

Oh man, this post was a kind of hard one because you know what comes after eleven months?  TWELVE months!  My baby is going to be a year old!  I can’t believe it.  Somehow I never quite expect that much time to slip by, and somehow it always does. 

I am really kind of struggling with this (like more than I can even admit out loud).  My sentimental heart just wants my baby to stay a baby forever.  

But I am so proud of all the new things M has been learning and doing lately.  And I love that he is in such a fun, interactive stage.  

Cutie Pie is into EVERYTHING lately.  I love it.  For a while, before he had mastered crawling, he would get bored and was so unhappy because he couldn’t do all the things he wanted to do.  We would tell people that we were excited for M to crawl, and often the response was that we should just be glad that he wasn’t mobile yet because it makes life harder.  Now that M can finally get around a little bit, I can honestly say they were so wrong.  M is a little happier now that he can be a man on the go and I am happier that he isn’t frustrated as much of the day.  I am totally fine with letting him empty drawers and shelves all day because he is having fun.  It is adorable to see him industriously unpacking. 

M’s greatest obsession is still socks.  He loves when we put them on, and he loves yanking them off.  Often, he runs around the house with one sock on and one sock off.         

His second greatest obsession is puppies.  M LOVES puppies.  His puppy books are his favorite.  And he gets so excited he about can’t stand it when we see doggies going for car rides or out on walks.  We have even been known to pop into a local pet store on occasion, just so M can look at the puppies. 

(M was literally waving at the puppies and hollering with joy.)

Of course, Lizzy is still his favorite puppy in the universe and he spends most of his time crawling after her and trying to pull her fur. 

M is kind of obsessed with looking at himself (be it in photos, videos, or his reflection), which is a cute attribute for a baby to have, but we hope he grows out of it by the time he’s a teenager :).  M Bug loves flipping through his photo albums.  And I really need to record him watching home videos of himself.  He smiles so big and flaps his arms every time his face appears on the screen.  It’s pretty cute.  All of our mirrors have little finger prints on them.  I kind of love it and don’t plan on washing them off anytime soon.   

This past month, M has gotten very good at pulling himself to a stand, but he will only do so if he is holding on to me.  I’ve tried to show him that he can pull himself to a stand in other places, but he is not interested.  He is VERY attached to mama and doesn’t like it if I ever leave the room without him.

He continues to love the freedom his walker gives him, and M literally sprints up and down the hallway.  M prefers to be standing for as much of the day as possible.  He spends much of his time holding on to my hands so he can take tiny steps.

M loves to feed himself, and often wants to be the one to hold the spoon.  When he is really excited about what he is eating, he will open and close his hands in and out of fists and shake them all around.  He is very into pulling food out of his mouth.  Not because he doesn’t like it, he just wants to look at what he’s eating for some strange reason.  Silly kid.  

He has started doing the funniest thing where he scissor kicks every time we pick him up.  Not in an angry way, just an “I’m so happy to be alive I’m going to wiggle out of my skin” kind of way.  He loves to kick those legs. 

Fastest eleven months of my life, I tell you what.