11 Months

I can't believe my baby is almost a year old. Totally incredible to me. It's amazing how much he's grown during the past year. I look back at pics of him as a newborn, then when he was a few months ago and he seems so tiny then. This past month has been a ton of fun. It seems he grows by leaps and bounds on a fairly regular basis. One day he's not pointing, the next he is. One day he doesn't seem to understand me, the next day he does. One day he's only interested in nursing. The next day, he's chowing down on chicken and rice and begging for more.

Things he likes:

• Day care. He doesn't cry but actually smiles when he realizes where he's going (Keith says this usually occurs when they are going up the walk and Cole sees the building).
• Electronic devices. These include but are not limited to: cordless phones, alarm clocks, remote controls, air purifiers. Mainly, things that light up and make noise when you press buttons. He also gets giddy when he hears the Blip of the television as it turns on.
• Happy Baby Organic Puffs. He kicks his legs up and down when he spots anything related to them (the container they come in, the snack trap we sometimes store them in, etc.)
• He likes being worn because it means he has a chance to do the things we do (i.e. press the button on the Keurig machine, close the freezer door, etc).
• Doors. And I don't mean doors to cabinets. Those are old news. He just discovered that doors to rooms can be opened and closed and he's starting to figure out how that works. It's adorable to watch.
• Nursing. He does it often when we are home together and he still nurses several (sometimes numerous, and sometimes too many to count) times a night. (As for me, with the biting, as of late, I could take it or leave it.)
• The cats. He still loves the cats, but they are becoming better and better at avoiding him. Clem books it every time he raises his voice around her (which is often) and Kiwi retreats to higher locations so he can't get to her. The only time you'll catch them near him is when he is sleeping in bed with us. However, it is only a matter of time before he starts walking and climbing. Then there will be no where for them to hide.
• The bongo. We have a bongo in our living room and I recently introduced it to Cole. He LOVED it. Pounding on it is his favorite past time.
• Hitting things. He hits lots of things, and, for the most part, it seems like he's testing to see if the thing he is pounding will move so that he can know it's safe for him to lean on. Other times he pounds things just to touch them.
• He's very much into pushing things.  That includes anything: his bumbo chair, the remote control, furniture like tables and chairs. If he discovers that he can move something then he moves it until his heart's content. (A few examples of this are in my post about our Berkshire road trip).
• Balls. We have a few bouncy balls and he absolutely loves them. He and I play catch frequently with the $1.99 ball we got him at Rite Aid.
• Things that spin. He actually has an O ball that spins. He used to love shaking this ball, but now he loves to watch it roll or spin.

Things he dislikes:

• The high chair. Generally, though he hates being confined to ANYTHING (including my uterus - if you read my pregnancy blog you would've figured that out already). So when we get him in the high chair, the way we get him to stop screaming is by giving him a few of the aforementioned Organic Puffs.
• He also dislikes the car seat, for the same reason he dislikes the high chair. Luckily, for us, once the car starts moving he usually stops crying. Only under certain conditions does he continue to cry. 
• Sleep. Every time we go near his room around bedtime, he starts to cry. Just mentioning the word "bedtime" brings whimpers. Sometimes, when he's in the car seat and the movement is lulling him to sleep he starts making The Noise. The sleep-fighting noise. It's a cross between a grunt and a whine. 
• The vacuum. We are so busy that we hired a house cleaner. She is really sweet and loves Cole. She also likes to make this clicking noise at Cole and she loves to see his cute face light up. Unfortunately, the last time she was here, she was vacuuming and the sound scared the crap out of Cole.  (Funny because when he was a newborn the sound of the vacuum is what used to calm him down during diaper changes). So he didn't give her much in the way of smiles. He clung to me even after she put the vacuum away.
• Diaper changes. For some reason (hmm, I wonder where he gets this from) this baby cannot sit still, not even for two minutes. He wiggles and squirms and if we hold him down to make sure the poop doesn't go everywhere, he screams. It's a nightmare and for the last week or so, diaper changes have usually been a tag team effort.
• Did I mention sleep? Specifically, he also hates naps. It's funny though. He won't (or will barely) nap when we need him to, but he'll sleep for a few hours when we don't need him to.

New Developments

• This week he has graduated to using the tub without any help from the transitional inflatable tub. I decided it was finally time to make the change after witnessing him try to dive into the real tub from the inflatable. 
• The majority of his sleep time is spent in our bed. This began happening when he was sick with the flu. He was constantly waking up, and Keith and I needed to get rest too, so we brought him into bed with us. I was also worried about him sleeping alone with such a high fever. Now he has not been sleeping well on his own in the crib. So we've been bringing him into bed with us and we've all been sleeping better as a result. Part of me is embarrassed because I can hear all of the naysayers about co-sleeping, but you know what? This is our life and we are the ones who are living it, and I need to remember that. I listened to lots of what people told me to do over the past 10 months and mostly none of it worked, so I need to do what works for my family. And if letting him sleep in our bed helps us all sleep, then so be it.
• His one-year birthday invitations went out this week. Keith had it made professionally and we actually saved a lot of money doing it that way. It's not going to be a big deal, just a party at our house with some good food, friends and family. We'll have the pool open by that point too, so if the weather is nice, bring your swim suits!
• I might have mentioned this before, but he has a seventh tooth coming in on the bottom. 
• He has learned how to feed himself correctly using the spoon.
• He points. At everything.
• He claps now too!

To end this post, here are some of the highlights of the last month.

Here is Cole trying to pet Kiwi. It really is amazing he hasn't gotten scratched yet. I would say that Kiwi has amazing restraint. Either that or I've been running some pretty good interference.

Here is me consoling Cole.

He just loves the telephone.

It's like he's scaling a wall here.

Here he is eating the quinoa pilaf Keith made for him. It's taken him a while to get used to the texture, but he likes it now.

Here he is with quinoa on his mouth. How freaking cute does he look here?

Out in the yard with his Dino.

Mommy and Baby: Self-portrait

Here he is using the spoon. He does this a lot now because he knows it gets a laugh out of me. 

We realized the trick with getting him to wear a hat is just to keep putting it back on his head and then distract him with something else so he forgets the hat is there.