Learning As We Go: ~ 11 Months ~

Really? 11 months old?

I have one more month of having an actual "baby". I have no clue how the time has gone by so fast. Looks like it's time for me to adjust to having a toddler. He already is one in his mind... I just have to get with the program. A toddler. The word even sounds strange on my tongue.

Stats:
I have no idea how much you weigh, how tall you are, or any of that stuff since we haven't had an appointment since 9 months. But, that just means you've been relatively healthy. You know, besides falling flat on your face from a chair... we'll get to that later.
You are wearing size 5 diapers.
In mostly size 12 clothes, but those are getting too snug with jumpers and shortalls and are still too big in shorts. I just put away your 9 month clothing over the weekend and took out your 18 month. Stop growing so fast!
You have 7 teeth. Three on the bottom and 4 up top.

What you're up to these days:
You are completely DONE with purees. You much prefer to feed yourself, so we've had to make that transition this month. I had quite a bit of guilt come along with this because you were getting such healthy things with the purees. All those fruits and veggies that I could cook up and freeze ahead of time. It's not so easy to do that with real food! So, now you get things like turkey hotdogs, chicken nuggets, chicken breast, meats from the refrigerated section, cheese, yogurt, crackers (especially Goldfish), mac and cheese, corn dogs, fries if we're at a restaurant, cereal bars. You will still eat every fruit out there and get those on a daily basis, but you're not as quick to eat your veggies. You love green beans and will tolerate carrots, but that's all so far.
You are crawling around the house like a madman, but you do this funny crawl and only use one knee. You push off the ground with your other foot.
Your preferred method of getting around though, is walking while holding onto our fingers. We love that you are starting the whole walking process, but that's a little hard on our backs! You are standing up on your own if you hold onto something, but you haven't figured out that you can walk around that object on your own yet.
You're favorite thing to do lately is read. It makes my heart very happy to see how much you love books. You'll stop whatever you are doing if your books catch your attention, pull them all off of the shelves until you find just the one you are looking for, then bring it to me to read to you.. over and over and over again. Lately, we've been reading about 6 or 7 times a day...
You also love to kiss right now. You kiss everyone and everything. I LOVE when you give me kisses. You also kiss your toys and every single page in whatever book we're reading. We had a play date with your friend Bennett today. You tried to give him lots of kisses and kissed their dog plenty. I hope your loving spirit stays with you!
You are all of a sudden a cuddler which I LOVE LOVE LOVE!! You've never been one to cuddle with me, even when you are tired, and now that is exactly what you do. You just lay your little head down on my shoulder and I eat it up! Or sometimes you'll crawl over to me just to give me a hug. Be still my heart.
You have grown more independent over the last month and don't so much mind if I leave your side. It's been wonderful! You crawl around the house by yourself to explore. I can even go into the kitchen to make dinner/grab a drink/etc. without you screaming and crying. Selfishly, I am thankful, but I'm even more happy to see the confidence you have in yourself.
You still love anything to do with cars or trucks and dogs, but you also now have a fascination with planes and birds. You love watching planes while we are outside (we live about 2 miles from an airport) and will even look for them if you hear them from inside.
We've moved you into your big boy car seat, but still have you facing backwards. We plan to do that until you are two since that's what the pediatricians say to do nowadays. (Like how I snuck in that PSA?) You love being in the car and just babble away to yourself, so I don't think it bothers you.
You are "talking" more and more. I don't think we can really qualify anything as your first word quite yet, but you say things that are awful close to "dad", "yeah??" and "dog". I don't think you really understand what they mean yet though, and are probably just putting sounds together. Seeing as how you called the fan Dad the other day, I'm probably right. You do love to chat with your toys though!
You are beginning to be quite assertive. You know exactly what you want and you definitely are testing my limits. I'm not letting you get too far! Right now we are really working on letting you know it's not okay to throw things. It seems to be working, especially today. You have been nicely giving me your toys or books instead of throwing them at me. Yesterday you did get in a little bit of trouble for throwing your lunch on the floor. You know exactly what "no" means... you just pick and chose when to listen to it :)
You got your first big boo-boo. I tried to do timeout with you for the first time (again, throwing your trucks around) and was not thinking properly and put you in your little chair. It's about a foot off the ground. I don't know what made me think that you would sit still in this chair, and of course, you didn't. You leaned forward and before I could get to you, fell on the hardwood floors, right on your face. You screamed and cried immediately, had a bloody nose, and a bump forming on your forehead. It scared us so much, but you were over it long before I was. You stopped crying in a few minutes and within 5 minutes, you were sitting on the couch with dad eating meatballs, while I was still crying in our bedroom. I cried off and on all night until I went to bed. I think these types of things are going to hurt me a lot more than they hurt you :(

Andrew,
Your Daddy and I love you more than you will ever comprehend. I know you are almost a big boy and not a baby, but you will always be a sweet baby in my eyes. You are just growing up right before our eyes and while we do love seeing you grow and learn, it's a little sad to know we can't rewind time. I pray a whole lot for you! I pray that I am strong enough to be the mother you need me to be. I pray that you have a kind, loving spirit. I pray that I can teach you about Jesus and be able to answer all of your questions about Him. I pray that your dad and I are good role models for you to follow. I pray that you stay as happy as you are.. to continue to laugh more than you cry. I pray that I am always around to help you make the right decisions and that when you are old enough to make them on your own, that you are the type of man who has faith in himself and chooses the right paths. I pray that you take chances and will not be afraid of the world.
I want so much for you! I'm really looking forward to seeing all of the new things you will learn over the next year. This time last year, I didn't even know what you looked like. I couldn't even really understand what was going on inside my body.. couldn't really grasp it. Now, here you are and impacted our lives so greatly for being such a little person. We can't imagine our lives without you!

Now, the birthday party planning gets serious!