EH at 11 Months

EH is officially 11 months old.  We are less than 1 month away from his first birthday.  It is hard to believe.  In some weird time warp of the universe, last August seems oh-so-far away, and yet at the same time I can't believe that he is already nearly one.

6 teeth now!

I think that parenting is like that.  Time slows down or speeds up based on the challenges we are facing.  When EH was a teeny tiny infant, or not sleeping, or sick, or all of the above, I felt every. single. minute. of our existence. It was excruciating.  I wanted so badly to jump forward in time to a point where he would sleep more than 2 hours in a row, to a time when he was healthy and happy and progressing.

And now we're there and I'm one of those parents saying the ever cliched line of "where did the time go?"  Seriously. Where did it go?

EH is so mobile and so charismatic that he seems like a teenager at some points, not a toddler.  (Are teenagers charismatic? Maybe that's a bad analogy.)  He's not a baby anymore.  He's a toddler.  Even thought he's not walking independently yet, he can get everywhere he wants to go by holding on to things within the room that he's in, including walls or legs.  If he's in a hurry he'll pass on the walking and just go straight for speed crawling.  He'll crawl over obstacles, legs, sliding glass door ledges - basically anything he can.  He's already climbed onto my suitcase recently and I know that in the very near future there is a lot more climbing in store for our little mountain goat.

He's such a ham.  He likes to make funny faces and to blow spit bubbles with his mouth when he's eating (a habit we do NOT encourage.)  When he works hard to get something he looks around with an enormous smile on his face, to make sure that someone noticed and that we praise him thoroughly.  He emanates pride when he accomplishes things. 

 

He's eating an array of new foods, including rice pilaf, pasta, and chili and he seems to love all of it.  I still have him eating purees as his main source of nutrition primarily because he still thoroughly enjoys it and I can tell that he's getting enough to eat, since when he feeds himself table food half of it ends up on the floor, or on his lap, or smashed against his face.  What we know for sure though, is that he is an enthusiastic eater.

He says dada all day long, and mama whenever he starts getting fussy.  He also says nana somewhat frequently and has been know to say baba.  He's said some really random things that we swear were words, such as "bobo!" (the new name for his uncle S), "hi!" and "pop!"  He is certainly very verbal and babbles nearly all day long.  He also loves to yell, particularly when he's excited about something. 

His routine is more solid than ever before with the exception of last week when we were at the cabin and the noise and bright light there prohibited him from getting good naps. We were worried that it was going to be hard to get him back onto his regular schedule, but from day one of being back, it was like we never left, and he was taking his two two-hour naps just like before. 

We are finalizing the details of his first birthday party, an event that is - like most first birthday parties - more for the adults than for the birthday boy, but we're excited for it, and like all things, we're making it bigger than it needs to be.  Hopefully that will be as easy with a baby as it was before without one. 

Happy 11 months, EH!  I can't believe we're only a month away from the big ONE!