Eleven Months Old!

11. Eleven. ELEVEN. How? It just can't be...

But, apparently, it is. My baby is eleven months old today. Wow. And what a big boy he is becoming.

While you haven't jumped into anything really new this month, sweet boy, it is getting more and more evident what a little person you're growing into. You wave at anyone and everyone - even at pictures on the computer! - and you give the biggest grins you can manage. You're quite the people person, sir! (Except, of course, when we're trying to get you to be friendly to someone. Only on your own time, huh? Ha ha!)

You're also getting quite adept at climbing through the smallest spaces to get to where you want to be, like under our chairs and barstools and side tables. I wonder how long it will take you to figure out how to get back out of those spaces...

You've gotten your first haircut and climbed your first set of stairs (at Aunt Nikki's house). You love broccoli and applesauce and hate when either Mama or Daddy use the bathroom with the door closed. You love to crawl under the desk and can reach through the child-proofed doors to the entertainment center to take out Daddy's coins and Grandpa's pocket watch. You love banging on anything and everything. You're slowly making your way out of twelve month clothing and moving into eighteen month things. You're not so crazy about diaper changes but love getting your teeth brushed. You've got the greatest grin in the world and you make life more wonderful than your daddy or I could ever have imagined.

Happy Eleven Months, Andrew James! We love you!

Double Digits!

Our baby is ten months old today! People keep mentioning some big event that will take place exactly two months from now, and I just can't bear to think about it. Time is flying by way too fast, and my baby is becoming less and less of a baby as the days go by. Slow down, mister man!

So many new things are going on now:

- Your top two teeth came in, bringing your grand total up to four!

- You said "dada" on Sunday when your daddy came in the room!

- You also stood up without holding onto anything on Sunday in an attempt to intice your aunt Nikki into giving you her bottle of water.

- You finally understand that you can't keep crawling past the edge of the bed. Now, you perch precariously on the edge as you peer down to the ground below, before finally sitting back down.

- You're eating two meals a day, breakfast and dinner, and still nursing like a champ.

- You've been crawling over to me and pulling on my pant leg quite a bit recently, which I think is just adorable.

- You walk holding our fingers! I'm not sure I'll be able to handle it when you can do this all on your own!

- You stood up using just the back of the couch today! Talk about a big boy!

Those are all of the developments I can think of right now, but I'm sure you'll be doing more by morning! Try not to grow up too fast, baby boy... Your first year is flying by, and I'm trying to soak in as much of it as I possibly can!

Here are the shots of our ten month old:

He'd rather pull the drying diapers off of the doorknobs than look at Mama for a picture!

Check out those top two teeth!

Grandma and Grandpa showed up early to visit! (And, we got snow again!)

Contemplating those fistfulls of snow...

And, he's done. Time to go back inside!

(Notice the lack of "I'm so excited!" grinning pictures. Being on the move is now much more fun than smiling for the camera!)

So Many Changes

Our little boy is getting big so fast! He's now eating two meals a day; oatmeal for breakfast and between 1/2 and a whole jar of baby food for dinner. He is loving his oatmeal, and we love how he leans forward with his mouth open when he's ready for another bite:


He's also pulling up on everything to stand; on Tuesday, he pulled up on my leg and put his book on my lap. Too cute!


We have a little puppy dog now, too. He's been putting everything from toys to clothes and diapers in his mouth to carry around:


Cute smirk after dropping the links:


Have I mentioned how fast this boy is? He goes from one end of the room to the other in a matter of seconds, and boy are we finding it a challenge to keep up! Here's our troublemaker chasing after his daddy and the train:



We keep the train in AJ's room on the bench when he and Daddy aren't playing with it. It was fine for a few days, but it wasn't safe for long...

Playtime

What a silly, playful boy we have! On the 21st, Daddy gave AJ a new wooden train that we'd been keeping in the closet until he seemed old enough to enjoy it. I think he might like it...

(Doesn't he look like so old in this shot?!)

The next day, he and Daddy invented a new game. The rules are pretty simple: Daddy builds a tower (as fast as he can), and AJ knocks it over (as fast as he can). They both love it; we've gotten quite a few laughs out of this charade!

Daddy had to hold him back because AJ doesn't exactly like to wait for his turn in the game.

He closes his eyes in anticipation of the crashing. How funny is that?!

Daddy was tossing him in the air; look at that grin!

Now that he is mobile, our big boy is everywhere. Here he is peeking out at Mama from behind the tall dining room chair:

9 Months Old!

Wow... Our sweet "little" boy is NINE months old today! So hard to believe! Some huge developments have occured around here; this is what you're up to now, Andrew James:

- You have two teeth now! Your bottom right tooth broke through on Christmas day.

- You're eating one meal a day, almost always at dinnertime. You've had several different kinds of purees - in addition to tastes of many other foods; we're hoping to have you start eating what we're eating soon, but we need to start eating healthier first!

- Crawling! Yes, crawling! We first saw you crawl on January 2nd, and boy have you picked up speed since! It amazes us how fast you can get from place to place now.

- You're pulling yourself up to standing in mere seconds! As soon as you figured out how to crawl, you figured standing couldn't be that much more difficult, so you gave it a shot. It took you awhile at first to realize how close you needed to be sitting to whatever you wanted to pull up on, but now you're a pro!

- Speaking of pulling yourself up, you also take little steps around whatever you're holding on to, usually your toy box. You look like such a big boy when you do that!

- You dance! It's just the cutest thing; as soon as we put music on, you start bouncing up and down. I love it!

- You waved "hi" for the first time yesterday! The three of us were playing in Mama and Daddy's room, and you and I were standing across from the mirror. You looked at our reflection and put your arm right out to wave! I could hardly believe it, but you did it quite a few more times to show us what you learned!

- You measured in at 28 inches tall and 21 pounds 6 ounces at the doctor's office today. You also had your iron levels checked, and they were great!

You still have such a happy, sweet personality, and I think that you are certainly a laid back guy, just like your daddy. I feel like my heart is going to burst out of my chest sometimes because I love you so much! I am so, so glad that God chose us to be your mommy and daddy. You make our world a better place, and you're making me a better person.

Happy Nine Months, sweet boy!










(Oh, and on a side note: James got his orders this morning, so it's now official. We're moving to Hawaii in just a few months! Ahh!)