I did take some picture on his 11-month-birthday, but they're still on the camera. I am very very close now to having a new-to-me laptop with a functioning battery and thought it would be better to wait to put the pictures on it. Hopefully they'll be posted here later.
Second is eating nearly everything we eat now. He wants to eat everything we eat. He'll look directly at something in my hand or on my plate and screech to show that he sees I have something he doesn't have. Sadly, he's not quite ready for raw vegetables or raisins, yet. We try to keep the choking hazards and sweets out of his diet.
Speaking of meals, Second Son easily eats more than First Daughter and Second Daughter at nearly every meal. That boy can eat nearly as much roast beef as I do.
He's night-weaned. It wasn't something I'd really planned. The other three babies all nursed at night much longer than they did during the day and I was not too distressed by it. In fact, with First Son I was working full-time and pumping three days a week, so was much happier to give up a daytime nursing than an nighttime one. Second Son was sleeping through the night almost every night, though, so one night I just decided I wouldn't nurse him when he did wake. We snuggled him then put him back in his crib. That was about three weeks ago and he hasn't woken during the night since. He usually sleeps until 7 or 7:30 am, but I'll get him and nurse and snuggle anytime after 5 am.
The long sleepful nights are awesome. I lay him down around 8 pm and he often sleeps eleven hours. Very impressive! Naps, in consequence, are much less impressive. Sometimes he'll take a morning nap from about 10:30 am to 11:15 am. But sometimes he doesn't. Sometimes he'll sleep for about an hour in the afternoons starting around 3 pm, but not always. I am willing to sacrifice daytime sleeping for nighttime sleeping.
He has three teeth! The third one came in on June 19th (Father's Day) and the fourth is just under his gums. Soon he'll have two teeth on the bottom and two teeth on the top. They are, of course, adorable. Hopefully we'll also have a little while without teething pain.
When I'm changing his diaper, I'll say "How big is [baby]?" and he always throws his hands up above his head. Then I tickle him under his arms. I'll repeat it and he'll raise his arms again. After a few times, he'll start to giggle before he even raises his arms. He never tires of this game.
He also never tires of peek-a-boo. I cannot understand how fascinating that is for babies, but I've heard it's universal. The older kids love to play peek-a-boo with him and he laughs and laughs.
Second Son is obsessed with electrical outlets, electrical cords, the bathroom, my Kindle
, the Wii
, the buttons on the TV, the yeast dispenser on my bread machine, the dog's water bowl, pencils, books (not the board books, oh no, books with paper pages!), Wii remotes, the Wii balance board
, doors (he likes to open and almost close them), the plug for the cordless phone (which, when unplugged, disables the cordless one and sends me racing over the baby gate and through the kitchen to grab the one off the wall), pulling my hair, grabbing eyeglasses, grabbing anything on the kitchen table, and (most recently) pulling up my shirt and chewing on it. I'm sure he'll find more favorite things as he discovers more we say he should not have.Have I mentioned he's adorable?
He's wearing mostly large diapers. I hardly use the prefolds anymore because he needs two. He usually wears toddler or size two fitted diapers with Duo-Wrap Thirsties covers or Knickernappies pocket diapers (the old version one) stuffed with Super-Dos. No regular insert for him, oh no!
He had his first cookie this week. A delicious sugar cookie recipe I hope to share here eventually colored for Trinity Cookies for the Solemnity of the Holy Trinity. He wanted one and I relented. Please don't judge me.
He says "dadadada" and "mamama" and all sorts of other cute baby syllables, but we're still waiting for the official Dada or Mama.
I remember when he first started really crawling to get from one place to another how he would giggle to himself as he moved along, delighted in his new skill. He will often crawl for a few feet, then stop to sit up and look around. Perhaps he wants to know someone is watching him. He'll smile and move on.
If he's crawling toward trouble, Kansas Dad or I will call his name. Second Son will sit back, wiggle his chubby legs and grin at us, then continue on his way.
He will sometimes pull himself up, but he loves it when someone stands him next to something like the futon. Kansas Dad says he saw him cruise a little, but I'm going to pretend that didn't happen.
One more month and my little baby will be one year old! I haven't regretted a moment of this first year, but I admit to being terribly happy to be right where we are.
