Alexander - 11 Months

Another fun month is in the books. I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of this whole parenting thing and with Alexander's first birthday rapidly approaching I am painfully aware that my baby is rapidly turning into a toddler. This is NOT OK!

  
This month you learned how to say "dada". The feeling of hearing you call for me was something I really wanted your dad to experience. So we have been working on "dada" for a while. And now a small part of me wishes I had left well alone because now that is ALL YOU TALK ABOUT! I mean...your dada is pretty freaking amazing but even I don't gush about him every 5 minutes. It's the first thing you say when you wake up in the morning. You yell it out to him when he walks out of the room. You even murmured "dada" in your sleep a few nights ago. Now I only hear "mama" when you're hurt or upset. But it's true, you have a pretty great dada so I can't blame you for being crazy about him! I am too :)

You are getting more talkative in general. I would say you now use 5 words consistently..."dada", "mama", "wawa" (water, you also do the sign for water), "ba" (means hungry), and "more". And I'm the proud speech pathologist who will take all the credit for your words. But in truth, you're a very social kid and highly motivated to communicate so it makes it both fun and easy to teach you words. You're also imitating sounds and oral movements so there seems to be an increased awareness of the mechanics of language. Maybe this is babble to anyone but an SLP but it is fascinating to me! We're working on "up", "eat", "out" and "go" for next month. A little ambitious but shoot for the stars right?

I thought for sure you would be an early walker but you're still in the standing, cruising, and balancing phase. You love the walker we borrowed from the Stingerie's and are FINALLY learning how to turn it around yourself instead of yelling at me to turn it for you every 30 seconds when you bump into a wall. I'd really like you to be walking before our trip to Texas in June. You get really cranky when you're in the stroller or have to sit anywhere for too long. So when we are out we end up having to find a relatively clean and empty floor for you to crawl around on. But the idea of you crawling around an airplane floor gives me hives! Adding that to the list of things to work on for next month.

You have now taken 17 flights and visited 5 countries in your short 11 months. Your favorite part of traveling seems to be getting attention from new people. You attract attention everywhere you go because you refuse to accept anyone ignoring you. You will smile and coo until they give into your charms...I mean, really, how can anyone resist!?

There were a couple of rough weeks this month as your 7th tooth was on its way. You have been sleeping through the night since January but you started waking up 1-2x each night crying inconsolably. It would take almost an hour and some baby Tylenol to get you calmed back down. Your tooth finally came in and all is back to being well with the world...that is until tooth #8.

You are now only taking one nap a day, despite my efforts otherwise! While it is nice to have more predictability in our schedule I really miss having two breaks during the day. But you're a great napper...you go to sleep easily between 11-12 and sleep for 2-3 hours.

My favorite new "thing" this month is you giving kisses. I'm not exactly sure how you learned it but one night as Arthur was reading you "Brown Bear, Brown Bear" you started to kiss all the animals. The next morning I asked you for a kiss and you crawled across the bed, grabbed my face, and gave me a long, slobbery, open-mouthed kiss on the cheek. Now, if you're in the mood, you'll give us kisses when we ask, and sometime when we don't. And from someone who never liked PDA I'm proud to say I absolutely love it.

Alexander- we are entering your last month before you turn a year old. Each day I am surprised to find that you have learned a new skill without it ever explicitly being taught. Each day we discover new things about your personality...you are independent and get upset if we try to do things for you. It can be frustrating but I love it at the same time. You still won't cuddle for more than a few seconds so we appreciate it when we get it. I'm looking forward to and dreading your birthday at the same time. Happy 11 months to my favorite little stinker!