Eleven months

Hey my dear boy,

You are one month away from being a year old! That's so amazing to me. Time continues to fly and you continue to amaze us with your sweet ways.

I am excited to say that you are sleeping through the night! Finally! You are consistently going down at about 7:00 and waking up at about 6:00. Sometimes you go back down for a little while (today you went back down until 8:30! Wow!). At least you are starting to figure out your nights, but as they have gotten better, your daytime naps have gotten worse. I guess if it's one or the other, I'd rather have the night sleep. :)

You are eating more and more these days, too. You LOVE grapes. It's kind of a pain, though; to avoid all choking hazards, they need to be peeled and cut up. But it's worth it because you are in your glory when there is a pile of them in front of you. You also started eating cheerios, which are just great fun (and cheaper than gerber puffs, so thank you).

We brought you to the nursery at church for the first time yesterday. You did pretty well. I can tell you have a little separation anxiety starting to set in lately. We have a babysitter at Dennis' when we have Soulmates, and it was a rough time for you on Saturday. You just don't want to leave people you know and love! Sweet thing.

The big news this month is that you started taking steps. You are still pretty tentative, but you do stand by yourself for longer periods of time and kind of lunge toward things. You have brand new shoes to help you, and you love them. You also love to give kisses, and you are very good at it. :) They are usually open mouth, tongue out, but we like them anyway. You are just so affectionate. You even try to kiss the kitties! They aren't as tolerant as we are....

There is a new friend at Leishman's these days. Dena gave birth to Kenna a couple of weeks ago. So when she is done with maternity leave in about a month, we'll have one more baby in the mix! You are very curious about the baby. I'm sure you just want to love her, but when you go at her with your hand in a fist above your head, we get nervous.

Bless you, baby, in this last month of your first year. And thanks for all of the fun you add to our days!

Love,
Mom


Hanging with Daddy (and sporting some pretty rosy cheeks!)

Eating a duck in the bathtub.

Eating Grandma's walker.
Playing with Homer and Kaelin.

Watching "Dora" with Connor. You manly men.

Sweet boy

Here are some semi-recent pics to hold you over until Monday (11 months, pictures and all).

So happy to be playing! Nevermind that the cats have stollen all 4 balls that make this game any fun....

Sleeping with daddy. Hmm, is daddy sleeping too?


Playing with Homer the dog. What a nice, tolerant dog.


These are the girls I watch--Kaelin, Reagan, and Remi--in addition to Jackson and Connor (Kaelin's brother). They don't always dress like this.

Oh, this is big

Jackson is (almost) walking.

To the point where his cute little suede-bottomed leather shoes weren't cutting it anymore. Yes, we ventured into the cold on Saturday and got REAL baby walking shoes. Oh, that was fun for the checkbook. But they're adorable.

It's a little surreal to watch him let go of things and just stand there. Then he'll take a couple of steps and look at me like, "Um, I'm not sure what to do now" and then fall to the ground and crawl the rest of the way to his destination.

And we thought crawling was a big transition. There's REALLY no stopping him now. :)