Eleven Months

In just one month Vander will be a year old! It has been so much fun watching him grow and learn this last year!

Vander just started taking his first steps about two weeks ago. I wouldn’t call it walking yet, but pretty much there. His girlfriend from daycare was over and her parents were telling us that she started walking by going from one parent to the other. Dylan and I looked at each other with a “DUH!” expression, since somehow we hadn’t tried that. We tried once they left and he took three or four steps! He has done it a couple times, and a couple times from the couch to one of us. He still prefers his determined crawl most of the time. We knew he was really close though since he walks along the walls and furniture, you can walk with him one handed, and he speed climbs up the steps.

Fortunately he has gotten pretty easy going about falling, since he has been pulling himself up onto things for a while now. He is generally less startled by it and will even smile some times.

This kid definitely takes after his dad, since I swear Vander never stops eating and he is not getting much heavier! He had lunch twice at daycare one day (they have four spots the table so they don’t all eat at the same time, and he ate both times). We had pork chops one night and I am pretty sure Vander ate more of mine that I did. I did not expect to need to make a whole plate of food for a ten month old! Some times he isn’t very hungry, but most of the time he eats everything. His favorite things to eat right now are definitely asparagus (he ate like eight stalks one night with dinner), strawberries, anything potato (he is definitely my kid too), and he still loves the yogurt melts for babies. Overall he will eat pretty much anything you give him if he is hungry.

Since he is getting closer to one it is time to start thinking about transitioning in milk and also transitioning out bottles. There are a lot of different ways and combinations to do that. Generally pediatricians say babies should not have cows milk until they are one. However, the next room in our daycare (which Vander could be in as soon as two weeks after his first birthday) only does milk. I am the mom and do what I a want, so we just started transitioning in milk to his bottles gradually right after he turned eleven months. Really though most people think he is at least 18 months, so I am sure he will be fine. We are giving him his iron supplement drops so that should alleviate any real concerns.

At daycare they have given him his formula in a sippy cup quite a few times, but when I tried it at home right before bedtime, he immediately became super attached to his bottle and started feeding himself his bottle. Now no one can feed him his bottle but himself, even when he wakes up at 5am because he is starving. It is sad since feeding him his bottle was the last thing he did that felt like he was still a little baby. Now I feel like I have a toddler who can’t talk yet. In the next room at daycare he can’t have a bottle, but we will work to drop them at home as well shortly after he turns one.

Speaking of talking, he didn’t really start saying any new words this month. He has th "n" down pretty well now and is getting better about momma and dada. Dylan says he has heard “dog” but I have not yet. He talks all the time though in his own Vander language, which I call Vanderin. And he really is starting to understand when you say things to him. He may not like what you say, but he understands. He goes from happy to sad to happy in no time at all. When he is frustrated he is very vocal and expressive about it, but he gets over it easily enough.

He has been a really good sleeper, (the main exception being when I got home from not seeing him for five days and he woke up like three times to snuggle with me). He usually goes right to sleep when you lay him down and give him a pacifier, or settles down within 10 minutes. We usually lay him down around 7:30 and he usually wakes up sometime between 6:40 and 7:20. When he is tired though, the best thing really is to just lay him down. He will wiggle once he is done with his bottle since he knows you are just going to lay him down anyways. Not usually much snuggling with this little munchkin before bed! He will snuggle the rest of the time though :).

One of my favorite things is that he just loves to laugh! He loves being tickled. He loves music. I did the penguin dance for him the other day and he got such a kick out of it. Going on the swings at the park always makes him laugh. Mommy and daddy putting stuff on their heads makes him laugh.

He is also super into soft things right now. He rolls on the puppy beds. He does a steamroller on my parents couch. He cuddles up on blankets and stuffed animals. It is so stinking cute!

His other favorite activity right now is pushing a piece of paper around. We will give him his daily notes from daycare and we can cook most of dinner while he pushes it all through the main level.

He is just a goofball and always busy (hence the blurry pictures!). I love him so so much! He makes my life amazing.