11 Months

February 18, 2012

11 Months

This is our second to last monthly photo shoot!! It is good and bad in a way. Good because Nolan is no longer interested in sitting in one spot with a sticky tie on his outfit while I try to capture the perfect picture of him. Bad because he is growing up so fast! My case in point: I was online shopping at the BabyGap and the "toddler boy" section is for one to three year olds. Bye, bye "infant boy" stage :(

Here is our "almost toddler" at 11 months:

Every day I feel like I am thinking to myself or saying to someone, "Nolan has such a big personality," and it seems to grow daily. He is so outgoing, inquisitive, persistent, independent and comical. He loves to be around people and to explore new things. His constant talking/babbling cracks us up. The games and activities that we catch him doing to entertain himself are so funny and interesting to watch as he experiences and learns new things.

With his growing personality, we can also see increased mobility day to day. Nolan is still cruising the furniture around the house and crawling up on every possible piece of furniture. We also catch him practicing his standing on his own. We will look over and he will just be standing in the middle of the family room and very proud! We, of course, clap enthusiastically and Nolan follows suit clapping as he stands. One task that needs to be accomplished soon is to buy the boy some shoes. Just one more hurdle in the goal of realizing he isn't a true baby anymore.

Nolan still loves to play with his activity table, blocks, stacking cups, bead maze, and books. He has also figured out how to press buttons to make his train move back and forth and his elephant toy start up. He has also grown to love Elmo over the last few weeks. He likes to look at his Elmo book and will even sit to watch segments of Sesame Street. In the midst of all of these toys, I think that one of his favorite games it to grab a toy, crawl up onto his armchair with it, throw it off of the chair onto the ground, jump off his chair to get it and repeat the entire process all over again.

I think we are in the process of transitioning from baby food to all finger foods. Nolan has been turning his nose up to most of his baby foods these days but will eat finger foods if we try that instead. Hello to years of ordering off of the kid's menu and making "kid friendly" meals that he can eat with us at home. The last two outings to a restaurant the kid would not eat his baby food but instead shared my veggie burger at one restaurant and ordered himself a side of broccoli and french fries at another. He favorites are: blueberries, grapes, apples, raspberries, black beans, corn, carrots, sweet potatoes, cheese, Cheerios, black olives, oranges, and peas. Nolan still drinks four bottles a day and will transition to whole milk once he turns one. I used to loathe bottles but I am actually going to miss the wiggle free time that he sits in my lap and drinks his bottles!

No news is good news in the sleeping department. Still taking two, 1.5-2 hour naps during the day and sleeping from 7:30 or 8:00 at night until 7:30 or 8:00 the next day!!!!

Nolan has five teeth: three on the bottom and his two top teeth. He is in the process of growing a third top tooth....slowly but surely.

Nolan still does not love to sit still to have his diaper change or get dressed. Recently, if he doesn't get what he wants he will sometimes throw himself on the ground face first or shake his arms up and down in frustration. Can we say temper tantrum? It doesn't last long but it is a sneak peek into another toddler quality ;) He does eventually give up and go on his way :)

Conversationally, Nolan still favors the words, "da da" and "ma ma" and has been doing a really good job with his sign language. When he is eating he will sign for "more" and "all done." The sign for "more" sometimes comes out to look more like a clap but we get it and he is happy that we understand.

Nolan is a happy, wonderful 11 month old and now the count down to the big 1st birthday begins. The invitations have been sent out, the theme has been chosen, and we are gearing up to celebrate!!