Hellobee

This update is a few weeks late, but oh my goodness, Baby Stroller’s 11th month was so! Much! Fun! We started the month at the tail end of a wonder week sleep regression, which turned from nightly wake-ups to weeks of 13-14 hour nights. One night he slept for a record 16 hours in a row. How crazy is that? We’re so well rested this month as compared to last month. It feels good.

SLEEP
With all those great nights of sleep, we did have a couple minor snafus. During hurricane Sandy we were without power for two nights. It was chilly and Baby S had trouble sleeping, so I brought him into bed with me and we got cozy under the blankets. There was no “sleep” in our co-sleeping. We were only without power for 48 hours, so it wasn’t a big deal at all. It was kind of like camping, since we literally camped out in the basement after seeing a giant tree snap in half a block away from us – no need to risk having a tree fall on our bedrooms while we were sleeping!

For the end of daylight saving time Baby S was up one hour earlier than normal and was ready for a nap by 9am. To get him onto a normal schedule we went to the park in the morning to keep him from falling asleep. It worked, he took a very short nap at 11ish, but was back to his normal schedule that night.

Naps are pretty short lately, just one for an hour or so a day and usually within two or three hours of waking up. If we want to do anything, I always schedule it for the afternoon. By the time we wake up, nurse and eat breakfast, it’s nearly time for nap. We rarely go anywhere before nap – although we did meet up with a few Hellobee’rs at a local park one morning!

PLAY
We go to swimming lessons together every Sunday; it’s very fun. Baby Stroller and I run the nearly two miles there, change in the locker room, swim, change back and run home. He loves running with us – I bought him a Bundleme for his stroller and it keeps him nice and cozy on the run home after swimming. A couple weeks ago Baby S started going under water during swim lessons. The babies “swim” across the pool, then as they near the edge, we dunk them under and pop up at the side. Then the babies climb out of the pool; baby S is a rock star at climbing out. He doesn’t mind going under – in his tub he sticks his face in the water!

He’s started pushing toy cars on the floor using the wheels, as opposed to throwing them. It’s pretty amazing to see him do one thing one day (throw toy cars) and something completely different the next (use the car properly.) He has tons of toy cars to choose from at daycare, but his favorite toys there seem to be the play food. Shhh, don’t tell, but Santa may have a play kitchen in his sleigh for Baby S this year.

Mid-month we had a visit from Mamie & PawPaw. Baby S stayed home from daycare and did several days of park hopping, played in a marching band with his PawPaw and just had a great time.

Mamie stayed a few days longer and was able to go to Baby Stroller’s first big party – a Halloween party with a dozen babies his age. Baby S wore his lobster costume and had so much fun! He even had his very first chocolate cupcake – gluten free, of course.

It was a big hit! We also went to the zoo with Mamie and saw the Halloween display.

Baby S really liked the coral and urchins.

We became zoo members so that we can go frequently – Zoo Lights for Christmas, maybe??

The following weekend we went trick or treating at two local shopping neighborhoods. Baby S loved putting his hand in the bowl and pulling out a piece of candy. We let him have his first lollipop, which was messy, but delicious! Then on Halloween itself Baby S dressed up in his lobster costume and visited his great grandparents and Nola & Grandpa.

We went trick or treating at two houses in the neighborhood before bath time. Next year we’ll do much more!

Last month I said that Baby Stroller climbed the stairs a few times but then lost interest. Of course that meant he nearly immediately became obsessed with climbing stairs. We’ll be sitting in the living room playing and he’ll go off and start to climb the stairs to go up to the bath when it’s time. He climbs up and then always shuts the baby gate behind him. It’s so freaking cute. He even tried (successfully) climbing the attic ladder, which gave me a heart attack, but not so much that I didn’t snap a picture first!

He also loves to play with the dog. He’ll crawl up to the dog and get cozy with him, he uses him to pull-up, and his favorite game is to put toys in Feeney’s mouth then quickly pull them away. He even has a special laugh that he uses only when he’s playing with the dog. Feeney is very tolerant, but he’ll nibble on Baby S’s toes and he tries to pull the baby’s socks off.

EAT
Baby Stroller eats  two meals of solids a day and nurses or has a bottle of frozen milk five or six times a day. His second meal started off as a smaller snack, but it’s getting much bigger now. I’m not making as much milk, but still enough to keep fairly steady over the course of a week. I got a new pump this month and am now able to go totally hands-free, which means I can prepare Baby S’s breakfast while pumping in the morning (totally TMI, right?) It easily cuts 30 minutes off our morning routine, which is fabulous given how late Baby S sleeps these days!

Some mornings Baby S eats so much, I just can’t believe it. One morning he had three 6” pancakes, as many as Mummy and Daddy each ate and then followed it with strawberries and veggies. It’s pretty much like that 5 out of 7 days. This all after nursing. Chow hound.

His firsts this month included soup – he loved spicy squash soup and cried when it was gone! He also devoured split pea soup and corn chowder. He also tried and loved enchiladas, pizza, zucchini shreds with tomato sauce, chili, salad and Rice Krispies cereal with cow’s milk.

TALK
Baby S said ball a few times – complete with the “L’s” – before it was just “ba” along with several other things that were also “ba’s.” He also says “Da” to daddy and “mama” to me – still mostly when he’s hungry. He understands “no touch” and “no,” but he doesn’t understand head shaking – I’ll shake my head “no” and he’ll shake his head back and laugh.

MISCELLANEOUS
Along with saying “Da”, Baby S looooves his daddy. When Mr. S gets home from work Baby S races to the door, is scooped up into daddy’s arms and he starts to pull the patches off Mr. S’s flight suit. While laughing, of course. Everything is SO funny!

All of a sudden Baby S is very into dropping things – food when he’s full, toys from his crib, anything in his hand when I’m holding him…. He gets very upset when he drops his lovey, LE, from the crib though.

He won’t fall asleep for a nap without her and knows that dropping her from the crib is the number one way to get someone to come in when he doesn’t want to nap.

He’s started to give high fives this month. He doesn’t wave hello or goodbye, but who wants to wave when you can get a high-five? He’s a superstar crawler, a great puller-upper and a good furniture cruiser, but no walking yet. Not even a hint of walking. He’ll pull up on anything, hold on with just one hand, but when he wants to go somewhere he crawls, it’s just so much faster than trying to walk, I guess!

His crawling and eating creates quite the laundry challenge, but I haven’t met a stain that the OxyClean stick can’t tackle

In the evening after bath, Baby S loves brushing his teeth. It started off as mimicking daddy, but it’s definitely part of his routine now.

Baby S is still weighing in under 18lbs, but just keeps getting longer and longer. He’s mostly wearing 6-12m clothes, but most of his long sleeve onesies are 3-6m size. Some of his pants and rompers are 12-18m, but his 12-18 shirts are much too big. He’s got long legs and a short torso just like his mummy.

Baby S has two bottom teeth and it looks like a front tooth is about to pop through. We can see it under his gums, in snaggle tooth position, but it hasn’t broken through yet. So he’s still at 2 teeth at 11m.

As usual, monthly photos are difficult to take – we took a lot like this one!

I cannot believe I almost have a one-year-old, times passes much to quickly these days.