11 Months Old!

I am staring at this picture of you and I just can't believe that you are almost a year old. When we left off last month, you weren't walking yet. You still aren't too interested since you can haul ass like nobody's business when you crawl. You have taken a few steps, but you aren't ready. That's OK, I'm patient. It will be pretty cool when you DO decide to walk full time. Then I won't have to Swiffer the kitchen twice a day.

You took a short break from your hunger strike and decided to engage in a sleep strike. Not cool, Peaches. Not cool. You are thumbing your nose at the conventional "sleeping through the night" ideals. You are also taking 6 minute power naps in the morning. That just won't do, Sweetie. You might as well sleep because screaming for 45 minutes to get you out of the crib isn't working, is it?

You had a good time during the holidays. You couldn't get enough of the kissing and hugging that you received. You got to spend time with both grandmothers, both aunts and your five boy cousins--all within a span of 8 days. You also had fun opening boxes and chewing on wrapping paper. What could be better?

You are starting to do a lot of fun stuff. For starts, you insist on climbing up the stairs yourself. You take a few breaks as you go up (to make sure you have an audience), but you manage to crawl up there on your own. You also LOVE to take baths. You apparently can hear the bath water running from any part of the house. You shimmy up the stairs and boogie over to the tub, where you pull yourself up and scream at the water until we put you in. And then you happily splash for an hour.

We just noticed this weekend that you are starting to dance to music. At least we think it's dancing. You do all sorts of booty shaking when we put any music on. It may be premature, but you may have inherited your father's "Wonderbread's in the House" dance gene. I also thought I saw you waving, but I can't be sure.


Since the weather has been so balmy (not snowing) I have taken you for a lot of walks. You love to be outside and tour your kingdom (neighborhood.) It really seems to calm you down when you are cranky. It's a good walk for me since it is hilly. We'll keep at it until the weather gets too cold, or I drop three pants sizes, whichever comes first.

I've been making sure that we do some snuggling each and every day. I mean real snuggling when no one else is around to bother us. I know you won't want to do it for much longer, so I am getting the love in while I can. It goes so fast.