11 Months

Brody is 11 Months!  

Almost a whole year old.  

I cannot believe how fast the year has flown by...slow down little man!

Not a whole lot has changed since my last post, so I'll keep this one short.  And I've sadly hardly taken any pictures of him since my last post either (hence the photos all being ones from this shoot).  I've been so busy with other peoples photos, I've neglected to take some of my favorite subject!  We'll look at it as a little break, B.  Your birthday will be here soon, and you know I won't let this milestone go un-captured!  :)

Here's what's new:

• Brody still crawls all.over.the.place.  He's so speedy fast, I am constantly amazed.  Not walking yet, but I will finally say that I think he's getting close.  He cruises around the furniture with ease and will reach for the next thing he can hold on to while he takes a big step to get there.  He has been practicing standing up on his own quite a bit too, and will stand for up to about 20 seconds or so before falling to his bottom.  He always seems really surprised at himself whenever he realizes he's standing on his own too...it's very cute.  Also, if he's standing up and you extend your arms out to him, he will reach for them and attempt to take a step towards you.  Sometimes he forgets the step part though, and just leans over till you catch him.  Maybe he's just playing the game "Trust" like his daddy likes to play too...hahaha.  Anyway, the point of this incredibly long bullet point is that he is making progress and starting to show signs that he may be walking soon.  I always envisioned him toddling around at his first birthday party, but I'm realizing since it's less than 4 weeks away now, I doubt that will be happening.  No biggie...soon enough he'll be running around, I'm sure!  :)

• Brody's eating schedule is still the same, but as of a few nights ago I decided that I am D.O.N.E. with baby food.  I mentioned in his 10 month post how much I detest some of the baby foods we've given him, and I just couldn't do it anymore.  The fruit ones aren't bad, and I may still keep some of those on hand for a pinch, but the dinners are too gross, and he does better with table food anyway anymore. I guess I never noted it, but around 9 months or so, I started buying organic baby foods for him, and those level 3 dinners tend to be smellier and grosser looking than the old jarred baby foods we used, so maybe that was my issue...I don't know.  Anyway, we're done with those.  I'm sort of struggling with what all to feed him now though...so anyone that wants to offer good suggestions for a menu for an almost one year old, I'm all ears.  So far we've done: spaghetti, macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese, teensy bites of chicken and lunch meat, and of course cooked veggies, fruit, toast, and the normal stuff.  I've heard I should try fish sticks (thoughts from you moms?), chicken nuggets, waffles, and jelly sandwiches. 

• B still gets formula 3 times a day, but we've switched out his second bottle to a sippy cup instead.  He does just fine with it actually, so I'm going to start changing out his first morning bottle to a sippy cup too.  I have a feeling his night time bottle will be the hardest one for us to eliminate, but I'm not gonna worry about that one yet.  I'm looking forward to being done with formula and moving on to cows milk though.  And looking back, I wish I would have tried to pump/nurse longer for him (although I'm proud we made it 6 months), but overall formula seemed to work out for us too.  Cows milk will be much easier though, and I'm looking forward to not having to buy formula and mix bottles all the time!

• Brody is starting to repeat a lot more sounds he hears now.  He will still sometimes cough after hearing someone cough, he mimics the ahhh sound that people makes after taking a refreshing drink, repeats Uh after I say Uh Oh, and still occasionally says Hi after we say it...not always, but sometimes.  Too cute.  
• He also claps now!  And still waves hello, goodbye, and night night (and about 100 other random times a day).  He loves to dance and shake his head back and forth in his high chair, just acting silly.

Elmo (and Grandma) helps get smiles...wish I'd thought to use him for past monthly picture sessions!

• Brody is still working on that darn tooth number 8.  So far all of his teeth have come in as pairs, but he got the 7th one while we were on vacation, what about 6 weeks ago?  And the 8th tooth still hasn't made an appearance.  I think it's giving him a heckofa time too, poor guy.
• Brody's been sick, yet again, too.  Had some serious diarrhea and diaper rash issues last week.  I kinda feel like every few weeks it's something...ear infection, colds, fever, strep, diarrhea, etc.  He's such a champ though, and really handles it all very well.  My strong little man.  

Well, the big birthday bash will be here before we know it.  I can't wait to celebrate with friends and family.  And to watch B eat cake and ice cream!  What fun! 

Ok, I think that's all the updates this month.  Did I say this post was gonna be short?  Surely I didn't.  Oh, I did.  Ooops!  :)