Micaiah 11 Months - Fievel Photo & Summary

Micaiah is 11 months, 1 week, and 1 day as I write this! I've been meaning to blog, just haven't! You know how that goes!  He is turning into a little boy! Every month there is less baby and more boy and I just keep making him cuddle in my arms so that he won't grow so fast! Only one more month until my baby is 1? You're joking, right?!

Stats: 24 lbs, 5 oz (unfortunately we had to go to the doctor recently, so I know this). We are still running a low-grade fever today and are still intermittently fussy! I'm ready for this "disease" to be over already! 

He's wearing 12 - 18 months size clothing and size 4 diapers. We could probably do size 5 in the next few weeks. He's a solid little guy! 

He's got 8 teeth, 4 on top, and 4 on bottom. 

He's loving food! Here's some proof! The first picture cracks me up! His mouth is stuffed FULL of spaghetti!

• I'm STILL nursing this child! Looks like we are making it a year! I honestly can't believe that we are still doing it...4 liquid feeds a day. We have kept our 1 formula sippy a day feed and I nurse him 3 other times during the day. He's actually tried whole milk a couple of times and loved it,  but I'm not really pushing that until a couple more weeks. I give him juice and water at meal times, but will start offering whole milk pretty soon at meal times and cutting back on my nursings. I plan to probably be kind of slow with weaning, so as to avoid engorgement as best I can! He will drink from pretty much any sippy cup I give him. He's been a lover of all things liquid since he could drink something at 5 months and that hasn't stopped. I'm so grateful to the Lord that it seems like the transition to whole milk will probably be a smooth and easy one, because so far there have been lots of areas that have been difficult and I'm excited that he LIKES it! Yay! 
• His favorite foods are spaghetti, blueberries, mixed veggies, peas, yogurt (and yogurt bites), and ham. He will pretty much eat anything I give him, except he did NOT like my homemade pizza dough recipe...probably because he's used to whole grains and I only had white flour... YES! I'm raising a picky healthy eater! He also loves anything starchy...like COOKIES! Or anything sweet...like ICE CREAM! Maybe not so healthy....
• He's taking 2 naps and I plan to continue that AS LONG AS POSSIBLE! They are my ONLY real breaks during the day to get stuff accomplished, so we won't be shifting to 1 nap anytime soon, if I can help it! He is sleeping shorter in the morning right now, usually only an hour, but will sleep longer in the afternoon, usually 2 hours, as long as I give him plenty of activities between. He still sleeps about 12 hours at night. I could tell something was wrong with him when his naps became 30 - 45 minutes each! Poor guy! 
• Micaiah is exploring everything! He can crawl so fast now! He can even go up steps and likes to climb on whatever. I have to keep telling him not to climb on top of the dishwasher! 

 He loves to look at you through things like his crib railings or sunglasses or play peekaboo. One day this month, I wasn't quite sure where he went... he was under the bed! Crawling UNDER things is a favorite past time, too!

Anybody else noticing the baby mullet that is occurring? Hart and I think it is sooo funny! Business in the front...party in the back! 

• Independent play: This isn't necessarily a new concept. We have tried it in the past, but we are trying to do it more regularly now. I've been having Micaiah play in his room 1 - 2 times a day by himself for about 20ish minutes. I go back and forth with this whole concept... on one hand it seems a little creepy that I put him in his room and leave him AND on the other it seems great for acquiring new skills and having longer attention spans and the time to actually learn new things independently without Mommy interference. The teacher in me likes the latter! My current stance is that if he cries when I try to leave, I usually give it a couple minutes. If he persists, I don't make him do it. I don't want him to have horrible memories of being shut in his room to play alone. I also don't shut his room door anymore while playing. Since I have a video camera in his room, I can see what he is doing. I hated it that he would go to the door and stand and cry for me to come back when I first started doing this more regularly. He has a gate on his door and I just close that now. I have found that he actually enjoys this time, for the most part. And it helps to have a kind of structured time of day to do this, like, right after breakfast or right before dinner. Usually I come back and every single toy has been taken out and his new favorite thing is to take off ALL of the books off the shelves. So it looks like this when I come back...

•  This boy also LOVES television! He will clap his hands and "dance" by bouncing up and down to the songs on the Baby Einstein Movie. He usually watches a video once a day while I make dinner. 

 Sometimes we also sit at this little toddler table and play with the play food, while I do the dishes or make dinner.

• He only really says "Da-Da" at this point and he will babble other things. He will also do a funny little "growl" and I swear he said "Quack" the other day when talking about the ducks in the tub. He has said "Dog" before a few times and has tried to say "Abe". 

He's our 11 month cutie! We are loving him so much! He's such a delight and a little joy baby! Still can't believe you are almost 1 years old!