11 month birthday!

Dearest Everett,

Today is your 11 month birthday. Here's what you've been up to!

Though you have been walking 4-6 steps for a couple of months now, you’ve really started walking for longer stretches. You’re a very brave boy; falling down does not frighten you, nor does it slow you down.

You can lean over or squat while standing to pick a toy off the floor as long as you are holding onto something for support. You can easily move from crawling to sitting to standing and back down to sitting everywhere in the house.

The most adorable things you’ve learned this month is waving “bye-bye” and blowing kisses. Instead of kissing the inside of your hand to blow kisses, you kiss the back of your hand. There are sooo many funny things you do in a day, but the one that comes to mind is an expression that is hard to explain. It seems when you are, in awe or interested in seeing something, you pucker up your lips and make the cutest "oooohhh" sound. It's so funny; seems whomever is around, gets a pretty good giggle listening to you.

You have learned to recognize/understand many words verbally and in sign language. Some words/signs you comprehend are: Come here, hands off, Mommy, Mama, Prince, Macy, kitty, "where's ______?", Grampy, Blue’s Clues, bye-bye, kiss-kiss, hug, sit down, no, eat, milk, snack, walk, “I’m going to get you”, night-night, water, diaper, more. Hand signs you can make: milk, eat, more.

You’ve mastered turning the pages of your board books by yourself. It’s wonderful to watch you crawl over to a book, turn the pages and study the pictures. Your favorite book right now is Good Morning, Good Night, touch and feel book.

You have a favorite activity with your moms. You love wrestling!! Actually, you've been wrestling for well over a month now, but have forgotten to share about it. You think it's really funny to knock us over on our backs, then climb all over us. :)

You also enjoy singing and listening to music. One of your favorite sing-a-longs is “pat-a-cake”; your favorite part is the “roll ‘em up and roll ‘em up" part, you love to fold and roll your hands, even before we get to that part of the song. You enjoy listening and dancing to Mama’s cell phone ring. As soon as the ring of “drumming” starts, you start dancing. This week, you started drumming with Mama’s drumsticks, as well as strumming Mommy’s guitar. There's no doubt you will enjoy playing music.

You have six teeth, two at top; in the front and four at bottom center. You enjoy chewing on things; including biting your moms when you get excited. OUCH!

You are still a wonderful eater who eats just about anything we put in front of you. You’re completely off of pureed foods; however you still have approximately six, 8 ounce bottles of formula a day. Your favorite vegetables are green beans. You also enjoy eating peas and corn. Your favorite breakfast is no longer cereal or oatmeal; instead, you prefer dry toast, without the crust.

You go to sleep by 8:30 pm every night and you’ve recently started sleeping through the night again. HOORAY! Your bedtime routine is currently being rocked in the glider, while drinking an 8 ounce bottle of formula, all while listening to your Fisher Price, RainForest CD. When you are finished with your bottle, you sit up and flip to lay your head on Mommy or Mamas shoulder and fall asleep. Mommy or Mama lays you in your crib. You are awake at about 5:30 each morning.

We did not have an 11 month check-up, however I weighed you on our home scale, and it read 22.5 pounds. You’re wearing 12-18 month clothing, size 3 diaper and a size 4 shoe.

Your hair is your Mama's color, a beautiful reddish-brown, however your hair has adorable locks in the back. Your eyes are still blue; in fact they've lightened since your birth. We half expected your eyes to turn hazel, like your donor's. We continue to get compliments about how beautiful your blue eyes are. We agree. :) Your strawberry birthmark is still visible, under all that hair, however we've noticed it's starting to flatten out.

We feel so blessed to have such a delightful, easy-going baby. It's hard to believe that you will be a year old on May 13th. Soon, we'll have to start referring to you as our toddler but you'll always be our baby boy!