baby z is 11 months old!

almost one year old.  i can't believe it.  the past month actually felt really slow, which is kind of good.  i can feel like i had time to relish my baby before he turns into a one year old and then a toddler.  he has been so busy and active lately.  always crawling around super fast, pulling himself up and standing by himself for moments at a time.  he is SOOO CURIOUS. and determined.  he will get what he wants if it takes all his effort.  at least that's what he thinks.  and if something doesn't work or go his way, he has been throwing little tantrums.  like, arch your back and fall on the ground screaming tantrums.  not too terrible, but a mini-tantrum.  i can't believe we are there already.  but he is so much fun now and i feel so blessed that i get to be at home with him during this time.  so he has really been mimicking what we do lately.  for example, he kept getting into something that i didn't want him to get into and after the tenth time of trying to redirect his attention, i finally just pointed my finger at him and said no!  and then he sat down, thought about it for a moment, pointed his own finger at me and said, "aba"!  i had to try so hard not to laugh.  but it's such a great example of where he is at now developmentally and how i need to be a positive model for him as far as my actions and behaviors.  he continues to flirt, point, smile and wave at people all over the place.  he is babbling so much nowadays with such intention and intensity.  it's adorable.  he has been up to so much lately that i can't even list it all here, but here is a brief update:

sleeping with his butt up in the air

-growth:  in 12 and 12-18 month clothes.  his next well child checkup isn't until 12 months, but i weighed him the other day and he is a solid 20 lbs.  i don't know his length measurement but judging relative to other kids he seems pretty tall still.  he has two bottom teeth and is cutting one on the top.

-development:  he crawls super fast, pulls himself up to standing with no problems, stands by himself momentarily, walks with his little push toy thingy, babbles, tries to figure out how things work, mimics mama and baba, yells at his toys if they don't do what he wants, tries to do the hand movements when we sing itsy bitsy spider, waves, points and smiles at strangers, bounces up and down on his knees while waving his hands in the air, "reads" his books, he figured out how to throw, blows kisses...there's so much he's doing now.  every few days he does something new or stops doing something he used to do.  for example, for a week straight he did this thing where he would move the tip of his tongue over his top lip back and forth while making noise so that it would make a leh-leh-leh kind of sound.  he did this all the time!  then after about a week he stopped.  now he is into waving with 4 fingers, almost like he is putting up the number 4.  it's hilarious and i have no idea where he got it from.

-transportation: he crawls.  fast.  really fast.  like you think you have about 10 seconds to get up and grab him before he gets to something he shouldn't get into but he's already there in about 1.5 seconds before your brain can even send the signal to get up to your legs.  not walking yet by himself but i have a feeling that we have maybe a month or so before he starts.

-sleep:  what sleep?  just kidding.  he still takes 2 naps during the day and goes to bed at night anywhere between 7:45-8:30.  he starts out in his crib, usually wakes up between 10:30-11:30 and can usually be rocked back to sleep but then wakes up again a few hours later and we just let him co-sleep as we are too tired to deal with it.  my goal this summer is to get him to sleep through the night in his own crib.

-nourishment: pureed food, but we are transitioning to almost all finger foods.  he eats pretty much anything.  he loves toast and bananas and crackers.  and rice.  basically all carbs.  he will eat veggies but they are not his fave.  he destroyed the fish and beans i cooked recently.  he eats about 4 times per day and nurses about 4-5 times per day as well.  still refuses to take a bottle but since age 1 is when it's suggested to wean baby off the bottle and onto a cup it doesn't really matter at this point anyway.

-personality:  he runs it all.  i try to subtly nudge.  he is silly and sweet, persistent and curious.  he loves trying to figure out how things work.  he flips over his toys to inspect the wheels.  he is obsessed with the vacuum cleaner.  he laughs and shrieks and screams and claps.  he is becoming such a big boy.  he is extremely talkative, a little bossy, he is starting to be more cuddly.  he will crawl over and give us kisses or lay his head on our chest or face.

-likes:  food, outside, rough-housing with baba, bubbles, throwing stuff, screaming, clapping, climbing up the stairs, getting into everything, pulling stuff off of shelves or out of drawers and flinging it across the room, giving kisses and hugs, woody and buzz lightyear, playing with his cousin lucy, his giant bear, hank

-dislikes: sleeping, being sleepy, falling asleep, teething, he really doesn't like it when something doesn't work the way he wants it to

-me:  recently finished the quarter of school, it was great.  i'm excited to do so much stuff over the summer with z and to get some more projects done around the house.