11 Months Old

Oh my goodness - only a month until William is ONE! My baby is one step closer to being a toddler, literally! The biggest news around the Davis house is William is eating table food (Hallelujah!) I give my mom, Juju, a lot of credit for this. My parents had William in Dothan this past weekend so Grant and I could enjoy a weekend with friends while everyone was in town for the baby shower and engagement party. This was only the second time we've left him overnight, and I'm proud to say I didn't shed a tear when I handed him over to my parents in Montgomery on Friday. I definitely missed him a lot, but I didn't realize how bad I needed a break until I had some time to myself.

{All of these pictures were taken this evening. I tried getting some pictures in the glider like I do every month, but Grant wasn't here to catch William as he tried to dive off head first, so I decided that wasn't very smart.}

Anyway, William tried french fries, turkey, and ate 3/4 of a cooked sweet potato while he was in Dothan. Then, yesterday, on his actual 11 month birthday, his teachers fed him pancakes & applesauce for breakfast; lima beans, bites of a sloppy joe (gross!) & oranges for lunch; and he had cookies at snack time. I couldn't believe it! To top off the day, he ate an adult size portion of lasagna for dinner. He's still not great at picking up food and putting it in his mouth, but he'll get there. We are so relieved. Grant and I were beginning to think he'd go to kindergarten still eating baby food :) Of course both of us are absolutely PARANOID about him choking on food, so we are still quite careful.

I'm also thrilled that he tried a lot of vegetables over the past month, and I think he actually likes them. His favorite veggie is spinach, which is funny because apparently I ate a ton of spinach as a baby. Even though he'll probably switch to all table food soon, I'm still going to continue to give him the organic veggie pouches because that's an easy way for him to get a nutritious balance. He still drinks about four 7oz bottles a day, and hasn't mastered the sippy cup yet, so that is our next big goal. I can't wait for him to be off formula because that stuff isn't cheap!

His sleep schedule is a little more predictable these days. He goes down every night at 7pm. Before bed he drinks a 7oz bottle in our bed with Grant, and then we immediately put him in the crib. Sometimes he'll cry but never more than a couple of minutes. He's sleeping through the night most nights. He'll occasionally wake up in the middle of the night, and we give him a bottle. He wakes up between 7-7:30 for the day. On school days, he takes 1 nap from 11:30-1pm. On his off days, he usually still takes a morning and afternoon nap. I dread the day he drops the morning nap. I cherish that time :) 

He's still wearing size 4 diapers and mostly 18-24 month clothes. His weight seems to have plateaued, but we don't have another check-up until his 12 month well visit. As you can tell, his favorite "hobby" is pulling every single book off his bookshelf.

  If I could describe William in one word I'd say CURIOUS.

 Still keeping my fingers crossed for the curls to stay!

Another big milestone over this past month is that he is pretty much walking! Towards the beginning of the month he was taking 1-2 steps and over the past couple of days he has taken up to 6 steps. He still prefers crawling because it's much faster, but I think he'll be solely walking by the time his first birthday rolls around. He can also get from the sitting to standing position without having to hold onto a prop.

 I know I'm an evil mommy for taking a picture of him screaming but I couldn't help myself. He was in there for 30 seconds while I cleaned up the books and had a complete meltdown.

He's not saying any new words that I can remember, but he does have this little high pitched squeal he does WAY too often. I think he does it to get our attention. He doesn't say "mama" nearly as much as he says "dada." When he's in a good mood or enjoys something he's eating, he still hums and rocks back and forth. Some mornings he cries when I leave him at school but never more than a couple of seconds. Thank goodness! It's never easy to leave him when he's upset. On another note, William was a little hesitant to come back to Mommy and Daddy on Sunday when we met my parents in Montgomery to pick him up. He turned towards Juju and I had to BRIBE him with a cookie to come to me. Of course Juju secretly LOVED that...haha! 

 Where's William?! There he is!

 He LOVES playing peek-a-boo. He will hide behind anything and everything to get us to play peek-a-boo. 

 Every night I get to witness this sweet boy giggling, squealing, and kicking his legs with delight when his Daddy gets home. This is by far the highlight of my day!