11 Months and counting...

I'm a busy baby but decided you probably deserved an update. I won't be a baby much longer though. I have my first birthday in 6 days. And I'm having my party tomorrow in Lubbock so all my family can be there too. Mommy says we might have a small party with friends on my actual birthday so I might get to eat lots of birthday cake.

I've been growing and changing every day. You already know I quit nursing last month. That's for babies. I do like my bottles though. When I hear the microwave warming up the water for my bottle, I crawl into the kitchen as fast as I can and start fussing telling them to hurry up.

I love this time of year. We've been looking at lots of Christmas lights and I like to say, "Oooooh!" and point my finger at them. My brother decorated our small Christmas tree all by himself. I tried to help, but I kept getting in trouble. I thought the idea was to bring out all those sparkly ornaments and hang them down low so I could chew on them. Apparently not. I also REALLY like ripping bows off of the Christmas presents. So if you're getting a gift from us, you probably have a little extra rip or two in the paper just from me.

I'm not saying any words yet, but I do understand English now. If you ask me if I'm ready for my bath, I squeal and try to dive into the tub. I never did sign "more" or "all done" or any of the other things my brother did, I refuse. I tell you by my squeals and fussing what I want. My mommy always sings me a song before it's time for me to go to sleep. The other day, my brother started singing it to me right after I got up from a nap and I started crying. It wasn't time for night night yet! Now that I think about it, I do kind of say one thing. If you try to make me do something I don't want to do or take something away from me, I fuss and say, "Neh neh neh neh!"

Sometimes I'm jealous of my brother too. Twice in the last week, he thought he could sit on my mommy's lap and give her a hug. I immediately dropped the toy I was playing with and started crying and crawling over to her. She told me her lap was big enough for both of us but it's hard to share.

I've also discovered how fun it is to make people laugh. When we were in Turks and Caicos (see me eating sand in the pic?) my daddy was gently bonking me on the head with a spoon while I was eating breakfast, he's a silly daddy. Everyone was laughing because I would close my eyes in preparation for the bonk even before he tapped me with it. I got the spoon from Daddy and grinned and put the spoon up on top of my head. I knew there was something funny about the spoon on my head and I wanted to do it too. Everyone laughed again.

Another time in Turks, we were playing the "Where's Daddy, etc." game. I'm really good at that game and like to find everyone I know. So my mommy asked, "Where's Grandma?" I looked at Grandma. "Where's Thomas?" I looked at Thomas. "Where's Grandpa?" I looked at Aunt Amy. Everyone laughed at me so when Mommy then asked, "Where's Daddy?" I looked at Aunt Amy again. I'm a pretty smart guy.

I did really good on the flights to Turks and Caicos. I either played or slept the whole time and wasn't fussy at all. But on the way home, I was ready to be home and I wasn't very good. It was a little stressful for my parents, but 11 hours of cars, airports, customs, and airplanes was too much for me.

If I'm ever in the car with you and start crying, I'll let you in on a little secret: I love Queen. There have been several occasions lately when I am not happy to be in the car and the only way I know to tell you about it is to scream bloody murder. Pop the Queen Greatest Hits CD in, and as soon as I hear the opening strains of We Will Rock You, I stop crying and listen contentedly.

I guess that's a pretty good update for you. I am SO looking forward to opening all those pretty presents under the tree!!

Yep. I'm done.

That's right. I told you it wouldn't be long. And now it's time. I'm done with nursing. D-O-N-E. Done. Even though I'd bitten my mommy at least a dozen times, she still kept trying. But I decided enough is enough. On Sunday morning, I nursed at 6:30 like normal. At 11:30, I nursed on one side and refused any more. That was the last time I nursed. 11:30 am, Sunday, November 4th.

My mommy was hoping to go a full year nursing like she did with my brother. Then slowly wean me, like she did with my brother: dropping a feeding a week until he was weaned one month later (at 13 months). I don't know when she's going to understand that I'm NOT my brother.

She took me to the doctor hoping maybe I had an ear infection. But I'm totally healthy. At least I was at the beginning of The Week of Sickness. The doctor said I was a mystery to her. I kind of like that.

The doctor also suggested that mommy go right to sippy cups for my breast milk/formula, but I like bottles. She's been trying all week to get me to drink from a sippy cup but I just like to chew on them. So it looks like my parents get to buy bottles and formula for a month and a half. They almost made it through two kids without needing that expensive stuff. Ha ha!

Check Out My Hair!

I'm getting my first haircut next week after my helmet comes off on Thursday and I wanted to show you another picture of my long hair. Isn't it cute? I've needed a haircut for about a month now but my parents figured why do it when it's covered by the helmet 23 hours a day.

See my teeth? I have 6 now and have bitten my mommy while nursing at least 8 times. My brother only bit her once, but I don't want to be just like him. I'm not sure I'm going to make it an entire year nursing but hey I've gone 10 months already. That's pretty close.

10 Months Old!

Can you believe I'm ten months old already? Wow! I'm growing up too fast for my mommy. Do you like this picture of me doing my favorite thing? Everything I can find goes in my mouth. I get into a lot more things than my brother did. He never chewed on electrical cords. I do. He never banged on the television. I do. He never put his hands in the potty. I do. But it's not all my fault. My brother has so many interesting toys and I like them so much better than mine. One of my favorite things is his easel. I love to crawl over there, pull up, and try to eat the chalk and magnetic letters. One day, my mommy saw me getting into the chalk and she came over to pick me up and tell me "No chalk for you" but when I grinned at her, a long blue drool came out of my mouth. I was so fast, I was already eating the chalk! I'm so sneaky. After that though, they put the chalk and letters up high so I can't get to them. But I'm still on the lookout for other things I can get into.

Do you like this picture of me and the pumpkins? I loved them. I also loved throwing them. If you ask me to throw something, I can do it really far. I love to play catch. Maybe I'll be a baseball pitcher when I grow up.

When my mommy says, "Kick your feet, baby, kick your feet" I kick them as hard as I can and laugh and laugh. When she says, "Can you jump?" I bounce up and down and squeal. I can also climb the stairs. My doctor said I wasn't supposed to be doing that yet, but nobody told me. I can go all the way up by myself, but to be safe, one of my parents goes behind me so I won't fall.

I had my 9 month checkup two weeks ago and I'm healthy as can be. My brother didn't have a 9 month checkup at his old pediatrician, so I don't have exact comparisons, but I can tell you that I'm taller at 9 months (30 3/4 inches) than he was at a year (30 inches). But unless I gain a lot of weight in the next two months, he's going to outweigh me. I weigh 22 pounds right now and he weighed 24 pounds at a year. So at this checkup, I was in the 100th percentile on height, 95th on head circumference, and 75th on weight. I'm just so busy, I burn off all my calories as fast as I take them in.

One more bit of good news. I get my helmet off next week. Woo hoo! My parents have a feeling more bumps and bruises are in store since I'm so used to the protection.

My Fingers, My Friends

My two best friends are the index and middle fingers of my left hand. I suck on them to soothe myself whenever I need to. If I'm tired, I suck on them. If I'm at a party where there are a lot of new people, I suck on them. If I get startled, I suck on them. After every bite of baby food, I suck on them. Get the picture? My brother didn't take a pacifier or suck on his thumb or anything. I don't take a paci either, although it is a fun toy at bedtime. But ever since late June, I can't do without my two fingers. And they're better than a paci anyway, because they're always with me. My mommy isn't sure that's a good thing because unlike a paci, you can't take my fingers from me when I get too old to be sucking on them. I say we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

And just for fun, I thought you might enjoy these pics of me and my brother to compare. Thomas was about a month older than me when his pic was taken, but we're pretty close. I have my two top teeth too but they've just come through my gums and aren't visible in my picture.

Look What I Can Do Now!

I'm CRAWLING! Yeah for me! I've been close for a long time but over the last week I've been getting braver and getting better. Last Friday, I was at James and Lisa's house and was rocking on my hands and knees. Lisa told me I'd better not start crawling there and should wait till my daddy could see me. On Monday, Grandma and Grandpa came over and I crawled hand, hand, knee, knee. Then on Thursday, D'Ann and Natalie were over and I really wanted to get D'Ann's black and white polka dot flip flop. That's the motivation I needed. As she moved her flip flops further away from me, I kept crawling more and more to get to them. I crawled about 6 feet that day and now I'm crawling anywhere I want to go. I'm not very fast yet, but I'm doing it

My helmet has really come in handy lately too. I've fallen several times and it protects me. Now that I'm pulling up, I forget that I'm not very steady and when I let go to play with a toy, I fall down. I also don't remember that I have to be careful when I'm not wearing it and twice this week during my one hour helmet-free sessions, I've fallen and gotten bumps on my head. I'll learn eventually.

8 Months Old

Hey everyone! Bet you didn't expect to hear from me again so soon. I like to keep you on your toes. :-) I have a lot to tell you about. First of all, here's the picture of my two teeth. I love having them but you have to be careful because I like to try to bite things and they are pretty sharp. I've only bitten my mommy one time while nursing. She didn't get mad at me because I didn't bite too hard, but give me a finger and I can really chomp down.

The next important thing you need to know is that I'm now wearing a Dynamic Orthotic Cranioplasty (DOC) Band. Around my house we just call it a helmet. The back of my head is moderately flat because I have always liked to sleep on my back. When my brother learned to roll over, he chose to sleep on his stomach, but I've always preferred my back. As a result, I have a flat head. After my six month check-up, my pediatrician referred me to Cranial Technologies for an evaluation of my head. They determined that I would benefit from wearing a band. From what I hear, depending on my growth rate, this should help my head grow in the correct shape within 2-3 months. I wear it 23 hours a day and for the most part it doesn't bother me. I've been wearing it about 2 weeks now and last night was the first night I slept all night. But hey, you try sleeping in a motorcycle helmet and see if you can do it. Do you like how it's decorated? My brother, Thomas, wanted to go shopping and buy some special dinosaur stickers for it. I like them and even though I don't know their names, my brother tells me the T-Rex is the best. And boy you should have seen my stickers glow when we were playing lunar golf last week! It was cool!
And wearing a helmet is pretty beneficial to me right because I started pulling up a few days ago. When I fall down, I won't hurt my head. I have a 2 year old friend named Cole who wore a band like mine, and he told me I have to learn to be careful with my head when I'm not wearing it. We'll cross that bridge later. Can you see what I went for the first time I stood up? That's right, my brother's dinosaurs. The toys I'm not supposed to have are always more enticing than the toys I'm allowed to have. I usually give myself away though. It either gets really quiet because I'm trying to be sneaky about it or I start squealing I'm so excited to have the "bad" toy.