11th Months!

I wrote this a few days ago and still had to figure out my picture issues...so here it is, a little late...

Wow...we are in the final stretch of Matthew's first year...crazy how fast this year has gone by!

His monthly photos have just been harder and harder to take as each month has gone by...it is nearly impossible to get a busy boy to stay still.  I don't know how people get sweet little pics of their babies sitting by their animals each month...they must not have the same little personality of Matthew!

Speaking of personality, this kids full of it.  He is a mess...sweetest baby in the world but he is in to EVERYTHING.  Nate calls him Babyzilla.  I can blink and he will be up 4 stairs (gotta get that gate pronto)...he can go from the living room to Cameron's waterbowl (or food bowl) in 3 seconds flat...it takes a strategy to change his diaper because he will not stay still.  He is exhausting.

Just try and stop me....

Even though he is my troublemaker, he is the biggest ball of love.  Nate was a kisser....Matthew is a hugger.  Every time I go to his room to get him out of bed, he is standing up smiling from ear to ear and bouncing...and when I pick him up he wraps his arms around my neck and squeezes.  I just can't put in to words how much I love that moment 3 times a day!

So, at 11 months...he is eating more of a variety but not in mass quantities.  I am afraid he may be similar to Nate when it comes to eating.  We are trying new things regularly but his favorites (right now - it is subject to change at any moment) are his yogurt, apple cereal bars, apples/applesauce, pears, peaches (sometimes he lets me mix it with cottage cheese), cheese, toast with butter (but not cheese toast), mac and cheese, sweet potato cubes with a little cinnamon....he is finally eating pasta (but only wagon wheels...won't eat rotini...neither would Nate, weird)...we are working on the protein, sometimes he will eat chicken, turkey or beans but not consistently, so I still have to rely on jars sometimes for that.  He eats oatmeal with mashed bananas for breakfast most mornings but won't eat a banana on its own.  I will never understand the mentality of babies when it comes to eating....I just try to be patient...luckily I have 3 years of experience in this category!

He is a master cruiser.  He can get anywhere he wants to go at this point (even if he shouldn't) by either cruising from one obstacle to another or by pushing and walking behind something but we really aren't any closer to the independent walking milestone.  However, for the first time today I saw him let go of what he was holding on to and balance on his own for about 15 seconds.  So, at least we are moving in the right direction.  But Nate didn't walk until 14 months so I am not pushing him just yet.

He is really chatty and has a few coherent words in his repertoire now...he says "mama" and "dada" to us (no name for Nate yet), he says "baw" for ball, and he says "go" ALOT.  "Go" isn't just a babble word...I always bring him to my room when he gets up in the morning just to spend a few cuddly minutes before Nate wakes up (he is always about 15 mins behind Matthew) and once he is ready to go downstairs to eat he starts saying "go go go"...he also chants it the majority of the time when we go on walks, guess I am not fast enough for him!  And his new phrase now is "uh oh"...for the first time tonight at dinner he dropped his cup (love that game) and he looked at me and said "uh oh!" 

He loves to dance...he stands at his music table and bounces along to each song.  If a song or music comes on tv he will stop what he is doing and move along.  He loves "Goodnight Moon".  He saw Elmo for the first time the other day and it made him giggle.  He has the cutest little grunt laugh.

He loves his brother....they take turns being the leader...sometimes little brother wants to do everything big brother is doing (usually when all of the trains and cars are out) but sometimes I see Nate following Matthew around too (sometimes that is just to tattle when he gets in to something though).  Nate wants so bad for him to be able to play the same way he does...the other night he kept saying "chase me Matthew!" and running around...the cute thing was that Matthew did start speed crawling around trying to catch up!  Oh boy are things going to be exciting when he can run!

So now we are just in party planning mode and enjoying these last weeks before our baby is a toddler!