Eleven Months {Rory}

How can it be possible this child of mine is only one short month away from turning one? ONE! I really can’t believe where the last year has gone.

At 11 months, Rory weighs 25.4 pounds and measures about 29 inches tall. He is wearing 12-18 month clothing and a size 4 diaper.

Here’s what I want to remember about this past month:

• He still takes 4 bottles a day, averaging about 27 ounces total. And, shame on me, I have not offered him a sippy cup once this past month. Oops.
• Progress with real food wasn’t all that great; he did not like the stage 3 offerings. He gagged and threw up a number of times when I had the nerve to feed him something chunky, so I caved and stocked up on stage 2 foods again. It’s been so frustrating.
• However, even though I didn’t do it as often as I should have, I did offer him little bites of various things just to keep trying. He has tasted apple, carrot, radish, sausage, avocado, zucchini muffin, banana, mango, grits, egg casserole, and baked potato soup. With most things he would make a face and push the offending object out with his tongue.
• But as the month went on, he started accepting more tastes and really liked holding big pieces of things he could gnaw on (like the apple, carrot, and radish). Still not great, but progress. He does not seem to like the chunky pureed stage 3, so perhaps he will skip those altogether (like his brother did) and go straight to table food. I may have to get a little creative in what I offer him, though, since he’s proving to be very picky. The potato soup was the best success we’ve had thus far; he ate it two days in a row with little complaint!
• Finger foods have improved though. He has done great with Cheerios and Puffs recently. And he seems to have the pincer grasp fairly under control, even though he hasn’t always been putting the things he picks up into his mouth. Baby steps, people; baby steps.
• And perhaps the fact that he has FOUR teeth now will only improve his eating habits. The top and bottom middle two teeth are all poking through. He’s started to drool a bit more, so I’m sure other teeth are coming. And everything, everything, goes into his mouth these days.
• He still sleeps 12 hours a night and we stopped using a sleep sack a couple of weeks ago. His morning naps are generally good, but the afternoon nap is becoming a bit of an issue, meaning he doesn’t always fall asleep before we have to pick Riley up from school. Hopefully this gets better because I’m not ready for him to go to one nap yet!
• He hates having his face wiped, which was unfortunate for him this past month because he had a runny nose. (Read: SO. MUCH. SNOT.)
• He has started to shake his head from side to side when he doesn’t want something.
• He is pulling up and loving standing. His balance at this improves every day.
• He does this cute spinning thing when he’s sitting on the floor: he pushes his heels against the floor and spins himself completely around on his booty.
• He loves climbing the stairs.
• He’s enjoying more and more playing by himself, at least when his brother is at school. (If Riley is home, Rory much prefers to be by his big brother, and the feeling is completely mutual.) He won’t hesitate to sweep away any toys he doesn’t want to get to what he’s after. And he doesn’t stay in one place for very long; I often find him down the hall practically into my room in no time at all.
• Ultimately, he is very laidback and easy-going. But when he is done, he is DONE. I can’t vary his nighttime routine very much without him voicing his displeasure. He gets fussy before dinner, eats well most nights, and gets fussy again while we wait for Riley to finish eating so I can bathe both of them. He loves bath time and almost always cries a bit when I take him out of the tub. Then the second he spots his last bottle of the day, he’s whining and squirming to get at it so he can sleep. Crazy fries.

Eleven months old! I know I won’t be his only Valentine, but I am so honored to be his first.

Happy Valentine’s Day, y’all!