11 Months Old

Drew is 11 months old today, and I'm not sure a whole lot has changed since he was 10 months old, but you can be sure I'll find plenty to say about it. :)  

Let's see, a month ago I thought he'd probably be walking by his first birthday, but now  I'm not so sure.  He is still pretty reluctant to let go when he's standing up, though he did do it today for about 30 seconds.  I think he has pretty good balance, but once he realizes he's not holding on, I think he gets scared and grabs hold of the nearest stable thing.  He still has just 2 teeth, but he is down to nursing just 3 times a day now and eating all table food and loving it.  There's not much he won't eat, really.  We are constantly amazed at how much food the kid can put away.   Zach and I put Drew on the scale today in my closet, and he weighed 22 pounds, but I'll be really curious to see what he weighs next month at his 1 year check-up.   We're trying to give him a sippy cup more often, and today he seemed like he really had the hang of it.  Drew's napping schedule is changing a little, too, so that both naps have shifted to a little later in the day.  

One thing I've really enjoyed is seeing how Drew's playing style has changed.  He's really into putting things into other things.  For example, in the play kitchen, he puts things in the fridge and oven.  Or he has this gumball machine toy, and he loves to put the balls back into it.  Drew is a pretty good listener/quick learner.  He'll do something like play with the plant, and after I tell him no once or twice, he usually quits, though he thinks a lot about doing the thing he's not supposed to do again.  For example, the other day he was grabbing at the plant, and I told him no, and he did it again, and I told him no again.  Then he started to crawl away, and sort of went back to the plant, reached out, but stopped himself.  This happened a couple of times, and it was like you could hear him saying in his brain, "I want to touch the plant- no, I can't touch it!"  He has gotten a little sad when he has dropped his food on the floor (something he does when he decides he is full) and we've been a little more stern with our no's.  He can be a bit of a drama-queen sometimes, that's for sure.  Drew also is imitating more.  Yesterday Maggie was barking, and I would tell her to be quiet, and then she would bark again.  After a few times of me saying, "Quiet!" Maggie barked again, a solitary bark, and Drew looked right at her and sort of barked back, "Aaaa!" in the same tone as my "Quiet!"  It was pretty cute.  He also does this if I'm calling Zach, where he matches my tone.  I'm sure it's just a coincidence, but whenever he plays with cars, he makes a little motor sound, like buzzing his lips.  He loves to play the piano, too.  

Zach and Drew are playing together more, too, which is awesome.  Lately in the car they've been trying to touch hands, and this totally cracks Drew up.  They also were playing a game the other day where Drew was in his crib after his nap, and he had his pacifier in his mouth.  We only give Drew his pacifier when he's going to sleep, so Zach took it out of Drew's mouth and moved it to the other end of the crib.  Suddenly this became this big game, where Zach would take the pacifier, move it to the opposite end of the crib, and then Drew would quickly crawl and get it and put it in his mouth.  Then Zach would grab it out of his mouth and move it to the other end.  Back and forth they went, and every time Zach would pop that pacifier out of Drew's mouth, Drew would squeal with delight.  I kept waiting for Drew to get mad, but he never did.  It was sweet.  Here are Zach and Drew snuggling on the couch.  This is our new favorite picture.  I think it really shows that Drew must have a big head- his head looks as big as Zach's!

Speaking of pacifiers, like I said, we only let Drew have his pacifier when it's bedtime- either naps or at night.  But the kid loves to have things in his mouth.  He frequently finds things to crawl around with in his mouth.   The other day he had a ball in his mouth (ok, it was a dog ball- gross, I know, but in my defense, I wasn't there- Mike told me about this), and Maggie wanted it, so she just plucked it right out.  Here are some other examples of things he has used as his pacifier:

A small wooden person.  I know- this looks like a choking hazard.  Right after I took the picture I took the person away and it is now out of Drew's reach.

A Fisher-Price blood pressure cuff.  Maggie was waiting in the wings to snatch this away right after Drew decided it was a little big for his mouth.

And a Doodle-Pro, which he also decided was kind of a pain to carry around in his mouth.

Here are just a few more pictures of Drew being silly.

He makes this hilarious, squinty/shut-eyed face with this big, goofy grin.  A lot of times he makes this face when he's in his high chair.  I have been meaning to get a picture of it, but I never do.  This is the closest I've come, and this isn't even exactly the right face.  But I thought this was cute, even with the avocado all over his face.

The lazy baby's SOOO BIG pose.  Usually he does both hands up, but not in this one.

I don't know what he was doing here, but he sure was happy, which is how he is about 95% of the time.  

But not here.   This is not a good picture of Zach, but it is such a funny one of Drew, with his little (huge) hand up over his mouth.  He was sick of pictures at this point, I guess.

It's hard to believe that the next time I take pictures in the rocking chair Drew will be a year old.  There is definitely a part of me that would like to keep him this age forever, because he's just so fun, and the littlest things make him happy.  But I also really look forward to the days when he and Zach can really play together and be happy.  And watching Zach just makes me so much more curious as to what Drew will be like- will he have the same kind of personality as Zach?  I wonder.  Speaking of Zach, here's proof that he's all boy- tonight I was in the laundry room doing something, and I heard him say to Mike, "I just tooted on you!  I want you to smell my toot!"  Oh, I do have so much to look forward to, raising two sons, don't I? :-)