Friday, February 1, 2019

Baby Paul: 11 months

Paul is 11 months old today! It's hard to believe that he turns one in 28 days!





Firsts:

- He can now go from crawling to sitting up. He was late to sit up - he actually crawled before sitting up independently - so he wasn't too interested in sitting up once he was on the move. But now that he can get into sitting position from crawling he does this all the time!

- He's trying to learn how to crawl up the stairs but hasn't figured it out yet - which I am a-ok with!!

- He's starting to say 'da da' and 'ma ma' but I don't think he knows what those words mean. He just babbles them along with a lot of other sounds. He's a little bit behind on talking but that's likely because his hearing was impaired due to fluid in his ears. Earlier this month we had his hearing re-checked and it's back to normal. I'm sure his language skills will catch up soon.

- He can stand behind his walker, but needs help getting into standing position. He is equal parts excited and terrified about standing in the photo below! We've been working on getting him to walk behind the walker but he's not too interested in that. I think he'll be a later walker which is fine with me.



Growth:

- We haven't weighed him since his ENT appointment during the first week of the month but I think he must be over 17 pounds now. He is eating a ton, which I'll talk about later in this post, so he has to be putting on weight! He wears 6-9 month onesies and pants and 9 month or 12 month sleepers. There are a few 3-6 month outfits that still fit, though!


Loves:

- He loves playing with the toys he received for Christmas. He especially loves the phone on his walker. He doesn't understand what to do with the phone but he loves pulling it off the walker.


- He loves this cat from his little people collection. He loves crawling around with one toy in his hand.
 - He loves being carried up to bed in a laundry basket full of clothes. But he will also happily play in a laundry basket with toys. I hope he continues to like this for awhile as it's nice to contain him for a short period of time while we are busy with things like laundry and cleaning.


- I was starting to feel like I'd never say this, but he finally loves solids! It's like a switch flipped in early January and he suddenly discovered how delicious food is! His favorite things are banana pancakes (they are made from eggs and mashed banana with some cinnamon and vanilla) with peanut butter, club crackers with peanut butter or roasted red pepper hummus, graham crackers, cooked carrots, and cheesy potatoes. We are trying to introduce more vegetables but so far we have the most success with carrots. He'll also eat any sort of puree but we are trying to phase those out and will just use them when he's eating somewhere besides home.



 - He's still obsessed with Oscar. The feeling is NOT mutual. I don't think Oscar would ever hurt Paul but she hisses and growls at him if he gets too close and if he reached towards her, she bats him away with her front paws. Paul just giggles and smiles when this happens. He doesn't understand that Oscar is not a fan of him. Hopefully they will be friends some day!

  

- He still loves being read to. His new favorite is "The Foot Book" by Dr. Seuss. He really loves "touch and feel" books so I ordered some new ones for his birthday.


- He also really likes bouncing, dancing, clapping and kicking his feet to music! I'm pretty impressed by how good his natural sense of rhythm is!

Dislikes:

- Having his hands and face washed after dinner

- Having his diaper changed, especially on the changing table in his room. He wants to flip over onto his stomach and it's SO HARD to hold him still!

- Wearing a winter hat and mittens. Those accessories have not been optional lately with our ridiculous cold weather!!!

We are having a low key first birthday party for him on March 2nd. My younger sister is flying in for the weekend - I'm so excited to introduce Paul to auntie Abby! They are going to have so much fun together. It will be a "Little Blue Truck" birthday party theme but I won't be doing all that much to carry out the theme. Party planning just isn't my thing and he won't remember this birthday anyways so I will wait until he's older to really put a lot of effort into a party. ;)

10 comments:

Charbelle said...

He's just SO PRECIOUS!!!! It is SO hard when they don't like having their diaper changed! Trying to contain their little body and keep them in place while shifting and changing, yup it's a challenge! Right now we have at least 2 that I can think of off the top of my head who do this when we try to change them.
I'm so excited your sister will be able to come for the birthday, that's wonderful!!! Love the theme!!! Charlotte's birthday is at the end of the month and I'm trying to nail down what she wants her theme to be.

missris said...

His favorite foods sound a lot like my favorite foods :) These pictures are just precious--he has so much personality!

Stephany said...

Ugh, I love that photo of you and Paul so so much. He just seems like such a sweet, happy little dude!

I love how much Paul loves Oscar and Oscar is like "nah." Haha. Hopefully, she will come around to him in time!

Jeanie said...

Wow -- he's taking off like a house-afire! The laundry basket is an inspired idea. And how fun to anticipate a first birthday! VERY fun!

San said...

Your little guy is getting so big! And I just love how cheery he is in all the photos!

Jolene - EverydayFoodie said...

That's good that he's loving solids now :-) I still love those photos of him not liking the solids though - hahaha!

He's such a happy little guy, and it's amazing that he's almost a year old! It doesn't feel like that long ago that you were pregnant, although I am sure you are very, very glad that that is over.

Marlys said...

He definitely bring joy to your home and to all who meet him! He's such a happy little guy and so sweet! I so hope some day he and Oscar become friends! We are looking forward to celebrating his first birthday!

Gracie said...

I think he's so smart to love his orange cat toy when he clearly has a thing for orange cats. It's no small feat to recognize that the toy is the same as Oscar!

Amber said...

Feels like just yesterday we were pregnant together and then having newborns together and now venturing into toddlerhood. Time really does fly! I think your birthday plans for Paul sound PERFECT. I'm so so glad we went the low key birthday route with family (which was still a lot as even just my family (only Eric's nephew was there) was 13 people!!)

katielookingforward said...

Hooray for finally liking solids!