This is my second to last letter. Next month, you will be one. Please excuse me for a minute while I go cry...
Since last month, you've gotten even faster with your crawling and you've also started cruising. You typically pull up on something (the table, couch, me, even the tv) and try to take a few steps while holding on. Then, you realize crawling is much more effective and drop to your hands and knees. You hustle to wherever it is you want to be and stand again. It is tiresome just to watch, let alone try to keep up with you! Whenever you do "walk" a bit using a push toy or our hands for support, you seem quite proud of yourself; so I'm torn between thinking you'll be walking any day now and thinking it will take you a while longer.*
Now that you can get anywhere faster than I can keep up, you have discovered the stairs. You usually get stuck after climbing 2 stairs, but you have no fear in diving back down. Rest assured, gates are being installed any day now. Usually, you head for the stairs when Daddy is upstairs (and then you crawl while yelling "DaDa!") or when you hear Abby waking up (then you yell "Ay-yah!").
Speaking of speaking...your vocabulary has really increased since last month. Added to Dada, Ay-ya (Abby) and MaMa, you now consistently say Ni-Ni (night, night), mum (yum or food), and my personal favorite a-da! (all done). You use that last one quite frequently: diaper changes, meal time, when we've been in the car too long, or shopping.
I think one of the main reasons for the increase in talking/babbling** is that your ears are no longer bothering you. After one too many ear infections, we took you in for tubes. You did marvelously. The hardest part of the whole thing was keeping you entertained in a hospital bed for 1 1/2 hours.*** I think the best part of the tubes (aside from you not being sick anymore) is that you sleep now. YOU SLEEP. THROUGH THE WHOLE NIGHT!! You get up at 5AM most mornings, but still. THERE IS NO SCREAMING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!!! It's about time. Thank you SO much.****
Since you were in the middle of one of those pesky ear infections last month, we hadn't experimented much with food. This month, however, you are a pro. Gone is the baby food. Now, we feed you from the table and I love it. I still give you the "toddler" snacks/puffs, but for the most part you eat what we do. I shouldn't be surprised, but so far you like just about everything. You're not too sold on bananas, but will eat them if there is no other fruit option. Just tonight we discovered your love of broccoli after your stuffed every last bit in your mouth without throwing anything on the floor.*****
With the food, also came the milk. I started introducing whole milk in a sippy cup a week or so ago, and you seemed to do pretty well with it. I've been increasing the amounts slowly and tonight you drank almost the whole cup. So, as of tomorrow we are starting to wean. You're only nursing three times a day right now, but I am officially cutting out the middle one. I'm conflicted. You were not the easiest child to nurse, but I still love it. I'm going to miss those baby blues staring into mine while I hold you. However, I will not miss the squirming, kicking, pinching and biting.
So. Eleven months. Next month you will be one. My baby is almost no longer a baby. As I mourn the loss of your babyhood, I also cherish each new skill and moment with you.
I love you so much,
Mommy
**The last few days you've making making a sound kinda like "tuck" I have no idea what it means (I don't think it's the obvious "truck") but you love the sound and keep making it.
***Why? Why must hospitals insist on giving us the first slot of the day, and still make us sit there forever?!?
****I totally just jinxed myself, didn't I?
*****We could feed a small African nation with the amount of food you throw on the floor.
