Eleven Months

-- Robert is still wearing 12 month clothes. Everyone says he looks as if he's thinned out.

-- He has 8 teeth now and doesn't drool at all anymore! He's also cut way back on the biting. He still does it occasionally, but it's nothing like it was. He is biting other things a lot though. Toys, shoes, books, furniture..... nothing is safe.

-- He was doing well with eating and sleeping, but then got sick and Daddy was gone for two weeks, so he's right back where we started. To say I'm frustrated with his sleeping and eating would be an understatement. He was doing so well on the sleep front. I would put him down drowsy and he'd curl right up and go to sleep. There was very little crying and he was sleeping through 'til morning or only waking once most nights. Now we're back to waking at least 2 or 3 times and screaming bloody murder, scrambling to stand up when I lay him down.

-- I don't think he ate more than a few bites of solid food every day while Chris was gone to Rome. He also wasn't nursing very well. He's doing a little better now, but still not great. He really wants nothing to do with the highchair. He gets very angry when he's confined and as soon as I put him in it he stands up.

-- Robert loves to be outside. He knows the word now and looks at the door when we say it. He throws a fit when we let the dogs outside and he doesn't get to go. If I happen to be holding him and open an exterior door, I had better be ready to go outside and play for a long time or else I'll have an angry baby on my hands.

-- He's started playing shy. If someone's talking to him while I'm holding him, he lays his head on my shoulder and peeks out at them. It's sooo cute.

-- He loves to play peek-a-boo. For a while he would take my shirt while nursing and cover his face with it. When I asked "Where's Robert?", he'd pull it down and get a huge grin on his face and do it over and over. That will be one of my favorite nursing memories for sure.

-- Robert will finally sit still for a short book. If you read it fast. He likes Brown Bear, Brown Bear and one called Bunny and Me that Grandma and Grandpa gave Clara when she was a baby. It was one of Clara's favorites too. He points at things on the pages and tries to kiss the bunny.

-- I think he's saying quite a few words that I'm not recognizing. I do think I've heard dog (dah), book (buh), this (dis) and he finally says mama every once in a while. His most favorite word though is no. I hear "nah nah nah" constantly. I think he's been saying pumpkin also. He says it almost every time we walk past the pumpkins on the porch.

-- Still no interest in walking. I'm wondering if he'll even be walking by his birthday. He seems so frustrated right now and I really think learning to walk will relieve some of that frustration, but he's just not having it.

-- I think Robert is very independent and that's where a lot of his frustration lies right now. His inability to tell me what he wants to do or where he wants to go or what he wants to eat is difficult for him so I just keep hoping he'll do better as he gets a little older. I guess I'm partly to blame for having absolutely no clue what he wants a good deal of the time. Good thing he's cute.