First off, our photo sessions for his monthly tie sticker is a serious workout! Getting the kid to sit relatively still, for lack of a better word...sucks, but I love looking at them so they are completely worth it.
I'll start off by saying that this month has been awesome. Barrett is so much fun and starting to act more and more like a kid BUT it has also been a very trying month. If I had to give this month a name, it would be "The Month of the Whine." Unfortunately, it is fairly constant. I had been caulking it up to teething but I don't really know what the deal is. I guess here is a good place to record that this 11 month old still has no teeth. I'm not worried, nor care, but it's like preparing for something months and months before the event. Anticipation is the worst. I just want to get it over with so we can move on, you know.
Following the lines of his whinyness, sleep has just been okay this month. Very few great nights but only really 1 bad one. On average, he wakes anywhere between 4am & 7am, (bedtime still about 6:30pm) will eat and go back to sleep, which he's done for months and months. I don't mean this to be a complaint because he's overall very easy with going to sleep on his own almost exclusively and staying in bed 11-12 hours a night. But, we had a few rough nights last week where he woke twice and wanted no part in sleeping even with a fully tummy. One of the nights was a Saturday and Joe was gone golfing already that morning so I put him in bed with me and somehow managed to get him to sleep next to me for another 45 minutes. We also had a nightmare of a night when he wanted to party from 2:15 to 5:30am. Joe and I took shifts trying to get the kid to just.go.to.sleep. It seems that Bubs knows when to stop fighting it though because for 3 nights in a row now he's slept at least 6:30pm to 6:30am. (If only his whiney behavior would have stopped too.)
Enough with the complaining.... Like I mentioned earlier, this month has been awesome in other ways. Barrett is letting out even more of his personality and is hysterical. He LOVES being out and about around people. I know that if he is cranky, I can take him anywhere and he is happy. This month he went to his first football game at PTHS (loved the band!) as well as his first parade (loved the bands!). He is a very social kid. Along those lines, he has almost zero stranger anxiety. It is rare that he is bothered by new people. If it means you will pick him up and play, he's all for anyone and everyone! On occasion, males will scare him though. I don't know if it's the low voice or what.
However, B is showing some small signs of separation anxiety from me. It hasn't happened in daycare yet (I'm expecting that soon) but it does happen....almost exclusively when he's tired. I'm probably mean mom because I try to ignore him when it happens. He can get a bit, shall we say, territorial. Baby Callum made his debut this month and little buddy is interested in him and is okay with everything until I start holding the baby. Then he does NOT like it. Yikes! Again, I just try to ignore so I don't reinforce his behavior.
I don't think there is anything new I really need to add in the eating department. He's ate just about everything except for peanut butter. I'm holding off closer to 1 year but since we don't have any food allergies, I'm not super worried. He also hasn't had milk yet but the plan is to start incorporating that in the next few weeks. I want to ditch the bottle as close to 1 year as possible and I plan to replace each feeding with a sippy of milk. There are days where I'm not stressed about cutting the bottle but then there are days where I'm really scared! I know that I only want to give him milk in a sippy and formula in a bottle so that he doesn't confuse the two and I'd really like him to be off formula around his birthday so adios bottles!
I mentioned it was hard getting good pictures during our photoshoot. Barrett kept standing up and wanting to nose dive off the chair so every time he stood, Joe pushed him over. The above picture is a glimpse.
Some quirks about the little man this month are that he loves the garage door. Every morning I load up the car with the door still shut and then I hold him and we watch as the garage door lifts all the way. And every morning, it's as if he's never seen anything like it before! I can just watch as his mind races to try to process what the heck is happening. B also loves to walk down the driveway to get the mail. Joe usually gets home just before us so we don't always get it, but when we do, he thinks opening the lid is the bomb!
Since he has been waking a bit earlier some mornings and I'm still getting ready, Buddy has gotten to know the bathroom rather well. Toilet flushes (well, the toilet in general) is jackpot. He also is completely mesmerized by watching me brush my teeth. He furrows his brow in confusion as to what is happening. Also, a great toy to keep his interest are window cranks that you turn to open up windows. Grandma and Grandpa must have the best ones because he will flip those things around for an hour, completely content. Also anything that allows him to cruise around the house is a positive in my book. That's all he wants to do.
I can't end this update without mentioning two of my favorite new skills of Barrett's.....throwing and kissing. You roll (or toss) a ball to him and he throws it back. We were driving to Pontiac last weekend for the holiday and he would throw his golf ball against the seat, watch it come back at him and throw it again. It kept his entertainment for a long time in infant time. And lastly, kisses! I can ask him for kisses and he opens his mouth and says "ah" and then sorta licks your mouth. They are the best ever!...just like him!
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