11 Months Old

Today, I happily announce that you are 11 months old. By the way, I have decided to start referring you Griffin as ‘you’ in my blog, instead of by your name. After all, this journey is all about ‘you’. But getting back to today…..yes, YOU are 11 months old today! Every month I have said that I can’t believe it. And I still can’t. You are our pride and joy, the light in our hearts, and you make every day worth living for. You bring sunshine into our lives on even the darkest days.

To date, you are still as mischievous, rambunctious and as full of energy as before. You have an intense curiousity about EVERYTHING. You want to see, touch and explore anything you can get your hands on. You still crawl at rapid speed. One of the noises we love to hear is your little hands slapping against the bare floor in the kitchen when you crawl. We always know you are coming by that little ‘slap, slap, slap’ sound.

You still haven’t made any attempts to walk on your own yet. You do cruise furniture quite a bit. But whenever I have tried to coax you into taking your first steps by holding your hands, you still haven’t quite grasped the concept. However, you have stood independently (without any props) about five times now.

One of the things that surprised us this month is how quickly your mind can change about things. For example, one week you do not like beans. Then a few weeks later, you will eat them again. One day you hate the grass. Now you have an open curiousity about it and have begun tentatively touching it with your finger.

You really, really, really seem like you want to communicate with us verbally. You actually have conversations with us, in your baby babble. The three of us will be together, and you will start to babble quite earnestly to us. In turn, we are attempting to say and repeat certain words to you more frequently, and quite slowly and deliberately. You understand ‘kiss’, ‘mumma’, ‘dada’, and you may understand that ‘I love you’ means something good. And you know that when we clap our hands at you and say ‘good job’ that it means you have done well.

You are starting to practice your hand/eye coordination and piecing a lot of shapes and toys together. One thing I noticed while watching you do this is how frustrated you become, and how impatient when the pieces don’t line up! Yes, you take a bit after your dad and I on this one.

You have started exploring more foods in your diet. Thank goodness you are eating again! We were starting to worry that you were a picky eater, but you actually do enjoy exploring new tastes. So far, you have loved every piece of fruit we have given you. We’ve also let you try ice cream here and there too. The first couple of times, you didn’t really like it. But recently, you seemed to like it a bit more. You still eat food that I happily puree for you. But we give you finger foods as well, and we let you take nibbles off of our own plate.

You can now hold your bottle on your own and will drink your own milk/water. In fact, you enjoy doing this quite a bit. I think for you, this is a sign of independence, which is why you love to do it. We still help you with your milk for the major feedings. But if it’s your afternoon bottle, we just give it to you and you will nurse on it for a while.

You still love to climb all over furniture, and you love sitting on our couch. In fact, we often joke that you are a couch potato, because we often find that you have climbed up there and are lounging on it. It tickles us to death to sit on the couch with you- a family of three with you sitting in between us. Our bed is also a haven for you, and after bath time, you love to crawl up to our pillows and lie back. Yes, you do have a hard day so you deserve all the relaxation in the world.

It is summer time (finally) and you are older, so we go out a lot. In fact, I don’t think a day goes by without an outing. But you do not like to be out all day. In fact, four hours is about the longest we can be out before you expire. As long as you get to go out for just a little bit every day, you are content. And you are always very content when we return home to familiar surroundings.

We have quite a routine, you and I. Our lives have quite a good flow, but it wasn’t always this way. Yes, it has taken a very long time to get to this point. But as I was saying to Jonas tonight, I would never, ever, trade this year for anything in the world.