Letters to Nathan: Eleven Months

Dear Nathan,

Oh my big beautiful boy, you are eleven months old today. You are only a month away from being a toddler (gulp) and you are sometimes mistaken for being older than you are because you're so tall and big. You bring so much joy to us.

You're in 18mo clothing, and you weigh 23 lbs. You're still a pretty good eater. Messy, but not terribly picky. Along with four bottles of formula, you eat all kinds of table food now - green beans, strawberries, toast, pancakes, yogurt, etc. but lately you have a tendency to shove a lot of food into your mouth and then you panic a bit because you can't chew it all. So I've had to go back to cutting food up into smaller pieces for you instead of larger chunks since you no longer eat reasonably. Sigh.

This photo isn't wholly accurate of our day-to-day life. You hardly ever hold your own bottle, you lazy bum.

Sometimes you go into Baby Hulk mode. It's really funny to watch. You start to growl and clench your fists high above your head. You smash things. You try to rip the tray off your booster seat (and sometimes succeed). You're too strong!

 

You like to play peek-a-boo with me now, with a sly mischievous smile behind your plastic cover before you pop your face over for the reveal.

 

You crawled forwards for the first time on May 4th. It's sort of a crab crawl you do on your belly, but at least you're moving forwards. Yay for progress! I took this video on the first day you started, but now a week later you're much more proficient at it and you're a fast crab crawler.


We had lovely warm sunny weather for about two weeks, and you got to experience the playground at the park for the first time. Your feelings about the swing and slide are mixed. Some days you find it tolerable, other days it bores you.

We've had a few barbeques in our backyard, and it's been so lovely to sit on our patio set or under a tree with a picnic blanket. So far you don't really love touching the grass, but I can see how it may seem a bit alien after a winter's worth of indoor play. I'm trying to instill good sun protection habits with you by getting you used to wearing hats and sunglasses.You hate having things touch your head or face. It takes some distraction but you're tolerating hats a bit more these days. Sunglasses, not so much.

I've also started wearing a hat in an effort to provide a good example to you. Most of the time you try to pull both our hats off our heads.

We had another playdate with some other babies born last June. This time you had more fun, and you were a bit more interactive with them especially when it came to lunchtime. It was fun for me to talk with the other moms and share war stories. Most of their babies are crawling properly and some are even walking, but I know you'll catch up. For now, you're really good at....sleeping. You take two naps a day (each lasting 60-90 minutes) and sleep eleven hours at night. I can't remember the last time you woke up in the middle of the night, knock on wood.

Now that the weather is nicer, we go out a lot more. You enjoy the park, long walks along nature trails, malls (sort of), Costco (often), Ikea, etc. We also go out to eat every week so you're quite used to loud restaurants and being sociable at the table.

You enjoyed the pasta at the Ikea cafeteria

Mini Poang chair!

I can't believe we're only one month away from your first birthday. Where did the year go? The wee baby I brought home from the hospital is now so big, active, sweet and giggly. Love you, boy-o.

Matching elephants. Yes, I am that mother who will occasionally co-ordinate outfits with her baby until he is old enough to protest out of embarassment. Ha!

Love always,
Mumma