11 month update

Before the big 1st birthday, I thought I'd update what Tucker has been up to these days.

Stats:
Weight: 25 lbs 3 oz

Clothes size: 18-24 months

Diaper size: 4 (almost 5)

Teeth: 2 bottom, 1.5 top (the left top front is just about to poke through!)


Eating: He's still nursing in the morning and at night and has 3 bottles during the day when he's at the babysitter's.  I plan to keep pumping until his birthday and then attempt to switch to milk during the day and let him nurse morning/night until he's done.  I've grown to love it and will probably be sad when we're done. I never thought I'd say that!! He will eat most food but absolutely loves a few things: cheese, yogurt, avocados, bread and Cheerios.  He will usually eat most veggies but to make sure he's getting them at each meal, I sneak them in via cottage cheese.  He's really pretty good and tries most things.  He's eating 3 meals a day still.

Sleeping: He consistently goes to bed around 7 and will sometimes make it until 5:30 but there are nights (like last night) where he wakes up at 3 and there is no going back to bed (we've tried, it goes on for at least an hour) without feeding him-when in doubt, maybe it's teething?  But then the next night he'll sleep until 5-I can't figure him out!  He does go back to sleep though until at least 7- I think he made it to 8 once! I guess I can't complain- the kid does go to bed at 7.  Same with naps. He typically naps once a day for about 1.5 hours.  Although there are those occasional days when he takes two naps or one 45- minute nap or a 2.5 hour nap...who knows!!!! The timing of the naps switches also.  I think he's just too excited and curious to sleep- he's usually jumping up and down in the crib and talking up a storm.

Health: Ear infection #2 crept up a little before his 11 month birthday.  He had a cough and a little cold and I just knew it was his ears again.  At least I now know what to look for.  Another round of Amoxicillin and he's back in action!  I'm hoping this isn't a consistent trend for him.

Development: It absolutely blows my mind how much he is picking up every single day.  He understands tons of words- clap, soo big!, itsy bitsy spider, dance, ball, peek-a-boo, car, more, book, no (he shakes his head back and forth at us), hello, bye, daddy, mommy, nukie, duck, cow, dog, kisses and blankie.  He looks at the object or does some kind of motion to show us that he understands. He says "dadda" and "mmmmammma" and I think I heard him say "duck." He is just starting to walk while pushing his walker but is cruising around the house, getting into everything and pulling up on anything within reach.  He loves to play with the kitchen drawers and cabinets.  He's on bruise #3 on the face.  The most recent is an ugly bump on the forehead from falling into the edge of the molding on his bedroom door.

Play: He loves to read books! He sits with a basket of books and flips through them, talking as he goes. He could look at books for a long time.  He loves to play with cars, bang blocks together, shake containers full of toys, dance to music, play peek-a-boo with his blankie, blow bubbles and make raspberries with his mouth. He absolutely loves Daddy and exploring everywhere around the house.  He loves to stand at our windows and look outside or kiss the windows.


We are so thankful for our little boy! I never knew I could love someone as much as I love him and I can't even believe how fast these last 11 months have gone!!!

First (assisted) steps!!

Here he is:

Chatting on the phone...

Apparently Tucker watches us (probably mostly me) talking on the phone a bit too much.  We're not quite sure who he's talking to but it sort of sounds like they're in a fight! (I don't know why this video got all distorted, sorry!)

I love Tucker!

Since Valentine's Day is tomorrow, I thought I'd post  a few new photos and videos of my love!

Teeth!!

Searching the 'net...he loves it.

Doing what he does best- eating!

Opening his Valentine package from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Don

Tucker loves other kids.  His friend, Mia, was having fun getting him to crawl.

This is what he likes to do in the morning while I get ready- get in to EVERYTHING!

Bath time fun!

This is my favorite video of our funny boy!

Crawling!!

Tucker started crawling yesterday!! We are so proud of our big boy!!

Tucker is 9 months!

Our little boy is 9 months! How did this happen? This has definitely been the fastest 9 months of my life. I think I've said this about the last couple of months, but I think 9 months might be my favorite age so far.  I think that just means that every age is the best and it just keeps getting better and better.  Here are his stats:


Weight: 22 lbs. 6 oz.  (75%)


Length: 29.5 inches (83%)

Head Circumference: 46.5 cm (80%)

• Eating: Tucker is still exclusively breast-fed but is also loving solid foods.  He typically nurses/bottles 5 times during the day (morning, mid-morning, lunch, mid-afternoon, before bed) and eats 3 meals.  He loves, loves, loves yogurt! I've also been making his baby food and freezing it in cubes.  His favorites are: squash, sweet potatoes, broccoli, green beans, carrots, bananas, pears, apples, peaches, and cauliflower.  I've tried chicken and he's not a huge fan of it (I think it's the texture).  He also loves finger foods like cottage cheese, shredded cheese, cheerios and I just tried scrambled eggs which he also seemed to like. As displayed by his plump cheeks and hefty weight, he is definitely a well-fed baby!

• Sleeping: He typically goes to sleep right around 7.  By that time, he's tired and happy to go to sleep.  He's really easy to put down, which I'm super thankful for.  We usually give him a bath, read books, he nurses and then we zip him in his sleep sack, give him his nuk and he falls asleep on his own.  He is an early riser though.  We all get up pretty early around here, but Tucker likes to get up really early like 3 or 4 a.m.  Sometimes he'll go back down without being fed and sleep till 5:30 but lately I've just been feeding him so we can all get some sleep.  Once he eats then, he'll usually go back down until 7:30 (or earlier on weekdays when I wake him to go). I guess it makes sense, by 4 a.m., he's already been out for 9 hours.  We've tried keeping him up a little later and it doesn't seem to make a difference, he's still up super early.  Oh well, it's just how it is and I'm sure eventually he'll stretch it out a little later.  

• Playing: This is probably the best thing about this age. He loves to play. He received tons of fun toys that make noise or play music for Christmas and he absolutely loves playing with them and dancing to the music.  He loves to play with toys and turn them around upside down (I think he's inspecting them to see how they work- future engineer? Probably. :))  Toys are great, but probably his favorite things are non-toys like the remote control for the TV, my glasses, my phone, the computer, coasters, bowls, spoons, etc.  He loves music and we have some fun CDs that we love to jam to in the car and home. He dances and waits for you to dance with him.  He also loves to "read" books. He flips through them super fast and loves to look at the pictures.  It's amazing to me that he already has his favorite books and prefers reading particular books.

• Development:  Tucker is almost crawling.  He gets up on all fours and can move backwards.  He almost goes forward and when he does it looks more like the "worm" (the dance move) then crawling.  He loves standing up next to the couch but isn't quite able to pull himself up yet on his own but is getting really close. He is doing tons of mimicking.  He mimics noises we make like blowing raspberries or clicking our tongues or bababa and dadada.   He is also waving and loves to shake his head back and forth and encourages you to do the same with you.  It blows my mind how quickly he is learning new things every single day.  

Our future basketball star:

9 months also marked Tucker's first time getting sick. :(  He's had a couple of colds, but this was definitely more.  We spent New Year's weekend in Door County with Jared's family and Tucker had a cough that got increasingly worse with lots of congestion.  When we got back home, he was really fussy, not wanting to eat much and eventually ended up throwing up the night before I was supposed to go back to work.  It also turned out that I had strep (again-2nd time in the last month!).  So we both spent that first day home sick together.  It ended up being coincidental that his 9 month check up was the next day, so Grandma Lauri stayed with Tucker that day so we could go back to work and when we took him into the doctor after school, she determined he had an ear infection. And since he'd been exposed to strep from he, she put him on an antibiotic to hopefully kill anything he might have.  Since he's been on it, he's definitely happier, eating much more again, and seems to be on the mend.  It's stressful having a sick baby- you feel so bad because you don't know what they need.