11 Months

At 11 months you are doing all sorts of things:having 3 solid food meals a day, and now refusing your bottle at night, so only getting two 6-7 oz bottles a day and just water at night. Two days ago you pulled up to standing on your own, but it was on the bed, I haven't seen you do it on a hard surface yet. You're able to balance on your own for a few seconds before you plop back on the floor. You are pretty independent most of the time. I can leave you in your play area (aka jail) that's fenced in our living room and you are quite happy playing with your toys. In the evening time you're more restless and don't like to be left alone much. Your fun thing to do is pull up while holding our hands and then pull our hands back and forth like you're dancing. You're now pulling up to standing much easier, one second I see you sitting, and another you pulled up next to a wall.

It's taken me a while to try and do your 11 month pictures. I must say that I had the hardest time! I couldn't get you to sit still at all, I crawled after you all over the place. It was totally exhausting oh and I didn't get any good pictures either. Here is what it was like. The first shot was pretty much all I got, and then you went wild... a total trouble maker, crawling all over, pulling up, playing with the outlet... you name it, you tried it. It was a work out just to keep up with you, by the end I was totally exhausted.
It went like this:

Got you sitting still for about 2 seconds

Trying to escape already

Is that camera for me to play with?

Well if I can't play with the camera, then how about the electrical outlets?
Ok... I'll sit and pose for another second, but that's it!

A few nights ago, about 30 minutes before bed time we could not get you to settle down, you were just all over the place, we've never seen you have this much energy. So once it was time for bed, you once again refused any formula, drank some water and I put you in the crib. It took you over an hour and a half to finally calm down. You were up, then down, then talking, then playing... you were constantly messing w/the video monitor so we had to go in and fix it. It was nuts, you did not want to settled down and sleep. At least you didn't cry... It was a bit better the next night, but still took a lot longer than usual. May be your last nap is running a bit too late and you just still have too much energy at 8pm to go to bed.

Your birthday is just around the corner... I can't believe it!

Baby Talk

One week - 3 more teeth

First the two front ones showed up pretty much at the same time, and then the side one came out a few days later to even out the tooth that came early last month.  I had a big chunk of watermelon yesterday and you now bite off pieces of it and you make chewing motions as well. Toothy little munchkin.

The one thing that you do which I don't like is you've started to grind your teeth together. Mostly it's the earlier one against the two lower teeth. I am not sure how to break that terrible habit, hopefully you'll just stop. :)

While we were gone ...

A quick recap, you got 2 of your front teeth, you got sick and went to Children's hospital only to be tested and sent home, and the next day your fever got so high that you went to Children's in an ambulance... our poor little munchkin.

It seemed like the longest week of my life... I wasn't even sure if I should write about this because I bet every time I read this I will get upset...here goes...

We left you with grandma on Friday night and flew to Boston. Saturday you seemed fine, but Saturday evening you started to run a fever and were pretty much up most of the night with my mom and sister. Sunday they took you to the hospital and took a urine sample because last time you had the same symptoms, high fever, smelly urine, and very fussy. They put a catheter in and took a sample. It returned negative for a UTI and they sent you home with a virus diagnosis and gave you Motrin and Tylenol to keep the fever down. Meanwhile the sample got sent to the lab for further 24 hr testing and cultures. The next night was very tough as well. By 3pm the next day, your temperature shot up to 105 and you started shaking and Tylenol/Motrin were not working, you got to the hospital by ambulance and the doctor checked the the test which was taken a day and half ago of course showed that you indeed had a UTI. Ugh... and no one called to let us know that, they had the results before hand.

Fortunately they were able to get your temperature down and you got a shot of antibiotics before returning home. I had no idea about any of this until the evening you returned. I had a feeling something was wrong from a couple of conversations I had w/my sister and mom, but they didn't tell me about the previous day because they thought it was nothing serious and didn't want to spoil our trip, but I kept trying to call the house and it was pretty late in the evening by then and no one was picking up... until of course they got home and were able to talk to me.

The next day your fever was under control and by the evening you were off Motrin and slept through the night. The important thing is that you were ok and getting better. The upsetting thing is that if not for the negligence of Children's hospital the whole 2nd trip to the ER could have been avoided along with the scary fever which caused what they called a "seizure". I can't even imagine this, and when I do my eyes swell up in tears. Neither I or daddy were even there to comfort you and for that I feel horrible. Of course you were in great hands with my mom and sister and my dad and thank god there were there, but I can't help but feel awful. I don't think we'll be going on any more trips without you, or at least not in the near future.

Now we need to go to a follow up appointment and have an ultrasound done and possibly other tests to see what might be causing this reoccurring problem. For now you are taking antibiotics and I was also told that you will keep taking antibiotics for a while to make sure it doesn't happen again, but I'll have to find out what "a while" really means.
We are of course in hopes that it's nothing serious.

On a happier note, you're growing so much. You are starting to refuse formula, not sure if it's too early to start mixing it with whole milk. You hardly ever finish your 5 or 6 oz bottle which you only get 3 times a day. Also you've gotten pretty picky with a few things that I feed you, mostly vegetables. To get you to eat them, I disguise them with kefir/yogurt and cottage cheese which you love, sometimes you totally figure out that I am tricking you and get upset, but other times I manage to get you to finish it all.

You pull up on practically everything you possibly can, and you're getting stronger and stronger on your feet. Your 3 teeth I mentioned before have come through as well. Your hair is getting super long and you're absolutely adorable.

I cannot stop taking pictures of you, because of all the wonderful moments I want to freeze in time. You are growing so fast that I sometimes wish I could just freeze time altogether. I cannot believe you are almost a year old already!

I love hats, and babies in hats

Another silly hat, and you attempting to stand on your own

Actually it was more like falling into daddy's arms after he let go

Up and down, up and down... enough energy for all!

Pre-Halloween

I decided to take pictures of you in your costume early. We actually will be coming back from our trip to Boston on Halloween night, but I am pretty sure you'll be asleep by the time we get home... so here are a few that I took of you. Happy early Halloween!
You are an adorable little bunny!

Bunny's don't sit like that, but you do!

Hop, Hop, Hop ... up the stairs

Next to your baby pumpkin

Stayed in the basket just for a second, enough for me to take a picture

In the last week you've gotten a lot stronger on your feet. You pull up on everything within your reach and stand for a long time and you've now learned how to sit your butt down gracefully too without falling backwards when you let go of whatever it is that you were holding on to. Yesterday you let go of the walker and stood there without anything holding you for about 3-4 seconds, I couldn't believe it. The activity walker that I took video of you in is no longer safe. The last few times I put you in it, the whole thing almost flipped on its side. You no longer walk around it, you run around it as fast as you can... it's so funny, and it's not really stable enough for your weight.

You're very chatty, although it's hard to make out what you're really saying. You're a real chatter box sometimes. You love your 2 little pink bears and sometimes when I give them to you, you get super excited and grab it immediately and hug it and even kiss it and then you start talking to it. Ah... so cute!

The 3 teeth which I was convinced were coming last week are still not here, haha, so I guess I was wrong... may be they'll show up while we're gone, we'll see.
We haven't left yet, and I miss you already. I really thought I would handle it much better, but it's so hard and nerve racking, it's all I can think of today. :(

Morning routine

Morning time with daddy has become quite special. You wake up sometime between 6:30 and 7:30 am and either one of us comes to get you. You have a huge grin on your face when you see us, and it's just priceless. Sometimes you're so excited we can hardly get you out of your sleep blanket. You get your bottle and watch "Wilbur" until Lada gets to our house at 8 am. Seems like it's yours and daddy's favorite show ever since he's discovered it. The main puppet is a cow by the name of Wilbur and the other puppets always find some sort of problem which they solve by reading a book. It's a cute little show and you just love it. Afterwards you read a book, just like the characters in the show. Of course when it's not on, you are just as happy watching something else like Sesame Street or Curios George. You cuddle up with daddy either in our bed or downstairs on the couch under a blanket and watch it very attentively. This of course makes it that much harder for me to leave the in morning. Here are a few pictures I took as I was leaving, I just couldn't help myself. Since you've become super mobile lately, these times when you sit still and cuddle up next to us are so rare and so special.

Watching Curious George

Close up of the 3 of you... Daddy, Sascha and the Baby Bear