The Winters' World: 11!

Whoa, can you hear the excitement in my typing voice as I exclaim that our baby boy is 11-months old?!

First, the necessary Mr. Bear picture, so that we can document his growth:

Wait, where did Mr. Bear go?! Pretty futile to try and get a still shot of him these days :-)

Second, a guesstimate on his current stats:

Weight: 24 or so lbs.

Height: 30-ish inches

Moods: All over the place, as seen below!

Teething, separation problems, and GROWING have given our little guy a fit lately, but that deserves a separate post. Here is Jameston talking it over with his stuffed, furry friend after his melt-down...

Phew, now we have regained composure and he is all better!

LOVE that under-bite, toothy smile of his!

More pics from this month:

Our little sombrero (we bought in Abilene) hijo

Marlie-bear helping JW clean up after dinner one night

Cruisin' in his car seat during one of our many recent road-trips

At this age, Jameston loves:

Reading! He can't get enough, and he often shows us his literary love by us playing 52-book pick up in his nursery :-) His current favorites are Dr. Seuss' Book of Wonderful Noises and The Big Red Barn
Handles, drawers, cabinets and anything else he can open and close..he could sit in front of his dresser and play all day!
Those soft rings, although we are going to have to start shopping for "big boy" toys very soon since someone has a 1st birthday coming up!

Helping Mommy, whether it is fun stuff like turning the light switches on and off, or with boring household chores. Here he assisting with the dishes,

and folding the laundry!

He's a huge help these days (wink, wink :-)

Shaking anything that makes noise, like his puffs containers, and DANCING to music...any kind of music. We need to buy him some musical instruments/toys stat!
Shadows: he is fascinated by them!

At 11-months old, Jameston's newest milestones include:

Pulling up on all things his size

Standing while supported for long periods of time...although, this boy shows little desire to stand, much more, walk anytime soon!
He'd much rather crawl, and he has perfected his technique! You'd better watch out: he's fast (and vigorous, too, as seen by the bruises he gets on his poor little knees :-(

He just recently started pointing, reaching, and waving (TOO cute)!
He "talks" in his own little way, with longer strings of babbling. Can't wait to be able to understand what he's trying to tell us!
His said his FIRST word on Saturday: Dada! He's been babbling this (along with many others) but he now knows what it means. We hope to get it on video soon!

He knows cause and effect...we think he's a genius already (don't most parents think that of their kiddos?), but this development is a blast to observe! Brett and I will glance at each other as we watch him figure things out on his own. And it's only going to get better!
Jameston is still eating great and sleeping good. He usually goes to bed for the night between 7:30 and 8:30 and sleeps until 6 or so (waking up a time or two during that span but going back to sleep on his own). He has been napping A LOT the past few days, and we think it is due to a growth spurt.
His fave foods right now are cottage cheese, blueberries, bananas, cheddar, beans, and graham crackers. He tried lots of first this past month: fish, mashed potatoes, rice, kidney beans, kiwi, raspberries, and noodles. Good times!

I am still nursing almost exclusively, with an occasional formula bottle at night (due to a slowing on my part). And he may wean himself from the bottle on his own. At daycare they moved him up to the toddler classroom yesterday, because of his size and activity level, and when he saw the older kiddos drinking milk from their sippy cups, he did not want his bottle. So, they switched the breastmilk over to his little sippy bottle, and he drank from it like he's been doing so all along! So, we hope he will be ready to wean in 3 weeks or so, when I am thinking I will stop nursing.
He now has a whopping 8 teeth with the recent addition of his top laterals! Daddy thinks that development is in need of a celebration with JW trying some steak for the first time :-) To alleviate the teething problems, we tried to give him some celery to chomp on (thanks to a rec from a fellow mommy-friend)...

He didn't really know what to make of the celery

So he's found his own ways to soothe the gum pain...ha!

At this age we want to remember these things about JW:

His CA-UTE little underbite that he reveals often
Our little boy can flip a switch in no time flat...although we are not enjoying the occasional temper-tantrums when he doesn't get something he wants and he is learning the words "No sir," and, "Not for Jameston," his facial expressions are priceless (and sometimes we have to hide our reactions)!
His belly laughs! THE BEST!