11 months going on 12

As Liam and I celebrated our first Mother's Day together and as he turned 11 months old this past week, the same thing has been on my mind- I am a mother of a baby who is almost one year old.

These past 11 months have been the quickest months of my life.  Maybe it is because of this that I am having such a hard time dealing with the fact that my child is almost one year old.  Sometimes when I go into his room and he pulls out something from the closet that reminds me of his birth and younger months I get all choked up.  I am constantly going through his drawers and pulling out the clothes that no longer fit and I feel sad.  Am I the only one who struggles with this?  And why do I feel this way?  I'm thrilled that my child is thriving and growing and changing.  Each stage he enters is more exciting and interesting than the last.  I love watching him grow up, learning more about him, and building a relationship with him.

But, as I'm trying to put together a "Liam's first year" video montage, I stare at videos of a baby who could not be mine.  This is not the same baby that is sitting in front of me right now.  Things have changed so much.  He has changed so much.  And frankly, it's a little hard to deal with.

This time last year I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first child.  Now I am anxiously awaiting his first birthday party.

This past month we have seen a few more changes in our little man.  The biggest and best is that he is almost walking.  He went from pulling himself to stand to cruising around furniture in the past few months.  And all in this 11th month he started taking steps to us to now taking steps to nothing in the middle of a room.  At some point he finally figured out how to fall gracefully to the ground and plop on his bottom.  I was no longer so stressed about my baby being mobile.  But, this walking thing is a whole new stressor!  Liam will walk with us as we hold his hand(s) and he will cruise around the house with ease.  I love it when he comes up to me and grabs my legs or tugs at my pants until I give him my attention.  And anytime he takes steps on his own without holding onto anything he gets so excited.  I am so proud of him.  I anticipate that he will be walking on his own by his birthday.  These past few months he is soaring through milestones quickly but this may take longer than I expect.

Liam keeps himself quite busy.  He loves to play.  With anything.  Though he really only sticks with something for about ten minutes max before he throws it aside and gets into something else.  One thing that has been interesting to me these past few months is that he has learned what buttons to push on his toys to get things to turn off and on.  He is very expressive about what he wants or doesn't want.  He waves "hi" and "bye" when people come and go.  Though, he hasn't said the words yet.  It amazes me that little babies can know so much!

Eating
Liam's eating habits are still very much the same.



He eats whatever we eat and enjoys mostly anything.  We are seeing a third tooth (top, front) coming in.  Every new tooth makes me feel better about when he's eating because I know that his food will be chewed up more before he swallows it down.  I have noticed, though that he will sometimes refuse fruits or veggies.  We need to work on that.  We are also working on completely transitioning to a sippy cup.  Liam still gets formula in between main meals and before bed as well.

Sleeping
Our little babe is still sleeping with us most of the time, but we are working again on transitioning him out.  We have set up the pack-n-play in our room to help with the transition, starting him in that at night so he can still feel close to us.  Summer is upon us, which means more time for working with him throughout the night on sleeping in his crib and not having to wake up early for work.  This is just a start but it is going okay so far.

It would be nice for time just to stand still right now.  But, since it cannot I continue to plan for Liam's first birthday party.  I am so anxious and nervous because this will be the first party thrown at our new house.  Even though Liam won't really remember any of it I want it to be special and I want to celebrate the first year of this kids life in the best way possible.

It's almost time!