Levi: 11 Months

This sweet boy is 11 months old!

This is the best I could get with the bear:

Because this is all he wanted to do:

Kick, kick, kick!

He's had a big month. Lots of first. Lots of milestones.

He went on his first plane ride/first vacation/first trip to Disney World.

On the plane.

His third tooth popped through last week. Top right. The left one isn't far behind.

And I've started weaning him from breastfeeding. It dawned on me a couple weeks ago that if I want to be done breastfeeding at a year, I only have a month to go and better start working on that! I had been nursing him every 3-4 hours around the clock, so I wasn't sure how well he'd do with the transition. But it has gone much better than I expected. At first, I just tried to stretch his feedings to 5 hours or longer if he could handle it. I've been much more intentional about feeding him 3 real meals a day and a couple snacks. As of the past couple of days, we're down to nursing early in the morning (like 5 or 6 and then he goes back to sleep), after lunch around 12:30 or 1, and in the evening between 6 and 8. It hasn't been too hard on me physically, and Levi doesn't seem to mind either. But I'm still nursing him between 11 and 12 at night, too. He occasionally wakes up around 3 and fusses for a little while, but almost always goes to sleep with his Binky instead of nursing again. So that's progress! But I'm going to have to do CIO for that 11:00 feeding, and I'm such a wuss that I keep putting it off.

He definitely says, "hi." I'm calling that his second word. It's usually accompanied by a wave and is super adorable.

He shakes his head no - partly just for fun. It makes him laugh. But I do think he sometimes does it for "no" - especially with food he doesn't want.

He's semi-picky about food. I have the hardest time with breakfast foods. He doesn't like pancakes, waffles, or cereal - they all just go straight on the floor. He does like scrambled eggs, but I get sick of making that every day. He loves blueberries. I'm pretty sure he could eat a whole container every day if I let him. He doesn't really like bananas because they're too slimy. And most other cut fruit is too slippery for him to pick up. He eats peas, and I do my best to sneak veggie purees into a lot of his other meals. For now, he's still eating a lot of "squeezies" to get his nutrients. And I'm constantly paranoid that he's hungry due to the reduced nursing sessions, so I'm always trying to feed him something. Haha.

He's making progress with the sippy cup. He'll still only use a straw cup, but he really sucks it down now.

I do think he's been puking a little more than usual lately. Not sure if that's from table food or apple juice or what.

I weighed him a few days ago, and according to my scale he's 19 pounds. 20 lbs by a year? Haha. We'll see.

He still takes about 3 naps a day. The evening one is hit or miss. And they usually only last for an hour each. At night, he generally sleeps from 8 to 11ish, nurses, then goes back to sleep 'til 5ish. Up for the day around 7.

He still does not move - other than pivoting on his buns in a seated position. If he's on the wood floor, he can kind of scooch himself around on his buns. But for the most part, he stays where I put him. That said, he's very interested in walking. He suddenly loves to be walked around by holding someone's hands. He giggles and grins the whole time and gets mad when you stop. We've been practicing standing unassisted, but he's ridiculously wobbly and top-heavy. He tips forward every time. Lol. #bigheadedbaby

You might want to turn your volume down for this video. Lena was speaking gibberish directly over my shoulder:

He loves books. He points at the pictures and tries to feel every page because I primarily read "touch and feel" books to him. Haha.

He has a ridiculous mullet that I am afraid to cut. And the hair that hangs over his ears is almost to his earlobes now. Lol.

He plays so nicely by himself. I don't know if that's a boy thing or a third-born thing or a personality thing, but I don't remember the girls entertaining themselves so well at this age (or any age since then . . .). Most of the time, I can plop him on the floor with some toys and he will play without a fuss. I've been working on this entry for almost 40 minutes and he's been sitting here playing the whole time.

One of his favorite things to do is drive cars. He makes a "vrooming" noise and frequently rolls them over his belly - because that is something I always do when I play cars with him. Haha. It's adorable.

He loves his sisters despite their incessant mauling:

Here's one more video of a few of his tricks while we were in Florida.

Well that's the last monthly update. The next one will be his first year update!! We will be celebrating his birthday on the 28th during non-leap-years. He was born in February. We're not pushing it to March. The 28th it is. :-)