11 months

This month's photo shoot was by far the most difficult! This is the  best I could get.

What a fun month we've had. This kid's personality comes through more and more every day. He's so playful and fun, with a little snuggle bunny thrown in when he's tired (but only when he's tired, and only sometimes).

Isaac is still fitting into some of his 9 month clothes. Almost all of his fall clothes are 12 month, and I'm finding that there is a huge size difference between 9 month and 12 month. He'll just have to grow into his fall clothes. He's as heavy as a load of bricks, but is really a little guy still. He's still wearing size 4 diapers, and is now in a size 4 shoe.

This month was full of firsts: first trip to the beach, first sleepover with grandparents, first time swinging at the park...

Isaac is walking! At the beginning of the month he would barely let go of the furniture and stand by himself. When we came back from vacation I started noticing him standing by himself a lot more. On September 19 he took his first steps, but it was more like step-lean-fall into mommy's arms. Just a few days later he was up to 3-4 steps at a time, and now he can walk all the way across a room. It's so strange to look up and see him walking across the room.

He has pretty much given up toys in favor of cruising around the ottoman, randomly walking around, and chasing the cats. His favorite "toys" right now are my keys, cell phone, wireless computer mouse (as seen in his 11 month picture), and the remote control.

Isaac had a language explosion this month. I was so worried about his lack of babbling and only using the "g" sound (ga, gee) but he has added so many more sounds, I'm not worried a bit anymore. His favorite phrase sounds like "daddy" (da-DEE) but he doesn't associate it with Rodney yet. 

He is still taking 2 naps a day, but he is starting to fight them, and I'm lucky if one of them is 1.5 hours. He still needs them both, though, and I'm not ready for him to move to one nap either. It also takes him much longer to fall asleep at night, so I'm not sure if this is just a phase, or if he is ready for a slighter later bedtime. He currently naps at 9, 1:45-2:00, and goes to bed around 7:30.

Isaac got one new tooth this month, his top left lateral incisor. That brings his grand total of teeth to 3, but he also has 3 more coming in on the top. He's going to have a mouthful of teeth in a couple of weeks!

I recently made the decision to cut out all paci usage when he's awake. When he was very young, he only used it for sleeping, but the older he has gotten the more attached he has become. I'm still undecided when we'll cut it out from sleeping, but I knew I had to start breaking some of the attachment now. It has been very easy, as long as I keep all pacis out of his sight. If he sees one, he will find a way to get it. On the second day of no daytime paci, we were playing in his room and he crawled over to his crib and pulled up. He saw his paci inside, reached his arm in, and pulled it out. What a sneaky little boy.

Aside from teething pain, Isaac is such a happy boy. Our days are spent laughing and playing. He loves being pushed around in a shopping cart, jabbering away as he people-watches. We are so blessed to have this sweet boy in our lives.