Simon: Eleven Months

Dud wanted to keep rolling over

Weight:  I don't know... he feels heavy... sometimes more than others

Height:  He feels tall to me, I'll walk with him holding my hands and I don't have to lean over as much as I used to

Medical Issues:  Nothing to report - yay!  He gets dry scalp and teething, but let's face it those are pretty minor.

Sleep:  Could be worse, could be better... which is probably what I report each and every month.  He'll get up a few times a night and we give him some bottle to calm him down, but he really doesn't take that much.  Each time we get up with him it only takes a few minutes, but it would be nice to not have to get up at all.  He's super cute falling asleep, he puts his arms/hands over his face.  I still rock him before bed and we still use the ZipadeeZip sleep sack and loving it.  He goes down pretty easy.  He takes two naps a day around 9:30 and 1:30 and bedtime around 6:30-7.  If people are around Simon wants to hang out and not go to sleep.  Overall I can't complain too much about his sleep.

Clothes/Diapers (sizes):  Size 3 diapers, and 9-12month clothes

Diet:  Simon likes food... he gets so happy after eating.  He'll eat everything and if we are eating he wants to eat too.  He gets some baby food a day but we are trying to transition to more regular food.  He loves to feed himself too - puffs, cheerios, fruit, anything we can give him small.  We feed him 3 meals a day.  He gets about 4 bottles a day to equal roughly 25oz.  Still on breast milk and will hopefully make it a full year.  Just a few more short weeks to make it through. 

Baby Gear Love:  ZipadeeZip is great.  Still love our bottles (Born Free) and the Boon Drying Lawn.  Simon loves toys, including the toy book he can open and close, Robot, caterpillar, stacking rings, sorting shapes, table toy and dude loves to spin things.  We also love LeapFrog Scout dog.

Milestones/Firsts:  We have a crawler!  That's the big news this month.  Simon is also an expert at pulling up but now he can really get anywhere he wants to go.  He will walk along furniture and can go between two pieces pretty well.  He went swimming in a real pool finally for the first time.  My dad and stepmom watched him for the first time now that he's older (they watched him as a baby but much different now).  First trip to Grant's Farm and first splash pad experience.  He also now has 3 teeth.

Likes:  Playing, crawling, the dog's kennels, remotes, phones, eating, animals,

Dislikes:  Not being able to go where he wants to go (like when he can't play with the dog's kennels b/c the dogs are in them), being hungry or tired, teething, when Dan or I walk away

Things I Don't Want to Forget:  Now that Simon has teeth on top and bottom he's started grinding them together.  Hey if I were him I'm probably do the same thing, like licking your teeth after you have braces.

We've started experiencing a little separation anxiety with Simon.  When we go somewhere and if we try to hand him off right away he'll start crying.  He gets a little shy in the beginning with people that aren't Dan and me (and luckily the sitter).  He does warm up pretty quickly especially if Dan and I are staying.  If Dan and I are leaving I've heard he does cry for awhile after we leave, but eventually calms down and has fun.

Dan is so great with Simon - playing with him, showing him things, everything.  Dan's nicknames for Simon are Ding Dong and Baby Baba (sometimes saying the phrase goochy goochy baby baba)

Simon can say mama and dada.  I hear mama more when he's upset whereas he babbles dada.  Speaking of his babbling... so cute!  We had him around a baby about a month older than Simon and they baby talked together.

I love Simon's laugh.  He's ticklish so that's fun, but he'll also laugh at us sometimes.  He also loves it when we blow raspberries on his belly.

Simon loves to play with our faces.  Grab our nose, mouth, ears... I swear he's going to scratch my eye someday.  He also gave me a canker sore this way by scratching the inside of my mouth.

Simon likes to throw his toys.  Such fun! (sigh)  He also likes to drop things on purpose and throw things out of his play pen when he's in there.  He also likes to climb (over us, around us, try to get on furniture).

Like I mentioned above it does take a little time for Simon to warm up to a new situation or people.  He comes around, but I think he is starting to get a little shy.  For instance my sister (who he sees all the time) comes over and after his nap he will cuddle with me b/c he's nervous (or whatever).  It is fun to get cuddles from him because he constantly wants to be on the move these days.  

Simon loves to kicking and move all over at diaper change time.  It makes the diaper change pretty tough at times.  He'll also try to grab his dirty diaper or uncleaned butt... yuck.

Simon loves to be standing and pulls himself up with ease.  Of course getting up is just half the battle because he hasn't quite figured out how to get himself down yet.  He'll start to fuss and cry like "what do I do?"  Sometimes he knows he can just plop himself down, but mostly he hasn't quite figured that part out yet.

Simon wants to put his mouth on everything.  He will even bring his mouth to the object if the object can't make it to his mouth.  The other night it looked like he was giving Scout dog mouth-to-mouth.  Werido.

We hear from a lot of people just how easy of a baby Simon is... and he really really is.  We are so lucky to have him in our lives.