10 Months and 11

Avery took this one for me!

Jack-Jack,

At 10 months (plus some), you are the biggest mischief-maker ever. You always have something in your mouth that you shouldn't. We are constantly fishing those items out of your mouth, and we've had a couple choking scares. I feel like I need to follow you constantly, and we've taken to putting you in the pack-n-play when we are working or playing outside, or in the walker, just so that you won't eat something. You adore emptying the tupperware and kid dishes out of the bottom cabinets, and banging on the pots and pans in the play kitchen is another favorite past-time. Our phones are fascinating to you, you reset the tv remote and now it won't work, and we've lost a few phone chargers and headphones because you gnawed on them.

You are now up to seven teeth, which makes your face look so much older.

You have separation anxiety in the nursery at church.

You eat anything we put in front of you. Yogurt, fruits, mum-mums, puffs, squash, sweet potatoes, and eggs are some favorites.

You started pointing last week (that I actually took notice of), and you started clapping two weeks ago.

You love to play the piano and we often hear a soft tap-tap-tap coming from the piano keys as you stretch on your tip-toes to reach.

You follow the girls around the house, trying to keep up with their games. They are sweet and try to include you as much as they can, but they are quick and run off a lot.

You like to move the stools and chairs around, but the felt pads keep falling off the legs, so this is a very noisy activity.

You like to stand and watch the clothes spin around in the dryer.

**TMI alert** You discovered your penis in the bath a few weeks ago, smiled, and then promptly pooped in the tub. Since then, every diaper change is a battle with your hands to keep them out of the way, and at one point, I ended up with poop on the floor and poop on me because of your gravitational pull towards that area now. I will never understand boys.

You are generally sleeping through the night, but you were sick again this month a couple times, so that messed with it. We are trying to get you back to your normal schedule of sleeping til 4 or 5, waking to nurse, and then back down til 7ish.

And...at 11 months:

You have 8 teeth.

You are a bad sleeper again, and a few times this month you have been up and down multiple times at night, with one night where you screamed for hours before finally conking out around 2 am. I was such a prideful mom when Avery was a baby, but now, after you and Eleanor, I understand that some kids just aren't great sleepers.

You are eating many more finger foods now. You love strips of toast with fruit puree or a teensy bit of jam. Sweet potatoes, bananas, noodles, peas, zucchini, carrots, winter squash, puffs, mum-mums, scrambled eggs, beans of all kinds, pulled pork bbq, broccoli, pears, cooked apples are all things you've fed yourself, plus you scarf yogurt and fruit or oatmeal and fruit. You eat just about anything I put in front of you, but I feel bad because I'm not very inventive. I do experiment with herbs and spices to help expand your palate, but it's usually always on roasted or steamed veggies of some sort.

You have developed a new cry where you insert some screaming in. This is not my favorite.

I've been keeping you out of the nursery at church the past few weeks to hopefully avoid more illness. You had your first ear infection and round of antibiotics.

You nurse 4-5 times a day still.

You are learning how to use a straw sippy cup, but you mostly just like to chew on it and shake the cup around.

You are STILL into everything.

You discovered toilet paper and the toilet.

Your big skills this month are walking behind a walker or the toy shopping cart! You cruise all over the house pushing those toys. You are definitely motor-oriented like Eleanor, and words are not on your radar at all besides the occasional Mama.

You consistently wake up happy (unless it's the middle of the night), talking to yourself until we come get you, or until you start yelling because we've ignored you too long.

When you are tired, you put your thumb in your mouth and tuck your other hand under your chin. This is still my favorite of your mannerisms.

Bath time always brings a smile to your face, and you like to play with the faucet and use it to pull up on.

I thought you might like balls or cars, but you tend to ignore those in favor of toys with faces (a stuffed panda bear in particular, plus Little People), and all of the play kitchen toys. You like toys and objects with handles. Magformers are a favorite as well as Lincoln Logs, though you have no idea how they are supposed to work.

You chew on puzzle pieces anytime you can get your hands on them.

You gravitate towards my houseplant, so that moved outside and is now dead.

I cannot get through most nights without having to change your sheets and your clothes in the middle of the night - this might be the cause for all of the night waking, but I'm not sure how to fix this.

I still love our cloth diapers, but I'm frequently behind on laundry, so you are more often than not in disposable. Your daddy hates the cloth diapers now, so I tend to only use them on home days when he's not around.

You mimic our silly moves, like shaking our head, playing peek-a-boo, leaning one direction or another, clapping, pointing....

You LOVE when Daddy gets home from work and race towards him. If he walks past you just to put his keys down or take off his shoes, you start crying instantly.

You also love when Avery hops in the car after school. She talks to you on the way home and tries to make you laugh.

In less than a month, we'll be celebrating your big ONE YEAR OLD self. We love you to pieces, Jack-man!