Wes Wild: 11 Months Old

Wes! You are almost 1 year old!! I can't believe you are 11 months old now!

You continue to grow like a weed and you are so smart. We put up a baby gate between the living room and the kitchen when you started crawling, and the gate has a pet door in it for the cats. Well, this month you learned how to crawl through the pet door - haha!! So we had to zip tie it closed! You were so sad when you saw it was stuck closed and you couldn't sneak through anymore.

You are now eating all solid foods at school and at home. You are a great eater and like everything. With your sisters, I did baby food for much longer, but you are ready to start eating actual food so that's what we're doing. You never really liked being fed with a spoon - you'd rather do it yourself. One of your favorite places to eat at is Chipotle because you love the rice and beans!

Another difference between you and your sisters is in how you play. You are very easily occupied playing by yourself with your toys. Sometimes, you'll wander down the hallway into your room and just play with your toys by yourself. We love that you can be self entertained sometimes! You like to study your toys and really seem curious about how they work. You also do this with things around the house like the baby gate or knobs on a cabinet - you can see your brain working trying to figure everything out!

You hate it when your sisters go in their room to play without you and close the door. You bang on their door until they finally let you in.

We just love you so much, little man! Now it's time to start planning your first birthday party! :)

Elle Evergreen: 10 & 11 months old

Elly belly! Your tenth and eleventh months were so fun and festive with the holidays in full swing. Here are some highlights:



At ten months old, you were standing up all the time (but still holding onto things for support). You learned how to shake your head "no." You also started

When you got upset and started to cry, you started screaming these loud screams, like a Pterodactyl! We got you a sleep sack around this time because it started to get cold at night, and you loved it! Even today (at almost 18 months old), you can't sleep unless you're zipped up in your sleep sack.

You continued to make fart noises with your mouth by sticking your tongue out and blowing. You loved to do it when you were riding in your car seat, which meant many times you were completely covered in spit by the time we got to where we were going.



At eleven months, you continued to LOVE solid food. In fact, when Wren was eating in her chair and you weren't, you would crawl over to Wren's chair, pull yourself up on it and try to steal her food off of her tray! You loved eggs (scrambled, fried or boiled), bananas, crackers, black beans, cheese, apple sauce, yogurt and oatmeal. You didn't love meat, but would sometimes eat it if it was the only option, and you didn't love a variety of fruits - not even strawberries, even though we kept (and keep) trying to get you to like them.

You loved bath time at eleven months, and you were really crazy in the bath! I couldn't take my eyes off of you. You would try to crawl, stand, and even swim! It was super nerve wracking making sure you didn't slip and go under!

You celebrated your first Christmas at eleven months, and you loved it. Your favorite toy was probably the ride-on cow toy. Your legs were too short to ride on it at first, but you used it as a walker to walk all over the house, which you loved!

Then we rang in 2016 with a bunch of silly family pictures, which you seemed a little confused about. What can I say, we love a good photo booth!

You loved walking anywhere with assistance at this stage. You even loved pushing Wren in her wagon.

We had a crazy snow storm during your eleventh month, and we were stuck inside the house for days! Daddy had to shovel a mountain of snow off our driveway, and we took you out to see if you liked it - NOPE! ;)

You were just so cute and so pretty at this age, like a little baby doll! It's so much fun watching you grow!

Wren Winter: 11 months old

My little Wren bird, your 11th month was a big month for you! You perfected your crawling, and starting speeding around the house on all fours, you learned how to play peek-a-boo (which is the cutest thing ever!) and you learned how to pick up food and put it in your mouth!

Daddy is the one who taught you how to pick up your own food. We had been trying for weeks, putting food on your tray for you to eat but you never wanted to pick it up - you'd just brush it off onto the floor. Then one day, Daddy tried putting just one piece of food at a time in front of you and showing you how to pick it up and put it in your mouth, and you caught on right away! We clapped and cheered, and you looked so proud putting your puffs into your mouth one by one. When you were done eating, we took you to the park and you decided to practice some more by putting a handful of bark into your mouth - haha! You probably wondered why we didn't clap and cheer for that. ;)

Another new thing you started during your 11th month is dancing to music. We noticed it when we were riding in the car and you were in your car seat. When a song came on that you liked, you would bob your head to the music. Then you started doing it anytime you heard music - in the grocery store, on a TV commercial. I caught it on video here. SO CUTE!

You are still such a good sleeper and sleep from around 8pm to 8am every night. I have tried to get you hooked on a "lovey" by putting different teddy bears, sock monkeys, etc into bed with you at night and showing you how to snuggle them, but you have no interest in it. The second that I leave the room, you grab the bear by the arm, stand up on your tippy toes and toss it out of the crib. Oh well, I tried. ;)

A few other highlights from the month: You started standing by yourself for short periods of time (with your arms down, neck out, and a giant smile on your face). You learned how to do a duck face (kissy face) on command. You loved putting your hands above your head for no real reason (raising the roof, maybe?). You started laying down on your belly in the bathtub and kicking your legs like a little fish. Daddy helped you overcome your fear of the swings at the playground. We took you to an apple orchard and let you play in the pumpkins. You got your first pair of Freshly Picked moccs (a milestone in every baby's life, right??). You got to celebrate your big sister's 7th birthday with her at the North Carolina Zoo. You continued to be a fantastic eater - zucchini bread, bananas, apple sauce and mashed potatoes are some of your favorites. Your personality continued to show more and more this month - you are silly and sweet most of the time, but get very stubborn and short tempered when you're sleepy.

Oh baby bird, we love you SO much, no matter your mood! Happy 11 month birthday - May all your days be happy ones!