The Niederhauser Chronicles: 11 Months

This month I have a lot less pictures since half the month we were in Utah and I took plenty of pictures then. It has been a pretty fun month and I can't believe the next post will be him at a year. We've had a lot of changes and developments this month...one being in the area of SLEEP!! He sleeps through the night now. Hallelujah! The end of our vacation and getting back he was waking up like every 2 hours and I was DYING. So in the middle of the night I searched again online for ideas or support and came across Sleep Sense and it sounded good and the little bit I read resonated with me a bit and I bought it right then and there. A couple days later I just decided to not nurse him at night. I thought it was going to be a nightmare. But I followed her very basic instructions that answered all my concerns and questions that hadn't been answered by anyone else in books, online or in person. And to make a long story short, I was AMAZED at how good he was doing after just a couple of nights. And for the last couple of weeks he has practically jumped out of my arms into bed at night. No crying (very rarely, but it doesn't last long) and he doesn't wake up in the middle of the night - if he does he falls back asleep pretty quick. I still can find things to complain about, though - he wakes up SUPER early. Like usually between 5-6 and I haven't been able to break him of that habit yet. And naps are still really hard and he fights them like no other. But I will take what huge progress we have made! This is one of my favorite sleep pictures of his ever. And that says a lot - you know how I love pics of him sleeping.

I've started giving him little bits of whole milk. He doesn't show any interest in being done with nursing. People keep asking at work how long I'm going to (like my boss) and I got the sense that maybe I was wearing out the luxury of being able to do that for 40 minutes of the day. But I'm not going to cut him off just yet. We'll slowly work on it I guess.

I started letting him use utensils. He LOVES doing it by himself. It's made for some interesting meal times. He does still let me feed him and he uses his hands plenty.

Some of the things he's learned or started doing this month
Climbing stairs
Hitting himself in the head. Weird.
He loves throwing stuff. Balls, food, anything. He throws stuff in the kitchen, like the magnets off the fridge and then chases them around and keeps throwing them. Funny.
He has started taking things and dumping them in any new receptacle. Like any of his toys in his bedroom garbage can. Stuff from the pantry in the kitchen garbage can. I found a bottle of pink sprinkles in Tanner's sock drawer the other day. One day we had him at the day care at the gym and when I picked him up he only had one shoe. So we started wandering around looking for it and they said he had been playing by the toy kitchen a lot, and so I opened the oven door and there was his one shoe. So funny to me. Until he puts my keys in some random place...
He likes driving cars around on the floor now. He makes a sound that I guess is kind of like "vroom".
He has a toy airplane that if I fly it around and make a flying sound (?) he copies me in action and sound. That's a fun thing - when he will kind of copy sounds and actions.
Tanner has been working on him saying "mama". He usually says something that sounds kind of like "ruh-ruh" when he says to say it. (Although he has just recently figured out the mamama sound - but he doesn't say it when we tell him to). But he keeps saying "uh-uh" when he drops stuff on the ground and I'm pretty sure he knows he's saying "uh-oh".
He still HATES getting changed - diaper and clothes. I'd say 80-90% of the time he cries when we lay him down. Maybe a little more than half of the time the crying lasts the whole time. But he is more cooperative with putting arms in sleeves of shirts and jackets and knowing he needs to switch hands if he's holding toys, etc. I know - that's a REALLY boring, dumb tidbit, but I just think it's so cool the little things he figures out and watching him LEARN!
He still hasn't shown much interest in walking. He's awesome at cruising and walking with his walking toys, etc, just doesn't want to stand up by himself or take steps. I think it's close though. I thought I wanted him to be walking so early, but I'm happy he's not still. It makes him still seem like a little baby :)
He'll be crawling around and if something excites him in any way he goes into "turbo" mode and it's the cutest thing ever.
He loves playing catch with balls.
He loves anything that shakes.
He has started putting phones, calculators or tv remotes up to his ear. It's so cute.

That was a little different format than my last posts. Oh well. Here's some more random pictures.

This was right after we got our Christmas in the mail from sending it from Utah. He had just woken up and wasn't sure about the reuniting with Dusty. He loves it now again though!