11 Months

Oh.My.Lanta... How on EARTH are you 11 months old? In less than 30 days you will be one year. ONE YEAR??? How did this happen?

My little man this last week has been HUGE for you. You are holding your hands out to be picked up, a 5th tooth sprouted in, you are saying Mama, Dada, and Baba (bottle) for the appropriate things, and most importantly you are sleeping through the night!

You poor bubba, you were sick for about a week. It was a nasty cold/virus that was seriously not fun and got the whole family. It was about 5 days of throw up and all sorts of other nastiness. I am thankful that most if it is over. It has been 3+days since you threw up on me. I am one happy mama!! The sickness really affected your eating habits and unfortunately you are still right about 19lbs which is where you were at your 9 month check up.

You are still so chatty. You talk to your food, to me, to others, to your toys, EVERYTHING. Most of it doesn't make sense, or I am still trying to figure out what you are talking about. You do say Mama for me, Dada for your daddy, Baba for you bottle (which is super fun at 4am when you are yelling BABA at the top of your lungs!), you also say Papa which is generally for papa Matty.

Since you have been sick you have surprisingly been napping super well, AND sleeping thru the night. The only exception to this is that you aren't taking a huge bottle before bed any more (only like an ounce or two) so at about 4 or 5am you wake up STARVING which cues you to yell BABA and MAMA at the top of your lungs until I make you a giant bottle. Then you will go back down for another hour or two. I am hoping that as you get better you will start drinking more before bed time.

Speaking of eating, you have about four 4-6ounce bottles a day. I know that you should be having less, but minus a morning bottle (which will be easy to break) the others are before nap time or bed time. You are eating solids for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Sometimes a snack in between. The hardest part of taking out bottles is that you do not like any sippy cups so getting you to take water is a beast. We have tried cups with flexi-straws, nuby no spill sippys, take and toss sippys, and two other kinds of sippy cups. Nothing goes. You love your bottle. I can say for certain that you will not be off a bottle at 12 months. And thats okay with me!

Lately you are having so much fun playing with toys while sitting up. You love your train with the blocks, stuffed animals, anything that makes noise and anything you can chew on. You have a wooden stacking toy that you loved to pull off the stick and then chew on the wooden blocks. You are also ALL over the place. Still army crawling all over the place (who said that only lasted a few weeks? You are going on MONTHS.) You army crawl so fast, you look like a little snake. You get up on all 4's all the time but no real crawling. You are starting to try and climb on the stairs (super fun) and you are in to everything. Up until this last week I could put you in your bouncer while I was getting ready. Not so much anymore. You almost rolled out of that thing! I can still get you to stay in your jump jump if I have to while I am making dinner, but it is almost out of commission as well. It bores you!

You are still chilling in mostly 9 month clothes. A few 6 month onesies fit if they are on the longer size. I have you in 12 month jackets because those are what we have for warm jackets and the fit but are on the large side. You are fully in 12month sleepers. You wear size 3 diapers and still fit in to the Kawaii pure and clean cloth diapers that I originally bought. You wear cloth *most* of the time at home. Not this last bit though! I would rather throw out diapers with your poo situation that  be washing it out. That is not my idea of a good time!

You are VERY into your paci these days. If I am holding it you will grab it out of my hand and stick it in your mouth. You also have about 3 or 4 pacis in bed with you that if you wake up in the middle of the night you will grab. They are probably your favorite thing. You can't nap or sleep with out one!

Well, you are waking up from your nap. I love you so much bubba!

So yeah...

So the goal was to blog more... Yeah, that didn't happen so much. Life is crazy and busy and just keeps getting busier and crazier. And I don't really have an excuse. There was time, but mostly I just didn't have anything to say. But tonight I do have something on my mind and that is...

What the heck were we thinking when we decided J should join the Navy?! And I say that because I hate being by myself. Also, I am seriously afraid of everything. And when I am by myself, who is going to be my knight in shining armor? Because do you know who hates the dark? Me. Do you know who hates spiders? Me. And do you know who has to get up in the middle of the night with a sick baby? Me.

I say all this because yes, I am scared. And I may always be scared, but that doesn't mean that I can't do this. I can do this, I can be by myself and to make it. And this is why: "This is my command -- be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9.

There is a necklace hanging in my car. Is the the verse, Joshua 1:9. It has been there since my husband gave it to me at 17 years old when we first started dating. Even back then I was afraid. And this was my reminder - God is there. He is always with me. And there is nothing to be afraid of because wherever I am going, He has already been there. I am never alone. Even in the dark.

So yes - today I am questioning why the heck I ever thought that J having a job that required him to be gone for weeks or months at a time. But I know that this is exactly where we are supposed to be. And yes there will be tears, yes there will be hard days, and yes I will get scared, but I will be fine. This is where I am supposed to be. And maybe I'll be a little less fearful in the end.