James at 11 Months

I’m a little late with this update and cannot believe James turns one THIS month.  I’m honestly trying not to think about it too much and to just enjoy the month, as I tend to get overly sentimental.  Still, things are changing rapidly as James takes his first steps and I look at going back to work part-time.  It definitely feels like this very special year is coming to a close in a very real way.

Okay, before I get too sappy, on to the update!

Eating

James eats all the things.  He normally eats what we’re eating for dinner now, which makes things so much easier.  We offered him a few bites of ice cream on vacation and he was fine with it, but made it clear he’d rather eat his peas.  Who is this kid?

He did however love the homemade pizza we made last week, and really loves mashed potatoes.  He also continues to love yogurt, fruit, and anything someone else is eating.  He literally begged on his knees for a bite of a granola bar my sister was eating when she was here…five minutes after finishing a big breakfast.

My favorite development with his eating has been his desire to share.  He holds out tiny bites of food to me and, even though his hand is covered in unidentifiable food residue, I think it is the sweetest thing.  Sometimes if it is a bite of something really good though, he takes it back at the last second haha.

Sleep

I don’t want to jinx anything, but sleep has been so good!  Before our vacation, he had been frequently waking up at 5:30 or so for the day.  For some reason, ever since we got back two weeks ago, he’s often been sleeping until 7 or later.  Apparently he decided to stay on East Coast time and I am not complaining.  (Right now it’s 7:30 and he’s still sleeping…I literally never thought that would happen.)

I’ve also woken up a couple of mornings and all was quiet, but when I looked at the monitor he was silently walking the perimeter of his bed.  Works for me little man!

The only negative with sleep is that he has hit the clingy stage and sometimes cries when it’s time to go to bed now.  It generally doesn’t go on too long though, I just hate to hear him crying!

Physical Development

The biggest change has been James has started taking his first steps!  This happened last week, so just after he turned 11 months.  I would not say he’s walking, but he is taking a few steps at a time and is very close.  Right now, it is more of a mad dash between two things so that he can make it there before gravity catches up.

He is also standing for long periods of time – he likes to stand while we read books these days.  And a smaller, but one of my favorite physical developments – he is waving!  Something about this is just way too cute for me to handle.  He stood at the door waving for the longest time when my sister and her fiance left last week.  It melts my heart.

He has also started climbing things, which is interesting.  I was sweeping the floor after lunch the other day and looked over to see him sitting on the couch…holding the remote control no less.

Seeing him climb the furniture with no regard for safety is a little scary, but still fun to watch him exploring the world in a new way.

Personality

He is the sweetest.  Clearly I’m not biased at all, not even a little bit 🙂

He has become more clingy this month, but I honestly don’t mind.  He is normally so independent and on the go, I will soak up every long hug and slobbery baby kiss he gives me during this stage and will hold him in my lap all day long if he wants.  I of course still encourage him to be independent, but I am loving this time when he wants his Mama.

He also has a serious love of games…or what passes for a game at this age.  He of course loves peekaboo and also loves any other silly little game we come up with around here.  He gives the best belly laughs.

He has become fascinated with taking things in and out of containers.

He loves the splash pad, the beach, exploring, and READING.  He will seriously sit and listen to books for the longest time, which is funny because he is otherwise never still.  I’m very excited about this as I love to read and really look forward to reading him some of my childhood favorites as he grows.

I’m going to try not to become overly sentimental this  month as his birthday approaches.  I want to look back and reflect and remember this first year, but I also don’t want to waste too much time thinking about the past.  I want to truly be present and enjoy each day with the little buddy as he continues to change and grow.

Does anyone have a birthday this month?  (Apparently, it’s the most common birthday month in the US.)

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Five Years Together

5 years of marriage, 4 homes, 3 new jobs, 2 cross-country moves, and 1 baby later….

As I mentioned briefly last week, my husband and I just celebrated our five year wedding anniversary.  I cannot believe it has been five years and so much has changed.

I have the best memories from our wedding, obviously because I got to marry my best friend, but also because our families and friends are spread out across the country and it was so special to have all of the people we love together.

Both my sister and brother are engaged right now and I cannot wait to celebrate with them soon!

I spent some time looking through our wedding pictures and wanted to share a few of my favorites.  All were taken by Jennifer McCarty, whom we absolutely loved.

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September Goals

As one of my favorite authors, Gretchen Ruben, says, “September is the other January.”

While it still feels like summer here in Texas, something about seeing school buses on the roads and pumpkin recipes popping up online makes it feel like a good time for new goals.

This month I’m hoping to:

  1. Set an alarm clock – For many, many months, I was up by five or so, no alarm clock needed.  James would wake up to eat between 4-5 and go back to sleep and I would get up for the day.  This was pretty exhausting, but I also really enjoyed the time to myself at the start of the day.  Now that he’s sleeping later, I’ve been sleeping later too.  It felt so great to catch up on sleep, but I feel like I’m falling behind on everything else (including blogging!)  I plan to set an alarm for 5:30 Monday through Thursday.  I’m a total morning person and super unproductive in the evenings, so I will get more done this way than by trying to get things done at night.
  2. Run twice a week – I think I mentioned I signed up to run a half marathon with my little brother.  It’s not until February, so I don’t need to start an actual training plan for a while, but I would like to gradually build up to running slightly longer distances.  Because of my foot injury, I don’t want to push it and risk injury, but hope to run twice a week.  I’ll likely do one stroller run with James and one longer run by myself on the weekend.
  3. Finish Jame’s Baby Book I’ve been making James’s baby book on Shutterfly throughout the year.  I’m super uncrafty so this has been a much better option for me than an actual scrapbook.  I update it every month, but I want to go through and edit it so that it’s ready to order.  I’ve included about a million pictures so it’s going to be pretty expensive, but Shutterfly often has crazy sales.  I want to have it ready so that I can purchase it when there’s a 50-60% off sale.
  4. Plan Backyard Updates I’ve been enjoying playing in the backyard with James SO much lately.  Most of our birthday presents for him are backyard-focused.  However, I would like to make some changes to make our outside time even more enjoyable.  Both houses we rented in Maine had beautiful yards with nice, soft grass.  I don’t know what is up with our grass, but our yard feels very scratchy.  I have no clue about anything yard related, so I want to take some time to research what would be involved with improving our yard / getting a different type of grass planted.

And that is all!  I know it’s going to be a busy month with James’s birthday and visits from family so I want to keep it simple.

What are your goals for the month?

Does it feel like Fall yet where you live?

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Such a Strange Week

This last week was a weird one.  I grew up in Houston and my family still lives there and it has been strange hearing about and seeing pictures of the insane flooding and damage.

It often floods in Houston and it is not unusual to hear over the top weather predictions on the news.  They are usually much exaggerated or the flooding winds up happening elsewhere, so this took me by surprise.

I am so, so thankful that family and their houses are totally fine.  We were so lucky.  My heart goes out to all of those who were less fortunate and honestly, my stomach drops when I think about the next time I drive to Houston and seeing all of the damage in person.

This article outlines some ways to help.  A silver lining has definitely been seeing how the community has come together to help the people most impacted by the hurricane.

On the plus side, my sister and fiance stayed with all week and it was so much fun to have them here.  They are getting married in December and looking forward to having their own little ones, so it was really fun to see them interact with baby James.  We had a great time, though it felt a little weird enjoying the beautiful spring-like weather when we knew it was a result of such devastating circumstances.

They also babysat for us one night so we could go out and celebrate our FIVE year wedding anniversary, which is so hard for me to believe.  I want to share some of our wedding pictures, but I have no idea where on my computer they are, so I have to wait until my IT guy (i.e., my husband) can help me find them 🙂

This is a bit of a random, rambling post, but I wanted to stop in and say hi before hopefully resuming more regular posting next week.

I hope you have a wonderful, safe weekend and spend some time hugging your family and enjoying all of the beautiful things in life that it’s so easy to forget to be grateful for.

P.S. If you’re looking for something more substantive to read, please stop by and read my recent article on Motherly!

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