11 Months Old

I ask this all the time, but where has this year gone? In one month, Jacob will have celebrated his one year birthday! He is having a grand old time this summer. We go on a lot of outings, and he is learning more and more each week. He really impresses us with the things he can figure out for himself.

What does he do all day, you ask? His favorite thing to do is walk. He walks along furniture, along walls, and most importantly, holding on to one or both of a grown up's hands. Even though he takes some steps on his own, he still prefers to hold on or crawl. When he does take a few steps though, he gets a huge smile on his face. He knows that he's doing something impressive! He also loves to play with his toys. It's fun to see him get more involved with his playing, instead of just chewing on them. What else...he LOVES his books. We read to him, but he recently learned how to turn pages, so he will often sit and just turn pages in his books for several minutes at a time. His favorite book is "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?"

Our biggest accomplishment in the past month is SLEEP! He finally takes naps in his crib, after 10 months of needing to be held. Not only that, but he suddenly takes predictable naps. I can expect when he will start to get tired. I don't know where he learned this from, because he seemed to enjoy keeping us on our toes. Night sleep is greatly improved, too. He still doesn't sleep all the way through, but he consistently gives me a 4-5 hour chunk during the night. I think we're making great strides toward sleeping all night. To put it in perspective, 6 weeks ago he was still waking up 5+ times per night. I suspect he still wakes up, but is getting better at putting himself back to sleep. He has been learning so many new things lately, and all the "experts" say that babies wake up more often when they're hitting milestones.

We are so proud of our big little boy. He makes us laugh, and he makes himself laugh. We love the little personality that he is starting to show...although we also know that he is going to test us with his tenacious ways. Start the countdown: 30 days until Jacob turns one!

Mmmm...I love my puppy!