11 Months

The count down to Max's first birthday is almost complete. Each month brings so many new things for us and for our little mister I can barely keep up with them all. First of all, this kid can make me laugh harder than anyone. I'm not sure where this little comedian came from, but he likes to play tricks on me. His latest routine: when I'm putting him night-night he pretends to fall asleep right when I lay him in his crib, but after a few seconds he'll spit out his pacifier, point at me (like, "gotcha!") and laugh. I always act really surprised and say "Ohhhh, I thought you were night-night!" And then he laughs a full-on belly laugh like its the most hilarious thing ever. Which, of course, makes me laugh like its the most hilarious thing ever. He'll put the paci back in his mouth and repeat the same skit over and over about 15 times before deciding he's run the joke into the ground. I don't even care that it delays bedtime by about 20 minutes. When I finally turn off his light and shut the door after the very last "night-night" I hear him sigh with contentment after all the giggling. That simple little sound makes me feel like everything is right with the world.

Other milestones this month...

He's very into feeding himself and tries to use a spoon when he eats applesauce or yogurt. He usually shakes his head "no" if I try to feed him which makes mealtime much longer and MUCH messier, but I like that he wants to try to do things himself.

Also, he blows kisses, which is quite possibly the sweetest thing I've ever seen. And he tries to repeat just about any word you ask him to if he's in the right mood. His favorite words/phrases right now are "owl. who-who" and "car-car". Which reminds me...this boy loves cars. He'd watch them pass in front of our house from the living room window all day long if he could. And when he pushes his toy cars around on the floor he always makes a motor sound with his mouth. He's a 100% walker now too. I'm in awe at how quickly he picked it up over the past couple weeks.

It's hard to believe that last year at this time I was counting down the final days of my pregnancy. I could never have imgained how much joy, exhaustion, learning and love I had ahead of me in the coming year.