11 Months

It's just so hard to believe that our baby is one month away from hitting a year old! As with all of our kids, the second half of the first year goes SO much faster than the first half. I really try to cherish these baby moments because they are the last ones we'll (hopefully) have. Joel is still such a wonderfully easy baby and is incredibly lovable. He has the most animated expressions and babbles a ton. He also has the world's most adorable curly, baby hair!

EATING: Joel still takes 4 bottles a day, but doesn't seem to prefer getting his calories through formula. He is much more interested in eating food! Joel likes eating little bits of whatever we are eating. He doesn't seem to like feeding himself much, so we still have to use a spoon to give him food. We also still try to sneak in a a jar of baby food at lunch and dinner so that we can make sure he's getting enough fruits and veggies. He really doesn't like eating fruits and veggies as finger foods, so mushed up and on a spoon is how we do it! He's played around with sippy cups, but doesn't seem to have the hang of it yet. He's going to have one more month to figure it out though, because we plan to make the switch as soon as he hits a year!

SLEEPING: His sleeping schedule is still great! He goes down around 7:30 or 8 at night and sleeps until 7:30 or 8 in the morning. He takes his first nap around 9:30 and his second nap around 1:30. His naps vary from a little over an hour to 2+ hours in length. He knows what it means when you ask, "Do you want to go night-night?", because he'll pop his thumb in his mouth and rest his head right on your shoulder. He is still having some moments of what appears to be separation anxiety because he will cry every once in awhile when you put him to bed. We started to notice it only happening at night and not naps, which made us realize he might just be afraid in the dark. Sure enough, we started putting his nightlight on at bedtime and that seemed to do the trick!

MILESTONES: Joel is getting much more interested in walking, but doesn't seem to have the confidence to try on his own just yet. He loves to walk behind toys that can be pushed and gets so into it that when he pushes to a point where he can't go any further (a wall, couch, table, etc.) he screams and cries. He's still crawling all over the place and loves to crawl up the stairs, which keeps us very busy with all the sets of stairs we have in this house! Other than that, there  isn't much new going on in Joel's world.