11 1/2 months

I can't believe my last post was in February. Time to catch you up.

Job: My body is suprisingly adjusting to the odd hours. Preston and I have fallen in to a nice routine during the day where we have time to play, go out in to the community, and rest. I love spending the day with him. The weather is starting to warm up which means walks in the park and local neighborhoods and lots of playing.

Food: My sugarplum still prefers pureed food over anything else. I think because he doesn't have to put much effort in to eating it. There are a few things he enjoys munching on but he won't eat pasta for me on his own, he hates bread (did this child come frome me?) and he's finicky about picking up most things with his fingers to put in his mouth. However, if I serve it to him on a spoon, he will give it a shot. I'm not too worried about it though. He won't go to college this way.

Teeth: He has his two upper and two lower teeth. He has two more lower teeth coming in and two upper. He went so long with just two teeth and now it seems like they are all coming in at once.

Skin: He has terrible dry skin resulting in little dry patches and what looks like a red rash on his cheeks and chin. I bought Eucerin but it doesn't seem too effective. I wonder if I should try aquaphor again. Any suggestions?

Sleep: Cue angels singing! My baby is FINALLY sleeping through the night. It happened when I started my new job. Figures right? I guess he realized he didn't have a boob to wake up to. The other nice thing is that instead of crying when he wakes up, he just chats out loud and waits for us to come get him.

Breastfeeding: This kid is a boob addict. Sometimes I realize he nurses to comfort himself. Other times he really wants to nurse and sometimes I think he nurses out of boredom. He always wants to nurse when he sees me and before I leave for work. I think it's his way of saying hello and goodbye. The only issue I've had is that if he's napping with me and wants nurse, he uses me as a pacifier afterwards which is really annoying. I imagine weening is going to be a challenge. Earlier this week we started to give him organic milk before bedtime. It wasn't planned. I had a 6oz bottle of pumped milk that fell over and leaked out 4oz. I didn't have enough time to pump so we made the decision to give him some regular milk. He seemed to do well with it so we just continued for the rest of the week. I'm actually thrilled with this change. I HATE, let me repeat, HATE pumping. I did it for 11.5 months because it was important to me to give Preston breast milk but man, I won't miss that pump. I think with baby #2, I'll be better at managing my milk stash so that in the later months he can get frozen and I won't have to pump as much. However, I was horrible at rotating my freezer stash and ended up throwing away close to 250oz of milk bc it expired.

Walking: Preston isn't walking on his own yet but will walk with the assistance of someone's hand. For some reason walking cracks him up as he laughs hysterically when you walk him around the house.

Cute things: He loves to wave hello and goodbye very enthusiastically, I might add. He loves to take the remote control and prestend it's a phone by putting it to his ear and talking. He signs the word "more" but refuses to sign the word "milk" and instead just pulls my shirt down (yes, it's embarrassing in public). He says "uh-oh" when he drops things both accidentally and on purpose. He was saying mama and mom-mom the week of Valentine's but then stopped (sigh). He claps at anything that brings him joy. He gives the wettest open mouth kisses with his tounge sticking out. Climbing up the stairs is funny to him and he makes it up there pretty fast when you're not looking. He thinks playing tug-of-war with Gracie is hilarious and this seems to entertain him for a while until Gracie gets fed up and takes her toy away.

Upcoming events: My son is going to be 1 in 2 weeks. It's so hard to believe that the time has gone by so quickly. It's been an incredible year. I never knew a love like this. It's absolutely amazing.