The Hill Family Saga: 11 months down, 1 to go before our baby is 1!

Weight: 20lbs (weight taken the weekend following stomach bug so may have lost weight)

Height: 29.75 inches

Clothing: We are in all 9-12 month, 12 month, and even some 12-18/18month clothes. He finally got to move into his summer wardrobe pretty much full time and it is a good thing since he is already beginning to outgrow some of it.

love me some baby in shorts!

Diapers: He is still on the medium rise and going through 6-7 diapers a day. Yet another month of diaper sprayer overuse, lol. He had another mild stomach bug as well as teething poo so we have been spraying diapers a lot more than ever.

It's more comfy in just a dipe and a T

Eating: He is still eating three meals a day as well as 4 nursing sessions. He is a very inconsistent eater. One day he will chow down on something and then the next time I serve it he spits it out. He is getting really good at feeding himself and we are even beginning to work in the spoon and fork for practice. His appetite has also been inconsistent which I think is due to some stuffy nose, tummy issues, and teething. He is still minimal on the grains, although he did get to try Alethea’s cheddar bunnies this month and is quite the fan of them. I didn’t really do a great job of keeping track of new foods this month, but I know he tried cornbread, brussel sprouts, figs, pasta, whole eggs, ham, a small amount of peanut butter (in a smoothie), and I am sure there is more, but I can’t really recall any specifics.

Yogurt face

Friendships: He is becoming more and more aware of those around him and we find him watching other kids play even more (especially bigger kiddos). He and Alethea are becoming best buddies more and more each day. He now crawls to follow her pretty much all over the house and in the morning when she wakes up he crawls to go open her door when I say “let’s go get Alethea”. I see a great friendship in the making there!

They love to wrestle

He will follow her anywhere just to play

Snuggles

Mobility: He is still mostly crawling, but now he is actually crawling normally 75% of the time. He has even experimented with bear crawling outside to avoid hurting his knees. On May 7^th he took his first steps and it has been a gradual increase in bravery since. I think he will still take a while, but he is getting more and more comfortable with taking a few times. Once he gets the balance stuff figured out he will be off to the races because he is super strong. He just hasn’t figured out that he can’t lung forward and expect to stay on his feet. J He is also quite the climber these days. He has figured out stairs, stools, and toy chairs so it is not uncommon to find him elevated these days. Thankfully he has figured out how to safely get himself down from one level up, but the stairs are still a hazard going down. Until he can walk, we won’t really even try to work on that skill though.

on the move

stairs are way too much fun!

Sleeping: He has finally been back to normal sleeping habits and gotten rid of the night cries for most of the month. Yay! Mommy and Declan are both happier as a result, lol. He is taking 2 naps still, but more and more of his morning naps have been on the go lately and I think that is only going to become more common. If he is in his bed, he will still take anywhere from a 30 minute to 1.5 hour nap in the morning and 1.5 to 2.5hr nap in the afternoon. Alethea dropped to 1 nap just before a year, but I am not ready to do that with Declan because then I will lose the luxury of them napping at the same time in the afternoon. J He typically goes to bed between 7:45 and 8:15pm and gets up between 6:15 and 7am. It’s typically only about 10-10.5 hours a night, but at least it is a solid stretch these days.

taking a nap on Mamaw and Papaw's boat

Playtime: He is becoming more and more interactive with his play. He is to the point where he actually wants to play with someone and isn’t always content to play solo. Thankfully he is still excellent at solo play though. He discovered his ability to blow a whistle/toy trumpet and make noise this month and he loves it. He will crawl around with one of them in his mouth intermittently making sound. It is pretty common place these days to have him crawling around with something sticking out of his mouth, lol. He is up on two feet much more lately and really wants to walk along things to get where he is going so that can sometimes limit his play if he is set on being upright. He loves to play outside and just be in the fresh air. Balls are a big hit too. He still loves to jam to music and I am sure he is really glad I finally put more batteries in a few of their musical toys. It is very common to look over and see him swaying or bouncing to music. He also likes to clap, not always to music, but he enjoys it. He loves to put objects in and out of cups, bowls, and drawers, etc. He also has begun trying to stack objects.

He loves to climb on things now and take all the buckets off our shelf

He loves to play outside

Communication: He is developing quite the personality. Most of the time he is pretty chill, but he definitely is vocal when thing are not going his way. We are about 50% on the communicating “more” at meal times, but that is really probably more on me because I haven’t work with him a ton on it. He doesn’t really yell at me for food a lot, but more just makes an “uhhh” sound to let me know he wants/needs more. He has also definitely learned to work his pucker lip when he is sad and it is quite adorable.

Teeth: No newbies this month, but he does have his top two front teeth on the verge of coming in any day now. So, for now, he just has 2 teeth.

Random: He loves being tickled and has the cutest belly laugh. He tries to do pull ups on the handle for our freezer drawer. He watched Mommy and Daddy compete in their first half-marathon and was a trooper. He also experienced his first Easter and Easter egg hunt. He went on his first boat ride at the beginning of May. He loves to make a scrunchy face and really enjoys having a scrunchy face competition with Alethea. He had his baby dedication at church on Mothers’ Day and all of my family was able to come in support our commitment to raise him to become a godly man. He skyped with Grandma and Boppa for the first time.