Eleven Months!

Happy Eleven Month Birthday, Clayton Scott!

You are only one month away now from your FIRST birthday! Mommy cannot believe how big you are and how fast you have grown up! This month you changed even more! You are becoming such a little boy instead of a baby. Oh, and you know that you're growing up! You have a mind of your own and you wish that you could just do whatever you wanted to and go wherever you wanted to go!

Your major development was that you took your first steps on your own this month AND put a bunch of steps together, so basically you were walking! You took at least 10 steps and even turned a bit! When you're not walking on your own then you are walking behind things. You love pushing everything around and walking behind it. Chairs, your walking toys, your stroller, etc! You have great balance and can stand for a long period of time by yourself. You just need to learn that your feet have to move at the same time as your torso! ;-) Sometimes your upper half gets moving faster than your bottom half and so you'll fall down. Mommy thinks this is because you learned to walk behind things like your dinosaur. Since you lean over when you push that then you lean over without it! hehe.. Now you RUN behind your dinosaur or other walking toys. You really know how to move!

We had some really nice days this month so were able to take you outside. You LOVE to be outside. At lot of times you will crawl over to the door and fuss, wanting us to let you out. Poor boy! We bought you a swing that you love and you absolutely love riding in Pop's "voom-voom". On Valentine's day we were in Midland so we took you to your first park to play. You went on the swing and the slide with Daddy and you thought it was pretty darn cool!

You are more vocal then you have ever been. You love to talk to us, in your own language of course, and you now love to scream. You used to just imitate us when we'd yell (in a funny way, not a mean way!), but now you will just scream to get attention or to just plain make noise! You crack us up with how much you "talk" now. Your favorite word is "deedle". Seriously, you say "deedle". It is so funny! Your tongue goes in and out too when you do it. Your other favorite word is "dada" and "hot". You truly understand the meaning of hot, no, bottle, and voom-voom, haha! When you are playing with your cars you say "vroom vroom!!". You started this when Nana was here visiting at the beginning of the month. Mommy didn't believe Nana at first that you knew what it meant! Your other word, "hot", is said whenever you see a heater. We have had to tell you no so many times and that heaters were hot so that you would not burn yourself. So, now whenever you see a heater you say "hot!". It comes out more like just "t".

One of your favorite activities is pushing buttons. You could sit and push the button on your tractor or, unfortunately, on the heater all day! You also love pushing buttons on books that sing and on your keyboard. Mimi got you the coolest keyboard and you love to play it! You also love to play Daddy & Pop's guitars! We have been playing for church nearly every weekend so we get together a lot to practice. Every time we get the guitars out you crawl up to them as fast as you can and start strumming! Mommy bought you your own guitar that came in just the other day and you thought it was too cool! ;-) You're such a musical baby and Mommy LOVES it!

One of your best tricks this month has been giving us a high five. You used to only do it every now and then when you were younger. Now, the second we ask for one you will give us one! It's a lot of fun! You're really starting to understand how things work and cause and effect. You're so smart! You know that one of your toys will pop out the balls if you put them back in, so you sit there and put them back in over and over after they pop out. You also know that when the water starts running in the bathtub that you are about to get a bath! You LOVE bath time so you will crawl over to the tub as fast as you can and want in! You play in the bath for so long!

You're finally starting to sit still long enough for us to read you a book. You love any book that has flaps to open or music to play. You even love the books that have textured pages. Other than the time when you're eating a bottle or reading a book for a short period of time you want DOWN. You are very independent! Now that you are learning how to walk it is only a matter of time before you are into everything and going everywhere!

We are still trying to get you to eat more table foods. You are a picky picky eater!!!! You LOVE grapes and will eat a ton of them, but that's about the only thing that you consistently eat, and eat well. We decided to let you feed yourself one day and you made a huge mess, but you ate a lot more food than you normally do. Maybe you just want to be able to feed yourself! You do like most veggies but surprisingly you hate beans, potatoes, and even some meats. You are still great with your bottle, even though we wish you would drink less bottle and eat more food! You still eat your 7 ounces every 4 hours. One thing that was pretty impressive that you learned this month was that you can drink out of a straw! It's impressive!!

You're currently wearing mostly 12 month clothes. Some of your 9 month pj's still fit and your 9 month onesies fit your body but not your arms. You are only wearing 12 month pants now. When we do put shoes on you (not often at all) we put you in a size 5! Big feet! You're still in a size 3 diaper during the day and a size 4 at night. Mommy needs to weigh you to see how big you're getting! hehe...

Even on your fussy days we still think you are an amazing baby. You are so good and you hardly ever have a bad day. You had a fever for a few days and yet still you were smiling and laughing. We love you so much. We couldn't have asked for a better baby, and we couldn't feel more blessed to have you in our lives. I cannot tell you that enough. We love you so much. You are such a joy.

We can't wait to see what your year milestone will hold. We love you sweet baby! Happy Birthday!

Love,
Mommy