eleven

The little Manh is eleven months old today. Yikes. So very close to being one that it makes me more than a little sad to be honest.

In honour of this moment in time I'm going to start his adoption video this week. I'd like to have it ready by this time next month, his first birthday...wish me luck.

Click Here to see his little referral video that I made back in September...


Here's a little update on the fella (I'm going to add more pictures later...I never got around to posting 10 months because I didn't have pictures ready and then couldn't figure out how to back date it correctly)...

He is waving bye-bye and pointing at everything these days, sort of in a "what's that" manner. His point is most often a full hand reach and is being misinterpreted by others as reaching to be held which does not always go over well with the little guy or with his mama...

He is loving the outdoors, sticks, leaves, sand, rocks, tooling around on the grass pushing his little walking cart or crawling through the dirt, riding in the stroller pointing at the buds on the tress and the flowers in neighbourhood gardens. He loves to swing at the park. I love bringing him home dirty at the end of the day.

My sweet Benjaminh is sleeping through the night on a fairly consistent basis since starting a mild reflux medication a week and a half ago. I feel blessed. His bedtime is between 7 and 8:30 and he gets up between 6 and 7:30. Not too bad. If we stay home for the day (with no sleep inducing car rides) he naps from 10 to 11:30 and again from 3ish until 4:30ish. Sometimes the afternoon nap starts late and bedtime gets shifted later as well.

He eats his 3 meals per day eagerly, especially enjoying the whole "play in the food in hopes I might some day find my mouth". Mama likes when it is warm enough to do the whole food play thing practically naked.

Benjaminh drinks his thickened formula less eagerly but he is certainly gagging, aspirating, coughing, vomiting, choking, turning bright red and bursting blood vessels on his face while he drinks...well almost never! There is joy in the land. I don't think the volume of liquid drank each day is high enough but I'm working on that...

and there seems to be a digestive issue at the diaper end of things but I"m monitoring that...thinking wheat perhaps is not sitting well in the baby's gut but I'll get back to this in a few days.

This past week his receptive language has really taken off and he is understanding so much of what I say. Simple directions like "put it in" and "take it out", "Where's Boomer?" , "Get the block", "More?", "Finished?", "Can mama have a kiss?". You get the idea. He certainly understands and dislikes the word no which he hears when he gets a bit "slap happy" or bites. He consistently says Mama and Woof (for Boomer obviously...) but I don't notice any other consistent words in his considerable babbling.

Loves chasing the dog in his walker, playing at his Leap Frog music table, jumping in his Graco jumper which hangs in his bedroom door, playing "tap tap" with is stacking cups, beating on pots with tablespoons. Loves the bath and post bath cuddles and massages. Loves his dog beyond reason but pats a bit vigorously...

Such a sweet boy. So much personality in a teeny tiny body (well, not by VN standards...even with poor growth for nearly 3 months he still sits at the top of the top curve at 11 months and nearly 9.5 kg). I hope he is slimming down and stretching up and not just slimming down.

He is the light of my life.