11 Months Old

What? Really? My baby is only 1 month away from his first birthday???!!! You must be mistaken, surely! I just can't believe it!

Xander has started walking pretty well now. He is so excited about this. I guess this is part of why I am having emotions of disbelief at his age. Walking babies seem so grown up!

Eli gave him a nickname several months ago of Xander-rito. Creative kid. (My new nickname is Mom-mango in case you were wondering. Brandon is Daddy-Rito or just plain Brandon when he is in trouble). Xander likes his nickname and responds well to Rito, or RitoRito. Strange how nicknames evolve, no?

At 11 months (if you are going to keep insisting he is really that old now) Xander likes:

• Feeding himself with a spoon or fork - don't try and interfere mom! Eating is quite a physical experience for him and he gets as much enjoyment from the food that is all over his face as the food that makes it into his mouth.
• Walking around! He still really likes to hold my fingers to do some serious cruising, but he is taking more and more walk-jaunts by himself.
• Eli - he LOVES his brother even though he can be a bit of a bully and takes his toys from him just to make him squeal.
• Mommy - yes, it is nice to be loved so dearly! He is quite a Momma's boy, which is just fine with me. Yesterday morning he just about jumped out of his skin with excitement when I came downstairs while he was playing with Daddy and Eli. Melts my heart! Mamma is still his only word at this point.
  
• Going for walks
• Kicking his legs
• Standing up in the bathtub
• Pointing his finger at things
• Trying to feed me his slobber-sogged food and gets so happy when I pretend to eat some
• Being chased and tickled
• Snuggling!! This kid is a lover!
• Playing at the park with Eli. He loves getting on the toys and going down the slide.
• Dancing. This little man shakes his groove thang whenever he hears a tune playing
• Making noise. He loves to bang his hands or other objects on things to see what noises it will make
• Diaper wipes! He will pull them all out of the box and suck on them. Weird - I wonder if this is some form of pica...
• The sound plastic bags make. And they say 'a bag is not a toy' - who are they anyway??
  

At this point he does NOT like

• Holding still long enough for a diaper change
• Mom walking away from him - height of rudeness!
• Mommy trying to take her fingers away when he is so obviously using them for walking assistance. He is so certain that I have nothing better to do than to just help him walk around all day.
  
• Eli taking toys from him to make him squeal
• Mom trying to feed him when he is obviously perfectly capable of doing it himself thank-you very much!

We love you little Xander-rito! Thanks for brightening our home!