11 Months

And I thought last month flew by. I had to look at the calendar 3 times to make sure I wasn't crazy. You are 11 months old today. That's nuts. That means the in one month it will be your 1st BIRTHDAY. I'm in complete denial.

Last month you had discovered taking a handful of steps. Today you are literally running around the house. You chase your brother and you squeal as you run down the hall. It's hysterical to watch.

Your favorite things to do right now are pull all the books off your brother's bookshelf, grab dishes out of the dishwasher, flush the toilet repeatedly..while we're on it, play with Batman, drive your brother's remote control cars, dance, pull all the clothes out of a clothes basket and then THROW them back in (at least you pick them up!), and most importantly EAT. You are a pretty fussy eater, but what you do like you eat a lot of! It seemed to me that you had quite an appetite going, but then Sunday the girls at church said you ate your bottle, all the puffs, your apples and um..someone else's puffs too, lol. I know it's because you are using up so much energy playing. You never stop moving. Ever.

I also think that your new found love of cruising the house has you even less interested in sleeping than ever before, which wasn't good to begin with. The minute we mention nap, hold you close or walk towards your room and the lights are off...you start to scream. You kick and squirm trying to get down. I'd say you weren't tired, but you were just laying your head down before I went in there, rubbing your eyes and oh yeah, you didn't sleep hardly a wink the night before. So I KNOW you're tired, but you still refuse. You still wake up almost every hour every night. Occasionally, you'll sleep through the night but for no apparent rhyme or reason. I know one day we will look back at this time and laugh about this, but right now...not so much. I'm ready for this phase to be done. Even as I type madly trying to finish this post you are waking from a 40 minute nap which will serve as the only one you take today - sigh.

You have quite the personality. You are almost always smiling with that big, toothy grin you have. But Lord help those that cross you - you are not afraid to stand up for yourself and you will fight back. I suppose in some ways that's a good trait to have, but we will definitely have to work on taming that temper of yours. You already fight back if Ethan takes your toy! If you think a toy should fit into something and it doesn't you scream at the toys. If there's something you don't like eating, you grab the spoon and throw it. If you don't like something you hit your legs and scream. It's sort of cute, in that I-can't-believe-you're-already-throwing-tantrums kind of way. I think we'll have our work cut out for us this next year for sure.

Your hair is growing like crazy and you've got some adorable blond curls coming in. I need to cut the hairs around your ears because they drive you crazy and you'll swat and scream at them...but I have yet to figure out how to get scissors anywhere near you since you are impossible to hold still. The haircut might have to wait.

You are waving at anything that walks by now. You love to play pass the toy back and forth and you are rolling balls back and forth now too. You love to put objects into holes. Shapes into shape sorters. Puzzle pieces. Toys into buckets. Cows into piano trays. It doesn't matter. You want nothing to do with toys for your age, including the ones we got you for Christmas. You'd rather play with brothers' Hot Wheels or Batman any day. You love anything that plays music. Your mind is going a 1,000 miles a minute, I'm certain of it, and I love watching it at work.

Just today your brother said "Mom, I just can't stop looking at him. I just love him so much." It's true, even after 11 whole months, he's still obsessed with you and can't wait to play with you this summer and take you for rides on his four-wheeler. He's an awesome big brother to you and I'm sure that's why you learned his name before mine :)

And while you have your moments and you have been anything but an "easy" baby, I have to agree with your brother. I can't stop looking at you either. I can't believe we are about to leave the baby stage behind us for good. I'm grateful everyday for you. Your smile melts my heart and your laugh warms my soul. I can't imagine a single day without you in our family and we are all so happy you are here. We love you Lucas.

I was soooooo bummed this pic didn't turn out. I'm keeping it until I get another one with the same face!