11 Months of Johnny

Johnny,

Today/yesterday you turned 11 months old. We cannot believe that you are so close to your first birthday. A year ago, we thought we wouldn't be meeting you until November, you barely squeaked in that October birthday. Mac is pretty excited to celebrate your birthday, but only because it means hers is coming up too!

Your sleeping has become a bit of a concern for me. You sleep A LOT. And I am not a first time mom, I know what good sleepers are, and I know what growth spurts look like, but you have me a bit worried. You have, for the past three weeks, consistently slept for 14 hours a night, plus a one hour nap in the am and a 3-4 hour nap in the pm. I probably wouldn't worry about it if you were any other kid, but that extra chromosome always has me on the lookout for concerns. We do appreciate you being easy to put down though. You like to sleep with a blankie and your little stuffed hedgehog that we got you for your surgery. You sleep in all sorts of positions, but are usually sitting up, facing the door to give us a big smile when you wake up. You are also still in the bucket seat which means some of your napping is done there. 

You are a fantastic eater and are increasing your desire for snacks and big kid food. You will snack on little cheerios or bits of crackers or goldfish if we feed it to you. You also like to gnaw on long strips of bread, carrot sticks, pizza crust, and tortillas to work on eye hand coordination, oral tone, and general feeding skills. You drink three 8 oz bottles a day of half breast milk half formula and have had no issues with that. We are working on drinking from a straw and you feeding yourself. You like all the fruits you have tried, love munching on green beans and black beans, and like the broccoli/apple medley baby food best. 

You love to play and still respond really well to your musical sun toy. You are also bringing a lot more into your mouth to chew on, which increased with the appearance of a little tooth sliver on the first day of fall. You are not a great teether compared to your sisters and you were fussy with bathroom issues for days before that tooth popped out. You like for us to read you books, if you have a book to chew on at the same time. You are also getting more and more mobile, you still roll everywhere, but are making those little scootching movements when sitting or on your hands and knees that will eventually propel you further. You are also pivoting around a lot while sitting and stretch your extremely flexible body to reach stuff all around you. You have been clapping more and more lately and will raise your hands over your head as if to say "Yay!" after clapping. 

You are incredibly verbal and communicative. You say "mama" and "dada" and have begun to say "uh" while raising your hands for up and saying "buh buh" when we wave your hand to say bye to someone. You also understand the signs for "more" and "milk" and I can't tell if you are signing "mama" or if it just looks that way. You are always squawking and talking to us and test out the range of your vocal abilities with frequency. You have finally discovered how funny your sisters are and one of your favorite past times is to laugh at them. My favorite new trick that you do is the fake cough. You will look around and if nobody is paying attention to you, you will scrunch up your face and give the silliest, smallest, most pathetically fake couch imaginable. You will do this again and again while smiling to try and see if you can catch us. You are very expressive and often seem mad and ecstatic all within a matter of moments. I love that you have so much feeling!

    

 Johnny, we just love you so much. We are so blessed to be a part of your family. Thank you for joining us and making us better with each day that you are in our lives!!!

Love, Mommy and Daddy