11 Months!

Oh My!  The time has really flow by with this precious baby boy!  I hate switching out his clothes as he out grows them and I certainly can't come to terms with cutting his messy, messy mop of hair yet.  He's definitely still got a lot of baby left in him, as he doesn't sleep through the night and is not the biggest fan of solid foods.  I say that because it is hard to find solids that he actually wants to eat.  I don't want to say that he is "picky" and I certainly don't want to cater to that, but he is!  I can go through 5 different types of foods in one setting, he will take one bite and then lose interest in it, throwing it on the ground.  He will then sit there and grunt and look at my stash of baby junk food (gerber finger foods) in the kitchen.  Oy Ve.  I was telling the doctor this story, and she commented that it was a little early for him to be so particular... What can I say...

And, the sleep thing is probably attributed to his constant sickness.  Poor Baby!  He has had a rough go of it.  Starting last fall, it's just been one ear infection after the other.  Going into our Christmas travels he had his 4th one.  The doctor said if he gets another one within a month then we are a candidate for tubes, and she would HIGHLY recommend them.  Well, sure enough, he got one before we could even get back to Indiana from Texas.  It was a miserable last 2 days there with him.  We saw the ENT and have tubes scheduled for February 16.  In the mean time, he has come down with at least 2 more infections.  And this time around the antibiotics weren't working, so after a few days we had to go back and get a different variety.  AND, to top it off, this time his lungs weren't clear either.  He was wheezing, so they put us on a nebulizer.  Breathing treatments, 4-6 times a day for 5-10 minutes each.  Oh MY!  There is seriously no greater physical struggle that I have experienced as a Mom, than holding this mask on his little face for 5 minutes straight.  It is a struggle every time.  The TV treat worked the first several times, then the novelty wore off.  However, we have to power through, because we have got to get these lungs clear before he can go for surgery on the 16th!!!  Oh yeah, and one of the worst side effects of his breathing treatment is that it makes him restless, so he has been skipping his morning nap, although he really is tired and grumpy, he just can't sleep with all that medicine in him.  Which is why I give him that treatment first thing in the morning, so he can still get an afternoon nap and sleep at night!

Even with all that has been going on with my sick baby, he has been able to develop and hit milestones.  He took his first steps at 10 months and really began walking this past month.  At this time, he definitely prefers walking to crawling and will walk from one end of the house to the other.  He currently has this large inflatable cylinder that has balls in it and he likes to pick up and carry around with him, even though it is just as big as he is!  We are hearing some babbles, but believe that his hearing is quite muffled and we should hear quite a bit more after his ears are cleared on the 16th.

Bath time is his favorite time of the day, and don't even think about sticking that mean 'ol big brother in the tub with him to cramp his style, oh no, he will throw a FIT!