Graham is almost 11 months old now.  I was sorting through some of his newborn clothing to give to a friend who is expecting.  I couldn’t believe that my tall, healthy child once fit into to those teeny tiny clothes. 


I’ve learned that being a parent to an ACTIVE 11 month old is rewarding and exhausting.  I feel like we are always on the verge of a trip to the emergency room.  I think his bumps and bruises hurt my heart more than they actually hurt him.  


We find it so funny that Graham has started to throw fits.  If we take a toy away from him- that’s not really a toy like a TV remote- he throws his hands in the air and acts as if his world is crumbling.  The only way we deal with this is by laughing, because he snaps out of it as soon as he finds a new “toy”.  


I am almost afraid to write this next statement for obvious reasons.  Graham is sleeping like an ANGEL.  He gives up the battle around 8 pm each night, and sleeps in his crib until almost 7 am.  I am so proud of him.  If he wakes up in the middle of the night, he usually is able to talk to himself or soothe himself back to sleep.  The days of the midnight bottles are behind us.  I am now done thinking of my nights as a series of naps as opposed to a good nights sleep.  


We are making more of an effort to have Graham spend time with kids his age.  Since he doesn’t go to daycare, we want to make sure he gets some social time.  He loves to observe older kids.  We recently took him to feed the ducks on the MSU campus.  We met up with some friends who also have kids.  Graham had a lot of fun, especially playing with sticks. 


Graham has 8 teeth now and we’ve been experimenting with different foods.  So far, he is a little weirded out by textures of real food.  He still eats baby food as his main dish, but he will eat strawberries and bananas if we cut them in small chunks.  He also decided to skip right over the sippy cup and go straight for the straw.  He still mainly drinks from bottles though.


As he continues to grow we learn more about his personality.   He loves to play “hide and seek” which consists of mommy hiding behind the couch and saying “boo” when he least expects it.  We always get a lot of belly laughs out of that game.  Graham has been really interested in handing Jonah and me random toys lately and we are very diligent about saying “thank you” when he shares his toys.  Now he is handing us more toys that we know what to do with.  We are so lucky to have a happy, active, smart, playful baby. 


Enjoy the pictures!